Deng stamps herself as a star on the rise as she cruises to five-shot victory in Rolex Tournament of Champions

 

   If you didn’t know who the next rising star was on the junior girls golf scene, you do now.

   Aphrodite Deng, a Canadian who has made Short Hills, N.J. her home base in the United States, dominated the best girls in the world, cruising to a five-shot victory in becoming the second-youngest winner of the Rolex Tournament of Champions, the marquee event on the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) circuit.

   Deng is a Class of 2028 competitor, making her the equivalent of an eighth-grader. But the kid looked like a grizzled veteran in grinding out an even-par 72 at TPC San Antonio’s Canyons Course on the eve of Thanksgiving that gave her an 8-under 280 total and a really impressive victory in the 46^th playing of the Rolex T of C.

   A 72-hole event is a real marathon for junior golfers, who are rarely asked to go more than 54 holes. But as the week played on, Deng only seemed to get tougher. She probably won the tournament with a brilliant 6-under 66 in Tuesday’s third round, but Deng’s handling of the pressure of holding on to a big lead while trying to win the biggest championship of her young life might have been even more impressive.

   Deng followed up each of her three birdies in Wednesday’s final round with a bogey, but she was never seriously threatened. After a birdie at the second hole, Deng made a bogey at three, she followed up a birdie at eight with a bogey at 10 and a birdie at 12 with a bogey at 14.

   But always, the game plan remained the same: Fairways and greens.

   “I played pretty good this week,” Deng understated to Emma Verela of the AJGA website. “I wasn’t expecting to play this good or let alone win, but I made fairways and greens as much as I could. Going into the final round, I was trying to remain steady and play the game that I had been the past few days.”

   Not the kind of perspective you expect to hear from a 13-year-old, but hey, they grow up fast these days.

   Deng first appeared on the T Mac Tees Off radar when she showed up at the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia Junior Girls’ Championship in July and blitzed the Moorestown Field Club layout with a 14-under 130 total that gave her a 12-shot victory.

   A few weeks later, there was Deng going toe-to-toe with Anna Davis, winner of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship in 2022, in the second round of the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at the U.S. Air Force Academy Eisenhower Golf Club’s Blue Course in Colorado Springs, Colo. Deng evened the match at the 10^th hole before Davis turned it on on her way to a 4 and 3 victory.

   Deng made a statement this week at TPC San Antonio that big things might be ahead for her in 2024.

   Jasmine Koo of Cerritos, Calif. closed with a solid 2-under 70 to earn runnerup honors with a 3-under 285 total. Koos will be joining the powerhouse Southern California program at the end of next summer.

   Alice Ziyi Zhao of Irvine, Calif. via China was only 13-years old two summers ago when she was the co-medalist for qualifying in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash.

   Zhao posted a second straight 2-under 70 at the Canyons Course to finish two shots behind Koo in third place with a 1-under 287 total.

   Megan Meng, a senior at Hopewell Valley Central in Pennington, N.J., closed with a 5-over 77 to finish in the group tied for 27^th place with a 307 total.

   Meng, the winner of the Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ Championship in 2020 at Lebanon Country Club while playing out of Jericho National Golf Club, will join the program at Big Ten power Northwestern at the end of next summer.

   On the boys side, Downingtown West senior Nick Gross righted the ship a little in the final round as he matched par with a 72 over a Canyons Course that measured 7,106 for the guys to finish alone in 13^th place with a 5-over 293 total.

   After grabbing the lead with an opening round of 4-under 68, Gross faltered in the middle two rounds, both of which included an uncharacteristic triple bogey.

   Wednesday’s final round was a little more Nick Gross-like. He made a bogey at the fourth hole and a birdie at 17 and had 16 pars. I suspect there were some birdie opportunities among those 16 pars, but Gross, who will join the program at Southeastern Conference power Alabama at the end of next summer, didn’t force the issue.

   It felt like the boys title was there for the taking all week and Tyler Mawhinney of Fleming Island, Fla. seized the moment, closing with the best round of the week, a sizzling 7-under 65, to zoom right by the rest of the field and take the Rolex Tournament of Champions crown with a 5-under 283 total.

   Mawhinney entered Wednesday’s final round in eighth place at 2-over par, six shots behind 54-hole leader Kihei Akina of Kahuku, Hawaii.

   Mawhinney came out of the gate with birdies at the first and second holes to immediately get it to even-par. Turned out, he was just getting started.

   Mawhinney, a Class of 2026 entry, added birdies at the sixth and ninth holes to complete a 4-under 32 tour of the outgoing nine at the Canyons Course. Mawhinney’s only miscue of the round came at the 12^th hole, where he made a bogey, but he then ripped off birdies at 13, 15, 16 and 17 to surge to his first AJGA invitational win.

   Gerardo Gomez of Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla. via Mexico closed with a 2-under 70 to earn runnerup honors, a shot behind Mawhinney with a 4-under 284 total. By the time Gomez joins the program at powerful Texas at the end of next summer, the Longhorns will be in the SEC, the most competitive conference, top to bottom, in the country for golf.

   Akina closed with a 2-over 74 and finished in third place, two shots behind Gomez with a 2-under 286 total.

   Lake Lehman senior Michael Lugiano, who finished in a tie for second place in last month’s PIAA Class AA Championship at Penn State, tallied a 4-over 76 in the final round and landed in the group tied for 32^nd place with a 17-over 305 total.

   Lugiano will join the program at ASUN power Liberty at the end of next summer.

   Episcopal Academy senior Hunter Stetson finished a shot behind Lugiano in the group tied for 35^th place with a 306 total as he also recorded a 4-over 76 in Wednesday’s final round.

   Stetson was the best player in the Inter-Ac League this fall, running away with the league’s Champion Golfer of the Year trophy that goes to the player with the most points compiled during the six invitationals that comprise the regular season.

   Stetson, the winner of the Bert Linton Invitational, the Inter-Ac’s individual championship, as a sophomore at Bluestone Country Club in 2021, finished in a tie for third place in this year’s Bert Linton at Aronimink Golf Club, Stetson’s home course, last month.

   Stetson, who reached the round of 16 in the U.S. Junior Amateur at the Daniel Island Club in Charleston, S.C. in July, will join the program at Atlantic Coast Conference power North Carolina State at the end of next summer.