Gross grabs two-shot lead with opening-round 68 at AJGA's Rolex Tournament of Champions

 

   Downingtown West senior Nick Gross put together a four-birdie, no-bogey 4-under-par 68 on a rainy Sunday at TPC San Antonio’s Canyons Course to grab the lead following the opening round of the marquee event on the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) circuit, the 47^th Rolex Tournament of Champions.

   The kids will be back on the golf course for the second round of the 72-hole stroke-play event that brings together the top junior players in the world for AJGA’s season-ending test by the time I post this, but I still wanted to recap the opening round.

   Gross had to miss the high school postseason of his senior year, but he had a pretty decent excuse since he was representing the United States in the Junior Ryder Cup outside of Rome.

   Don’t have a lot of details on how Gross’ week in Italy went other than that the U.S. lost, but I’m sure it was a tremendous event on any number of levels.

   It seems like the Alabama-bound Gross hasn’t competed much since returning from Italy, perhaps taking a little time just being a high school senior. But he’ll have any number of competitive opportunities in warmer climes to choose from between now and his high school graduation.

   Gross tuned up for the Junior Ryder Cup by finishing in a tie for 11^th place over the Labor Day weekend in the Junior Players Championship, which was held at the Stadium Course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., after opening with a sparkling 4-under 68.

   I recapped Gross’ summer, which was probably a disappointing for him, but would be a tremendous stretch for most junior golfers, in a post following his loss in the opening round of match play in the U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills Country Club in Colorado.

   Gross still finished in a tie for eighth place in the Boys Junior PGA Championship at Hot Springs Country Club in Hot Springs, Ark. and unleashed a sparkling 5-under 67 at Colorado Golf Club in the second round of qualifying for match play in the U.S. Amateur that enabled him to finish in a tie for eighth place in a field filled with the best amateur players on the planet.

   Gross opened up in the Rolex Tournament of Champions with the kind of round you’ve to come to expect from him when he’s playing well. Starting off the first tee, Gross made birdies at the first, seventh, 12^th and 13^th holes and had nary a bogey on his scorecard over the Canyons Course, which played at 7,106 yards and to a par of 72 for the guys.

   That gave Gross a two-shot lead over Ieuan Jones, a transplant from the United Kingdom who is based in Ann Arbor, Mich. in the U.S. and who posted a solid 2-under 70.

   Hamilton Coleman of Augusta, Ga., Michael Riebe of Encinitas, Calif. and Jake Albert of Blacksburg, Va., who plans to join the program at Southeastern Conference power Auburn in the summer of 2025, were tied for third place, each tallying a 1-under 71 that left them a shot behind Jones.

   Gross was in a tie for third place, four shots out of the lead, going into the final round of the Rolex Tournament of Champions, but struggled a little in the final round and finished in 10^th place in the event’s first playing at TPC San Antonio a year ago.

   Episcopal Academy senior Hunter Stetson, who was the best player in the Inter-Ac League this fall, and Michael Lugiano, who closed out an outstanding scholastic career at Lake Lehman by finishing in a tie for second place in last month’s PIAA Class AA Championship at Penn State, each registered a 5-over 77 and landed in a group tied for 25^th place following the opening round.

   Stetson, who plans to join the program at Atlantic Coast Conference power North Carolina State at the end of next summer, had an outstanding summer, including a run to the round of 16 in the U.S. Junior Amateur at the Daniel Island Club’s Ralston Creek Course in Charleston, S.C.

   Stetson was the runaway winner of the Inter-Ac’s Champion Golfer of the Year trophy as the top points-getter in the league’s six invitationals that make up the regular season and finished in a tie for third place in the Bert Linton Invitational, the Inter-Ac’s individual championship, at Aronimink Golf Club, his home course.

   Lugiano, who helped Lake Lehman roll to a PIAA Class AA team crown as a junior in 2022, will join the program at ASUN power Liberty at the end of next summer.

   The leader following the opening round on the girls side, Aphrodite Deng, counts as local for the purposes of this blog because of her victory in last summer’s Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia Junior Girls’ Championship at the Moorestown Field Club.

   Deng is listed as being from Canada, but with a U.S. base in Short Hills, N.J. I had never heard of the kid – she was 13 last summer and is a Class of 2028 competitor, which would make her, what, an eighth-grader – when she showed up at Moorestown last summer and fired a scintillating 9-under 63 on her way to a 14-under 130 for 36 holes that gave her the victory in the WGAP Junior Girls by a whopping 12 shots.

   A couple of weeks later, there was the talented youngster 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 hardly embarrassed herself in suffering a 4 and 3 setback at the hands of one of the best amateur players in the world.

   Deng has a way of making birdies in bunches and that tendency was on display in Sunday’s opening round over a Canyons Course that played to 6,242 yards for the girls. Starting off the 10^th tee, Deng made a bogey at the 14^th hole, the only blemish on her scorecard.

   After making to the turn to the outgoing nine at the Canyons Creek Course, Deng proceeded to rip off five straight birdies on her way to a 4-under 68 that gave her a one-shot lead over Lisa Herman of Jenks, Okla.

   Canadian Vanessa Zhang was another shot behind Herman in third place after signing for a 2-under 70.

   Heading the trio tied for fourth place at 1-under 71 was Megan Meng, a senior at Hopewell Valley Central High in New Jersey who was the winner of the Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ Championship in 2020 while playing out of Jericho National Golf Club.

   Meng plans to join the program at perennial Big Ten power Northwestern at the end of next summer.

   Joining Meng at 1-under were Ryleigh Knaub of Debary, Fla., who plans to join the program at SEC power LSU at the end of the summer of 2025, and Jasmine Koo of Cerritos, Calif., who will join the program at Southern California, which will be in the Big Ten by the time she gets there at the end of next summer.