O'Hara's DeMarco claims a victory as Philly Junior Tour season tees off at Five Ponds

 

   Matt DeMarco, a junior on the Cardinal O’Hara golf team, opened the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour season on a dismal, chilly Saturday by carding a solid 2-over-par 73 at Five Ponds Golf Club in Warminster to claim the top spot in the 16-to-18 division.

   Kudos to the crew at Five Ponds because the ground was undoubtedly soggy following a drenching rainstorm Thursday night into Friday on top of considerable snow melt from a truly awful winter.

   But the greenkeeper got Five Ponds in playable condition and a bunch of junior golfers, kept off the golf course for the majority of a miserable winter, came out in force, given the opportunity to tee it up.

   The less-than-ideal conditions certainly didn’t seem to bother DeMarco as he had 16 pars on his scorecard, including 11 straight pars to finish his solid round.

   Colin McAskin ventured down to Bucks County from New York City and finished a shot behind DeMarco in second place among the older guys with a 3-over 74. McAskin made a birdie on the seventh hole and had 13 pars on his card, including a string of six straight pars from 12 through 17.

   Jesse Shurman of Villanova had 14 pars on his card, including eight straight pars to open his round as he finished three shots behind McAskin in third place with a 6-over 77.

   Nolan Murray Jr., who wrapped up his scholastic career at Upper Dublin last fall, took fourth place with a 78 and Chase Andrews, a junior on the Souderton golf team, and Jake Yerkes, a Wyncote resident and a sophomore on the golf team at Catholic League power La Salle, finished in a tie for fifth, each posting a 79.

   Logan Cassidy, a junior on the Holy Ghost Prep golf team and a Bensalem resident, and Jake Jaffe and Nolan Traczykiewicz, junior teammates on the Central Bucks South golf team, finished in a three-way tie for seventh place, each tallying an 81.

   Rounding out the top 10 in the 16-to-18 division was Landon Stern, a classmate of Andrews on the Souderton golf team who finished in 10^th place with an 84.

   Aiden Maguire of Blue Bell had nine pars on his scorecard, including a run of four straight pars from the third through the sixth holes, as he signed for an 81 to earn a Philly Junior Tour victory in the 13-to-15 division.

   Helmut Dang of Newtown Square and Ethan Clouser, a Newtown resident and a freshman on the La Salle golf team, finished in a tie for second place, each registering an 82.

   Dang, who was one of the top performers among a very competitive group of 12-and-under nine-holers last year, had nine pars on his card, including a string of five straight pars from the third through the seventh holes. Clouser made a birdie on the fifth hole and had eight pars on his card.

   Jackson Ehrlich of Berwyn and Jonah Lowenberg of Villanova shared fourth place, each posting an 85, and Matthew Pilcher of Wilmington, Del. and Carter Bove of Kennett Square finished in a tie for sixth, each tallying an 88.

   Jack Gilbert of Bryn Mawr, another player moving up from that competitive group of nine-holers last year, and Oliver Hubbert, a Gwynedd Valley resident and a freshman in the program at La Salle, ended up in a tie for eighth place, each recording an 89.

    Rounding out the top 10 in the 13-to-15 division was Isaiah Stevenson, a Media resident and a freshman at Friends’ Central who finished in 10^th place with a 90.

   Team Bodge, sisters Kiersten and Katelyn, West Chester residents and members of the golf team at Notre Dame, swept to titles in the two girls divisions at Five Ponds. The Inter-Ac girls still play a spring schedule so the Bodge sisters are tuning up for a scholastic campaign that is just about to get under way.

   Kiersten Bodge, a junior at Notre Dame, got off to a great start at Five Ponds, making a birdie at the fourth hole while going 1-under through six holes. She finished with 12 pars on her scorecard in a solid 5-over 76 that gave her the top spot in the 16-to-18 division.

   Kiersten Bodge saw a streak of three straight runnerup finishes in the Inter-Ac League Championship snapped last spring when she finished in sixth place at French Creek Golf Club.

   The girl can play as she proved by finishing in ninth place against the big girls in the Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur Championship at Waynesborough Country Club in the summer of 2024.

   Mariana Walker, who wrapped up her scholastic career at Council Rock North last fall, had two pars on her card as she was the runnerup among the older girls with a 94.

   Rounding out the field in the 16-to-18 division were a couple of Cinnaminson, N.J. entries as Emily Renouf and Madison Gibson finished in a tie for third place, each carding a 106. Renouf made a par on the third hole.

   Katelyn Bodge, just an eighth-grader at Notre Dame, couldn’t quite earn low-Bodge honors, but she made back-to-back birdies at the 14^th and 15^th holes and had eight pars on her scorecard, including a run of four straight pars from two through five, as she claimed a Philly Junior Tour victory in the 13-to-15 division with a 7-over 78.

   Katelyn Bodge finished in seventh place as a seventh-grader in her debut in the Inter-Ac Championship at French Creek last spring. The Bodge sisters are products of the junior program at Overbrook Golf Club, right next door to Notre Dame.

   That was a pretty good player Katelyn Bodge beat to finish at the top of the leaderboard in the 13-to-15 division as Cardinal O’Hara sophomore Alaina Carson, the reigning Pennsylvania Junior Girls champion, had six pars on her card, including a string of four straight pars from the 11^th through the 14^th holes, while earning runnerup honors with an 83.

   Carson has made two straight trips to the PIAA Class AAA Championship to begin her scholastic career, finishing in a tie for 10^th place at Penn State last fall after ending up in a tie for third as a freshman in the fall of 2024.

   A couple of Gigis, Gigi Gratz, a District One Class AAA qualifier as a sophomore at North Penn last fall, and Gigi Lake of Newtown, shared third place, each landing on 100.

   Gratz had two pars on her card and Lake had three pars on her card.

   Brianna Stwaley, a sophomore on the Central Bucks West golf team, took fifth place with a 104 and Mia Venezia of Perkiomenville rounded out the field in the 13-to-15 division as she finished sixth with a 124.

   Victor Wang of Hockessin, Del. made a birdie on the sixth hole and had five pars on his scorecard as he opened the Philly Junior Tour’s spring season by besting the field of boys 12-and-under nine-holers with a 3-over 38.

   Jack Kolmer of Wayne made a birdie on the fifth hole and had two pars on his card as he finished three shots behind Wang in second place with a 6-over 41.

   Brody Rollins of Milton, Del. had four pars on his card, opening his round with three straight pars, as he finished a shot behind Kolmer in third place with a 42.

   James Wilson of Wilmington, Del. and Blake Shurman, another member of Villanova’s Team Shurman, shared fourth place, each tallying a 43, and the trio of Kamran Patel of Moorestown, N.J., Joey Charpentier of Schwenksville and Smith Rawes of Elkins Park finished in a tie for sixth place, each landing on 44.

   Andrew DElia of Clarks Summit took ninth place with a 45 and Chase Venne, another Moorestown, N.J. guy, and Michael Antolino of Richboro rounded out the top 10 in the boys 12-and-under division as they finished in a tie for 10^th, each signing for a 46.

   Aashi Chakraborty of Kennett Square was the lone entry in the girls 12-and-under division and she made a par on the second hole on her way to a 53.