Notre Dame's Bodge edges EA's Griffin by a shot to claim Inter-Ac's individual title at Sandy Run

 

   SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP -- Kiersten Bodge is just wrapping up her junior year at the Academy of Notre Dame, but she already owns a couple of women’s club championships at neighboring Overbrook Golf Club and a ninth-place finish in the Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur Championship two summers ago at Waynesborough Country Club.

   What Kiersten Bodge did not have was an Inter-Ac League individual title, despite contending for that crown every spring since she first teed it up as a seventh-grader in 2022.

   Well, Kiersten Bodge took care of that missing piece on her scholastic resume Tuesday by carding a 1-over-par 37 to edge Episcopal Academy sophomore Julia Griffin by a shot at a wind-blown Sandy Run Country Club, one of the many classic layouts that dot the landscape in that part of Montgomery County.

   The Inter-Ac girls came to contest the league’s individual championship at Sandy Run and the British Open broke out. Winds were gusting in the 30-mph range, particularly on the higher elevations at Sandy Run.

   “I had to back away from a couple of putts because the ball was being jostled by the wind,” Kiersten Bodge said.

   Kiersten Bodge was the runnerup to Baldwin’s Megan Aldeman in 2022 and 2023 and finished second behind Episcopal Academy’s Clarissa Leung in 2024 before finishing in sixth place a year ago as Leung repeated.

   All of those Inter-Ac Championships were contested at French Creek Golf Club, a quirky early Gil Hanse design in the northwest corner of Chester County.

   The girls were playing the shortish IV tees at Sandy Run, which measured only 2,719 yards for the outgoing nine. It probably played into Kiersten Bodge’s hands a little because she was really solid off the tee and was able to nearly reach the green on some of the short par-4s.

   “I guess I feel more relieved than anything,” Kiersten Bodge said after becoming the first Notre Dame player to claim the Inter-Ac’s individual crown since Meghan Fahey did it a decade ago. “It was pretty nice to be able to have those little chips into some of the par-4s.”

   Kiersten Bodge got it into red figures with a birdie at the 318-yard, par-4 third hole.

   “I was up close and chipped it to six feet and made the putt,” Kiersten Bodge said.

   But she missed the green at the fifth hole and couldn’t get it up and down for par and then took three putts for a bogey at six when the wind was really howling.

   Kiersten Bodge held a one-shot edge on her playing partner Griffin when Griffin did drive the green at the uphill 276-yard, par-4 seventh hole.

   Kiersten Bodge was right in front of the green, but couldn’t get it up and down for birdie. Griffin, however, two-putted for birdie, dropping a tough five-footer on her second putt, to pull even with Kiersten Bodge.

   It looked like Griffin was headed for a big number at the par-5 eighth hole when she bladed her approach off the back of the green and then watched her putt sail all the way across the green and off the front.

   But then Griffin miraculously drained her 25-foot par putt from off the front of the green to save par and remain tied for the lead going to the 273-yard, par-4 ninth hole.

    Griffin’s tee shot found a fairway bunker on the left and she was still short of the green with her approach. Kiersten Bodge was in the fairway, but was partially blocked by the big tree on the right side of the hole and she, too, left her approach short of the green.

   Kiersten Bodge hit her third shot 15 feet left of the flag and calmly drained her par putt. Griffin was a little inside Kiersten Bodge, but couldn’t get her 12-footer for par to fall as she settled for runnerup honors with a 2-over 38.

   Kiersten Bodge’s swing coach is John Dunigan, who was named the Philadelphia Section PGA’s Teacher & Coach of the Year for a fifth time in 2025. Their work on keeping the ball low in the wind paid off in a big way Tuesday at Sandy Run.

   “He’ll be happy to hear about that,” Kiersten Bodge said.

   Kiersten Bodge was the individual medalist in each of the five invitationals that comprise the Inter-Ac’s regular season, the girls adopting a similar format last year to the one the boys have used for more than decade.

   “I won every match,” Kiersten Bodge said. “My average was right about 38.”

   Kiersten Bodge has a busy summer of golf ahead of her.

   “I’ll be playing an AJGA (American Junior Golf Association) Memorial Day weekend,” Kiersten Bodge said. “And I’ll be trying to qualify for the U.S. Girls’ Junior, the Girls PGA Junior and the U.S. Women’s Amateur.”

   Kiersten Bodge put the recruiting process behind her when she made a verbal commitment last September to join head coach Kristen Simpson’s program at Penn State in the summer of 2027. Simpson has the Nittany Lions very much on the rise.

   Griffin and her Episcopal Academy teammates once again ruled the Inter-Ac, the Churchwomen finishing first in four of the five invitationals to capture the league for the eighth straight time.

   Only a global pandemic has been able to stop Episcopal as the arrival of the coronavirus in the spring of 2020 forced the cancellation of the spring golf season.

   A trio of Agnes Irwin players, Makayla Stone, a mighty mite of a senior, junior Anna Rufo, and sophomore Sydney Wellen shared third place, each ending up five shots behind Griffin with a 7-over 43.

   Rufo played in the lead group along with Kiersten Bodge, Griffin and Kiersten Bodge’s younger sister, Katelyn, an eighth-grader who finished alone in sixth place with a 44 in the fierce winds.

   Another Agnes Irwin player, junior Audrey Comly, finished a shot behind Katelyn Bodge in seventh place with a 45 and Episcopal Academy junior Hadley Stetson was another shot behind Comly in eighth with a 46.

   Baldwin’s Charlotte Grant and Springside Chestnut Hill Academy’s Sammi Acuna shared ninth place, each posting a 48.

   Episcopal Academy junior Marietta Hartmann and Notre Dame sophomore Claire Toohey finished in a tie for 11^th place as each signed for a 49.

   Episcopal Academy junior C.J. Nichols and Springside Chestnut Hill’s Addison Murphy landed in a tie for 13^th place, each recording a 51.

   A couple of Episcopal Academy players rounded out the elite field of 16 girls as senior Charlotte Franklin took 15^th place with a 52 and junior Muriel Fitz-Kaltenmeier was 16^th with a 55.