Merion Golf Club’s Brad McDermott and Reading Country Club’s Chase Yenser, the defending champion, each blitzed Hershey Country Club’s East Course with a 6-under-par 65 Monday to grab a share of the lead following the opening round of the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s 83rd Junior Boys’ Championship.
The tournament is scheduled for a 36-hole windup Tuesday, although last year’s final round was canceled due to extreme heat. While the forecast is for temperatures to reach near 100 Wednesday and Thursday, temperatures in the low 90s might allow for 36 holes Tuesday.
The winner of the Pennsylvania Junior Boys will earn a spot in the field for the U.S. Junior Amateur, which tees off July 20 at Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem.
At nearby Lebanon Country Club, Wildwood Golf Club’s Alyssa Zhang, a top-three finisher in the PIAA Class AA Championship in her first two seasons at Shady Side Academy, grabbed the lead following the opening round of the PAGA’s 63rd Junior Girls’ Championship with a 5-under 67.
The winner of the Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ Championship will earn a trip to the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, which tees off July 13 at Old Chatham Golf Club in Durham, N.C.
McDermott, coming off a run to the quarterfinals in last week’s Golf Association of Philadelphia (GAP) Junior Boys’ Championship at Chester Valley Golf Club, wrapped up his scholastic career at Radnor last fall by earning a trip to the PIAA Class AAA Championship for a second time.
Starting off the 10th tee, McDermott started slowly, offsetting a bogey at the 12th hole with a birdie at 13 and was at even-par standing on the 17th tee. And then he went off.
McDermott, who will join the program at Bucknell later this summer, concluded the incoming nine at Hershey East with birdies at the 17th and 18th holes. After an eagle at the par-5 first hole, McDermott was suddenly 4-under. McDermott added birdies at the second, third and sixth holes to get it 7-under before a bogey at eight left him at 6-under.
Yenser has been one of the top junior players in Pennsylvania the last couple of years, capping a standout scholastic career at Daniel Boone by finishing in fourth place in the PIAA Class AAA Championship at Penn State last fall.
Yenser, who will join the program at Big 12 power Baylor later this summer, held the lead following the opening round of the Boys Junior PGA Championship at Purdue’s Birck Boileremaker Golf Complex and finished in 19th place last summer.
Yenser opened defense of his Pennsylvania Junior Boys’ crown Monday by making birdies on four of his first six holes at one, four, five and six before a bogey at eight slowed his roll a little.
It was an up-and-down tour of the incoming nine at Hershey East for Yenser as he made birdies at the 10th and 11th holes, bogeyed 13, went back-to-back again with birdies at 14 and 15, bogeyed 16 and made another birdie – the ninth of his round – at 17 to join McDermott at 6-under.
Yenser is trying to become the first repeat winner of the Pennsylvania Junior Boys since Jon Rusk, the general manager at LuLu Country Club these days, did in 1995 and ’96.
Lurking two shots behind the leaders in third place was Oakmont Country Club’s Carson Kittsley, the two-time reigning PIAA Class AAA champion at Fox Chapel who posted a sparkling 4-under 67.
South Hills Country Club’s Michael Quallich, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier as a sophomore at Baldwin in the fall of 2024, was another shot behind Kittsley in fourth place with a 3-under 68.
The foursome of the Union League Golf Club at Torresdale’s Logan Cassidy, a District One Class AAA qualifier as a junior at Holy Ghost Prep last fall, Dallas Inch, who wrapped up an outstanding scholastic career at Central York with a second straight trip to the Class AAA state tournament and is a USGA/GAP entry, the Country Club of Scranton’s Ben Boyanoski, who helped Scranton Prep capture back-to-back PIAA Class AA team crown in 2024 and again in 2025, and Saucon Valley’s Caleb Walsh, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier as a junior at Southern Lehigh in the fall of 2024, shared fifth place, each signing for a 2-under 69.
White Manor Country Club’s Logan Turner, who capped an outstanding freshman season at Devon Prep by finishing in a tie for 15th place in the PIAA Class AA Championship, headed a group of six players who rounded out the top 10 in the Pennsylvania Junior Boys, each landing on 1-under 70.
A couple of players who had top-10 finishes in last fall’s Class AA state tournament, Annville Cleona’s Benjamin Allwein, playing out of Lebanon Country Club, and Neshannock’s Rocco Bautti, a USGA/Western Pennsylvania entry, were also in the group tied for ninth place at 1-under.
Also in the group tied at 1-under were The Country Club’s Luke Ferry, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier last fall with Meadville, host Hershey's Carson Hummer, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier with Hershey High last fall who will join the program at West Chester later this summer, and Dane Mohap, who finished in a tie for ninth place in the PIAA Class AAA Championship with Nazareth last fall.
Zhang got off to a hot start at Lebanon in grabbing the lead in the Pennsylvania Junior Girls as she had six birdies on her scorecard by the time she reached the 11th tee. Zhang shot out of the gate with consecutive birdies at the first, second and third holes and added birdies at seven, eight and 10 to get it to 6-under.
The lone bogey on her card, at the 16th hole, left Zhang with a 5-under round and a one-shot lead over the pair of Cobblestone Creek’s Myra Tomer and Centre Hills Country Club’s Maddie Koshko, both of whom carded a 4-under 68.
Tomer is a 14-year-old from Newtown. Not sure where she is going to be playing scholastic golf, but somebody is getting a player.
Penn State knows it’s getting a player in Koshko, winner of back-to-back PIAA Class AA crowns with Saint Joseph’s Catholic Academy in Boalsburg.
Overbrook Golf Club’s Kiersten Bodge, winner of the Inter-Ac League’s individual crown last month at Sandy Run Golf Club as a junior at Notre Dame, was alone in fourth place with an even-par 72 that left her a shot behind Tomer and Koshko.
Bodge plans to join Koshko with the Nittany Lions at the end of the summer of 2027.
White Manor Country Club’s Jill Burks, a three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier who led Conestoga to the PIAA Class AAA team crown as a junior last fall, was a shot behind Bodge in fifth place with a 1-over 73.
Nemacolin Country Club’s Mya Morgan, who capped an outstanding scholastic career at Elzabeth Forward by capturing a second straight PIAA Class AAA title last fall, headed a group of four players tied for sixth place at 2-over 74.
Rounding out the group at 2-over were Tam O’Shanter Golf Course’s Kate Sowers, the runnerup to Koshko in each of the last two Class AA state tournaments with West Middlesex, West Shore Country Club’s Cora Hirz, who capped her scholastic career at Fairview by finishing in fourth place in the Class AA state tournament last fall, and Rolling Green Golf Club’s Nicolette Bottos, one of Burks’ teammates on Conestoga’s Class AAA state championship team.
A couple of notable names in the group tied for 14th place at 6-over 78 were defending Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ champion Alaina Carson, also playing out of Rolling Green, and Kayley Roberts, a PAGA individual member.
Carson has reached the PIAA Class AAA Championship in each of her first two seasons at Cardinal O’Hara.
Carson’s victory in the Pennsylvania Junior Girls a year ago earned her a trip to the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club.
Roberts, the runnerup to Morgan in the PIAA Class AAA Championship last fall to cap an outstanding scholastic career at Phoenixville, joined Carson in last summer’s U.S. Girls’ Junior in suburban Atlanta and also represented the Philadelphia Section PGA in the Girls Junor PGA Championship at Purdue’s Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex in West Lafayette, Ind.
Carson and Roberts came up short in their bids to return to the U.S. Girls’ Junior in a GAP-administered qualifier a couple of weeks ago at Saucon Valley Country Club’s Weyhill Course.
Roberts will join her older sister Kate at Delaware along with a couple other District One stalwarts of recent vintage in Mary Grace Dunigan and Rhianna Gooneratne, all of whom will make Patty Post’s Blue Hens an interesting team to watch in the wraparound 2026-2027 college golf season.
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