Patty Post, the director of golf programs at the University of Delaware, had to be smiling when she scanned the final leaderboard in the 90th Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur Championship last week at Gulph Mills Golf Club, the venerable Donald Ross design nestled among the busy highways that intersect in Upper Merion Township.
It was a Blue Hen, senior Mary Grace Dunigan, holding the winner’s trophy after finishing five shots clear of a typically tough field with a 6-under-par 216 total for a deceptively easy victory.
The win means Dunigan will represent Delaware in next week’s U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at The Honors Course in Ooltewah, Tenn.
But that was only part of the picture from Post’s standpoint. Delaware accounted for four of the top seven finishers at Gulph Mills and a fifth player ended up inside the top 20. That’s a pretty good representation for a Delaware team that finished in second place in the Conference USA Championship at Stonebriar Country Club’s Fazio Course in Frisco, Texas in April in the Blue Hens’ first year in the conference.
This was Dunigan’s week right from the start at Gulph Mills, though. The daughter of John Dunigan, named the Philadelphia Section PGA’s Teacher & Coach of the Year for a fifth time in 2025, Mary Grace Dunigan, playing out of Kennett Square Golf & Country Club, grabbed a share of the lead with Merion Golf Club’s Jackie Rogowicz with an opening round of 3-under 71.
Dunigan began her week by making an eagle at the short, par-5 opening hole at Gulph Mills. After a bogey at the fifth hole, she made a birdie at seven and gave back another shot with a bogey at 10 before birdies at 12 and 13 got her to 3-under for the round.
Dunigan pulled away from the field on the strength of a 2-under 72 in the second round. She made a couple of early birdies at the fifth and eighth holes, faltered briefly with a double bogey at the tough ninth, but rebounded with birdies at 10 and 18 that gave her a five-shot lead going into the final round.
A 1-under 73 in the final round, which wrapped up July 22nd, enabled Dunigan, who led Unionville to the PIAA Class AAA team crown as a sophomore in 2020, to hold off all her pursuers.
Dunigan got off to a fast start in the final round with birdies at the second, fourth and seventh holes to get to 8-under for the tournament.
Dunigan stumbled with back-to-back bogeys at the ninth and 10th holes, but got a shot back with a birdie at 11 before a triple bogey at the par-3 14th dropped her back to 4-under for the tournament.
Dunigan righted the ship with birdies at the 15th and Gulph Mills’ par-5 finisher to get it back to 6-under.
Turned out the biggest run at Dunigan came from Michelle Cox, a three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at Emmaus who starred at Penn State and always seems to contend in this championship.
Cox had opened with a 2-over 76 and matched par in the second round with a 74. But she shot out of the gate in the final round with an eagle at the first, a birdie at two and another eagle at three.
Cox made a bogey at the fourth hole, but went back-to-back with birdies at seven and eight. After a bogey at the ninth hole, Cox made a birdie at the 12th hole and stood at 4-under for the championship.
Cox’s stunning rally ran out of steam after that as she made bogeys at 14, 15 and 16 and a double bogey at 17 before finishing up with a bogey at 18. It added up to an even-par 74 that left her alone in sixth place with a 2-over 224 total.
Dunigan’s Delaware teammate, Marissa Malosh, a PAGA individual member, and LuLu Country Club’s Megan Meng shared second place, each ending up with a 1-under 221 total.
Malosh, a two-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at South Fayette in western Pennsylvania, added a pair of 1-under 73s in the final two rounds after opening with a 1-over 75.
Dunigan and Malosh led the way for Delaware in the Conference USA Championship as each ended up in the group tied for sixth place in the individual standings.
Meng, who starred scholastically at Hopewell Valley Central in Pennington, N.J., is coming off a solid sophomore season with Big Ten power Northwestern. The Wildcats finished in fourth place as a six seed in the Ann Arbor Regional to punch their ticket to the NCAA Championship at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif.
After opening with a 1-under 73, Meng struggled a little in the second round with a 4-over 78 before finishing strong with a 4-under 70 that enabled her to get a share of second place with Malosh at 1-under.
Delaware junior Kate Roberts, tagging her PAGA individual membership with her home course at Turtle Creek, finished in fourth place, a shot behind Malosh and Meng with an even-par 222 total.
Kate Roberts, a three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier during an outstanding scholastic career at Phoenixville, opened with a solid 2-under 72, but, like Meng, struggled in the second round with a 3-over 77 in the second round before closing with a 1-under 73.
Kate Roberts’ younger sister, Kayley Roberts, will join Post’s Delaware program as a freshman in a few weeks.
Kayley Roberts, a four-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier and a runaway winner of the District One Class AAA crown last fall in her senior season at Phoenixville, finished a shot behind Cox in seventh place with a 3-over 225 total.
Kayley Roberts opened with a 1-under 73 and added a 1-over 75 in the second round before finishing up with a 77.
The Roberts sisters teamed up to lead Phoenixville to the PIAA Class AAA team crown in 2022. Kate and Kayley also proved to be a solid team in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship at the Daniel Island Club in Charleston, S.C. in May as they earned a spot in the match-play bracket before falling in the opening round.
A fifth member of the Delaware golf team, sophomore Rhianna Gooneratne, the PIAA Class AAA champion in 2023 as a junior at Plymouth-Whitemarsh, finished in a tie for 19th place at Gulph Mills with a 13-over 235 total.
All of which made Dunigan, who began her college journey at William & Mary before transferring to Delaware, thrilled to get to share her victory with her fellow Blue Hens and her many other friends in the field.
“It was so nice to have so many people that I just really love to be here at this tournament,” Dunigan told the PAGA website. “I think that’s why I’m here and why I love golf. It’s because I really enjoy the people I get to spend time with.”
Defending champion Hannah Rabb, coming off a solid sophomore season at Penn State after transferring to Happy Valley from James Madison, finished a shot behind Kate Roberts in fifth place at Gulph Mills with a 1-over 223 total.
Rabb, the PIAA Class AA champion in 2022 as a junior at Warrior Run, matched par in the opening round with a 74 and added a 3-over 77 in the second round before closing with a solid 2-under 72.
Rogowicz, a two-time Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur champion, once in 2019 when it was still contested at match play and again in 2022 as a stroke-play event, finished in a tie for eighth place with Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Addie Chang, a former Episcopal Academy standout who was named the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year following her freshman season at Fairfield, each ending up a shot behind Kayley Roberts with a 4-over 226 total.
Rogowicz, who starred scholastically at Pennsbury and collegiately at Penn State, got it going in the opening round as she earned a share of the lead with Dunigan at 3-under.
After making a bogey at the first hole, Rogowicz rattled off birdies at three, eight and 10. She made a bogey at the 11th hole to fall back to 1-under for the round before birdies at 12 and 17 got her to 3-under.
Rogowicz struggled in the final two rounds, posting a 5-over 79 in the second round before closing with a 76.
The day after the Pennsylvania Women’s Am, Rogowicz carded a 1-under 72 at Brookside Country Club of Allentown to punch her ticket to the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, which tees off Aug. 29 at Montclair Golf Club in West Orange, N.J.
Saw a lot of Rogowicz when the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am was staged at Stonewall’s North Course in 2023. She reached the semifinals before falling to Kelsey Chugg, the 2017 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champion and twice a beaten finalist, including in 2023 at Stonewall.
Rogowicz has proven she can compete with the best mid-ams in the country.
Chang recorded back-to-back 2-over 76s in the first two rounds at Gulph Mills before matching par in the final round with a 74.
Another strong showing in a Pennsylvania Women’s Am for Overbrook Golf Club’s Kiersten Bodge, a senior at Notre Dame Academy, as she shared 10th place with Whitemarsh Valley Country Club’s Clare Gimpel, a former Mount St. Joseph standout who wrapped up her college career at Florida Southern in the spring, as they both landed on 6-over 228.
Bodge, the Inter-Ac League and Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association champion while wrapping up her junior season in May, had finished in ninth place in the Pennsylvania Women’s Am at Waynesborough Country Club two summers ago.
So, two top-10s in the Pennsylvania Women’s Am with a year of high school golf still to go is pretty strong.
Bodge, who plans to join the Penn State program in the summer of 2027, opened with a 2-over 76 and added a 78 in the second round before matching par in the final round with a 74.
Gimpel was very much in the hunt after opening with a 2-under 72, but she struggled to an 80 in the second round before closing with a 2-over 76.
Wildwood Golf Club’s Alyssa Zhang, the Shady Side Academy junior who ran away with the title in the Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ Championship by 12 shots at Lebanon Country Club last month, finished alone in 12th place at Gulph Mills with an 8-over 230 total.
Zhang sandwiched a 2-over 76 in the second round with a pair of 77s.
The victory at Lebanon earned Zhang a trip to the U.S. Girls’ Junior Amateur Championship at Old Chatham Golf Club in Durham, N.C., where she posted a pair of 2-over 74s, her 4-over 148 total leaving her just a shot short of a playoff for the final two spots in the match-play bracket.
In the Mid-Amateur division, which wrapped up July 21st, Lauren Klick of DuPont Country Club added a 3-over 77 in the second round to her solid opening round of 1-over 74 as she claimed the title with a 4-over 152 total.
Katrin Wolfe of Northampton Country Club earned runnerup honors as she finished two shots behind Klick with a 6-over 154 total. Wolfe added a 2-over 76 in the second round to her opening-round 78.
Wolfe, a collegiate standout at Penn State, remains active in the business of golf as a sales representative for a leading green industry distributor after spending some time as a field staff representative for the Mid-Atlantic region for the Golf Course Superintendents of America.
After surviving a playoff to earn a spot in the match-play bracket in the 2023 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am at Stonewall, Wolfe reached the round of 16.
Honeybrook Golf Club’s Barbora Millichip was just a shot behind Klick following an opening round of 2-over 76. She added an 82 in the second round to finish in third place with a 10-over 158 total.
Philly Cricket’s Stephenie Harris cruised to the Senior Amateur crown by seven shots as she added a 4-over 78 in the second round to her opening-round 80 for a 158 total.
Sunnybrook Golf Club’s Lisa McGill, a five-time Pennsylvania Senior Amateur winner, captured the title in the Super-Senior division for the first time in a playoff with Honeybrook’s Lisa Day.
Day had grabbed a two-shot lead on the strength of a 1-over 75 in the opening round before adding a 78 in the second round. After opening with a 77, McGill added a 2-over 76 in the second round to catch Day at 5-over 153.
Huntsville Golf Club’s Barb Pagana, a three-time Pennsylvania Super-Senior champion, finished a shot out of the playoff at 154 as she added a 2-over 76 in the second round to her opening-round 78.
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