Tag: junior golf

6-foot-10 Tommy Morrison earns medalist honors at U.S. Junior Amateur

Tommy came to play.

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Coming into the week at the U.S. Junior Amateur, Tommy Morrison was one of the favorites.

And he’s standing out after the first two rounds of stroke play. Morrison, who’s 6-foot-10 and the second-oldest player in the field, shot 8-under over the first 36 holes to earn the top match play seed at the 75th U.S. Junior Amateur at Daniel Island Club in Charleston, South Carolina, on Tuesday. The rising sophomore at Texas finished one shot ahead of his competition.

“It means a lot,” said Morrison of medalist honors. “I want to win as many medals and trophies as I can. Any USGA medal is a good one.”

Earlier this year, Morrison competed with Tony Romo in the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball at Kiawah Island.

Andrew Gregory, 17, of Spartanburg, South Carolina, is one of five South Carolina natives in the field. He finished just one back of Morrison after shooting rounds of 66-70 for a two-day total of 7-under 136. Gregory, who will begin his freshman season at Liberty University in the fall, is playing in his third straight U.S. Junior Amateur. This is his first time advancing to match play. 

“There is always a chance,” said Gregory about the match-play format. “Just let the other person make all the mistakes and just keep it in the fairway. Don’t show any emotion. Just make pars all day and when birdies come, birdies come.” 

On Wednesday morning, there was a 14-for-7 playoff to determine the final match play spots. Then, the Round of 64 got underway.

Matches continue through Saturday’s 36-hole championship match.

This 15-year-old Monday qualifier made the cut in her first LPGA start

“I mean, it’s my first tournament, it’s the best experience, I’m just excited to be here.”

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On Monday, Mia Hammond was playing in a Monday qualifier, trying to get into her first LPGA event. By day’s end, she won that Monday qualifier and has plans for Thursday and Friday.

Come Friday afternoon, her weekend was booked: playing in the 2023 Dana Open.

Hammond shot consecutive rounds of 68 at Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania, Ohio, to make the cut in her first LPGA start. The 15-year-old, who is not in the field at next week’s U.S. Girls’ Junior in Colorado Springs, Colorado, will play the weekend in a professional event instead.

“It’s so amazing, it’s honestly a dream come true,” Hammond said. “I’ve put in a lot of work over the winter and beginning of the season this year, and it’s so great to see it finally pay off. I had a few rough tournaments here and there so just so relieving.”

Not only will she make the cut, she walked off the course inside the top 20 on the leaderboard.

A reminder: Hammond is 15, Monday qualified and is making her first professional start. Not bad.

“I would say for now I’m going to set a goal as top 20,” she said of her goals this weekend. “If it happens to be better than that, then that’s great. I’m just here for the experience more than anything else. Playing on the LPGA Tour is a dream of mine in the future. So just getting a feel for what it’s actually like to be out here is more important to me.”

Hammond has hit 28-of-36 greens and also missed only six of the 28 fairways. She’s averaging 265 yards off the tee.

Now, it’s time to prepare for the weekend.

“I’m just going to take it all in,” Hammond said. “Spend time with the people that are here, make the best of it. I mean, it’s my first tournament, it’s the best experience, I’m just excited to be here.”

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Cooper Groshart, Megan Meng capture 2023 First Tee National Championship titles

Both winners were awarded with the Tattersall Cup in honor of event chairman Fred Tattersall.

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Megan Meng and Cooper Groshart of San Luis Obispo, California, won the girls and boys divisions of the third annual First Tee National Championship at Stanford Golf Course.

The event brought together First Tee’s elite golfers for an opportunity to showcase how the program has helped build the strength of character needed to play at the next level.

Meng, a 16-year-old senior from Pennington, New Jersey, has been involved with First Tee for more than 10 years. She finished the 54-hole tournament 5-under to win by five strokes. In the final round, Meng shot a tournament-low 66 – including a front nine 30 – to secure her victory.

In 2022, Meng won another marquee First Tee event, the PURE Insurance Championship pro-junior title, a PGA Tour Champions event held at Pebble Beach, shooting a 64 on Sunday. Meng is committed to play golf at Northwestern.

“Practice makes better, and practice definitely gets you where you want to go, so it’s all about how much time you’re willing to put in practicing on the course, but also make sure to have fun with it. Golf is a game for fun and spending time with your friends,” Meng said.

Groshart, 18, finished in the top 10 at the 2021 and 2022 First Tee National Championships before winning in this, his third and final attempt. He finished the tournament 4 over after shooting a final-round 71. Groshart recently graduated from San Luis Obispo High School and will play golf this fall at California State University, East Bay.

Like Meng, Groshart played at the 2022 PURE Insurance Championship, where he hit a hole-in-one on the iconic seventh hole during a practice round.

“This week I’ve just made a ton of friends and seen old friends I don’t get to see that often,” Groshart said. “This tournament feels like everyone is friends. Everyone is out here for a good time. We want to play some good golf too, but it’s a bunch of friends hanging out on the golf course.”

Both winners were awarded the Tattersall Cup in honor of event chairman Fred Tattersall. Two players from the First Tee National Championship field were also awarded a one-time exemption into the PURE Insurance Championship Impacting the First Tee, held at Pebble Beach Golf Links Sept. 16-24, 2023.

With this year’s national championship winners having already played in the tournament, the exemptions were passed to Alaythia Hinds of First Tee – Greater Sacramento, who finished second among the girls, and Sean Kwok of First Tee – Tri Valley, who finished fifth among the boys.

For the first time, the four lowest-scoring eligible players (two boys and two girls) from the national championship also earned admission into the PGA Tour’s new Pathways to Progression program, which aims to support talented golfers from backgrounds that are traditionally underrepresented in the sport.

The PGA Tour will announce the full roster for its Pathways program, including the four players who earned their spots at the First Tee National Championship, in the coming days.

“Congratulations to everyone who competed in the third annual First Tee national championship this week,” First Tee CEO Greg McLaughlin said. “Especially to Megan and Cooper. They represented First Tee with confidence and poise, and we look forward to seeing all that they continue to accomplish on and off the golf course. Thank you to Fred Tattersall for his ongoing support of this tournament and Stanford University for a memorable week.”

First Tee’s national championship is held annually at various college golf courses around the nation providing First Tee participants the opportunity to network with others from across the country and take in the college experience. Stanford University hosted the third annual Championship, following the previous two years at University of Notre Dame’s Warren Golf Course and Clemson University’s The Walker Course, respectively.

The field included 24 boys and 24 girls, ages 14-18, who were selected based on their golf skills and competitive golf experience including 15 competitors who are currently committed to play collegiate golf. Players came from 29 First Tee chapters across the country.

Japan sweeps 2023 Toyota Junior Golf World Cup, United States girls finish second

Japan pulled away late from the United States.

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To no one’s great surprise, Japan wound up sweeping top honors on the final day of the Toyota Junior Golf World Cup Supported by Japan Airlines — though it wound up more stressful than perhaps anyone might have imagined.

That was especially true in the girls’ division, which went to Friday’s final hole before the host nation — which had smashed scoring records every day this week — managed to hold off a frenzied United States comeback to claim its third team title in the past four editions.

“I was actually so nervous on that last hole that my hands were shaking,” admitted Yuna Araki, whose closing par at Chukyo Golf Club’s Ishino course not only clinched the team title but individual honors over Californian Anna Davis.

After beginning the day with a seven-shot advantage, Japan found itself tied with the U.S. squad with just six holes left to play among all groups. Late birdies by Araki and Saki Baba nudged the Japanese trio back in front, clinching a two-shot triumph even with a record total of 34-under 542.

It was somewhat easier for Japan’s boys, though their six-shot lead to start the day shrank to just two over Canada midway through the opening nine. But that’s where Kaito Sato, Reo Maruo and Jukito Ogawa stepped things up, combining for eight birdies in a four-hole stretch to create more cushion as they made the turn.

“Those birdies at (Nos.) 5, 6 and 7 created a good rhythm for me personally,” said Sato, also the boys’ individual winner after a 5-under-par 67. “I’d imagine it was the same for the others.”

Japan’s team score of 34-under 818 — third-best in nearly three decades of tournament history — was enough to outpace Canada by four. It was the host nation’s first victory on the boys’ side since 2015.

Friday’s results also marked the first time that one nation captured both boys’ and girls’ trophies since 2017, when Team USA also went home with the complete set of both team championships and both individual crowns.

“It is a good thing that the boys were able to keep up with the girls this week,” said Sato. “I think overall, Japanese players are getting better and we are able to compete on the world stage.”

The competition utilizes a format similar to U.S. college golf, with each boys’ team counting the three best scores among its four players each day. In the girls’ division, each team counts the two best scores among three.

The week had been billed as a showdown of the powerful Japanese and U.S. girls, and Friday’s final hours did not disappoint. While Japan’s trio of Araki, Baba and Saori Iijima got off to a collective slow start — just one birdie between them in the first six holes — their U.S. counterparts were firing.

Jasmine Koo reeled off three straight birdies from Nos. 2-4, though she later cooled off. Davis had three birdies in a bogey-free front nine as the Americans sliced the lead by nearly half.

“We all knew what we had to do,” said Davis, winner of the 2022 Augusta National Women’s Amateur. “We knew we were seven shots behind, but we knew it was definitely possible to make up. We were close there for a while.”

Better than close, standing side-by-side at 32-under late in the final stretch. Baba, the reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champion, birdied the par-4 17th to nose Japan in front as Team USA’s Katie Li finished up a 67.

Araki and Davis, playing in the group behind, each birdied No. 16 and parred No. 17 to keep the margin at one going to the 18th tee.

Araki, nerves notwithstanding, found the fairway but Davis watched her drive race into a fairway bunker — plugging just underneath the lip.

“Not a very good combination, to say the least,” Davis quipped.

She managed to advance the ball just short and right of the green, but her chip shot ran 15 feet past the pin and she couldn’t convert the par save. Araki’s approach came down just short of the green, but she was able to chip within inches for the victory.

To read the rest of this story and more from our partners at Amateur Golf, click here.

This 15-year-old, who last week became the youngest champion in Alabama State Amateur history, wins Southern Junior Championship

What a stretch for Tyler Watts.

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Tyler Watts of Huntsville, Alabama, posted a final round of two-under 70. He fired five birdies today to claim the 51st Southern Junior Championship title with a 9-under 207 total at Baton Rouge Country Club in Louisiana. Watts finished five shots ahead of his competition.

The win marked another amazing triumph for Watts, who just last week became the youngest champion in Alabama State Amateur history. His age record surpassed the one set by Gordon Sargent of Vanderbilt, who is currently competing as an amateur in the U.S. Open.

Collins Trolio of West Point, Mississippi, who finished second with a four-under 212 score. Noah Kent of Naples, Florida, and Liam Pasternak of Morristown, New Jersey, each finished at two-under 214. After a scorecard playoff, Kent claimed bronze.

The winner of the Southern Junior Championship receives a silver medal, his name engraved on the Perry Adair Trophy, a Calamity Jane putter, exemption into the 2024 Southern Amateur Championship, exemption into all future Southern Junior Championships in which he is eligible to compete and is fully exempt with the American Junior Golf Association for 12 months.

Click here for more from our partners at Amateur Golf.

Anawin Pikulthong wins 2023 Golfweek Southwest Junior Open by 13 shots; Sirina Ganne takes girls division title

ASU-bound Anawin Pikulthong won the Golfweek Southwest Junior by a whopping 13 shots.

Anawin Pikulthong, 18, an Arizona State University commit from nearby Gilbert, Arizona, won the 2023 Golfweek Southwest Junior Open at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club in Maricopa, Arizona, on Sunday.

The limited-field Southwest Junior Open, now in its 22nd year, is recognized as one of the nation’s premier junior golf tournaments.

Pikulthong enters the Golfweek record book after his dominating victory becoming the first player to four-peat. Along the way, Pikulthong took out some of Arizona’s top junior talent to claim the coveted title.

Pikulthong, who said he hasn’t been playing up to his potential lately, used his relaxed attitude and intimate knowledge of Southern Dunes to put on an exhibition. His performance was particularly impressive given the combination of heat, fast greens and tucked pins.

His victory came after a thrilling final round at Southern Dunes where he shot 9-under 63 to finish with a two-day total score of 19-under 125. He hit accurate drives, approach shots and made putts while avoiding any costly mistakes en route to his two-day combined scorecard that included 17 birdies and one eagle.

His closest competitors were Tommie Clark of Mesa and Kyle Koski of Chandler who posted 6-under 138 and 5-under 139, respectively.

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Girls division

Sirina Ganne, 15, of Holmdel, New Jersey, added another first-place finish to her resume.

Ganne, a rising high school sophomore, is the current New Jersey Girls State Champion, a title she won earlier this month at Raritan Valley Country Club in Bridgewater, New Jersey.

Sirina Ganne
Sirina Ganne holds a trophy after winning the 2023 Golfweek Southwest Junior Open at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club in Maricopa, Arizona. (Photo: Golfweek)

Her two-day total of 144 (70-74) earned her a three-shot win over Angela Zhikun-Chen of Chandler. Ganne finished even par; the rest of the field finished over par during the two-day event.

With her victory at the Golfweek Southwest Junior Open, Sirina will get an exemption into the Golfweek International Junior Invitational, Nov. 4-5, in Orlando.

Ganne’s older sister, Megha, just finished her freshman season at Stanford.

Meet Lincoln Rubis, an 11-year-old with 5 holes-in-one (three in a 22-day span) and the same childhood coach as Jordan Spieth

His scoring average in 2023 is 69.67.

Most babies sleep with a stuffed animal or a blanket. Lincoln Rubis cuddled with his plastic 7-iron.

Rubis, now 11, has been obsessed with golf from the moment his parents gave him his first set of plastic clubs at 18 months old. His father, Jon, said you could tell there was something special about Lincoln when he swung the club.

“I’m going, ‘OK, this is crazy,'” Jon said. “He could just swing it over and over again. He really took a liking to it.”

Fast forward 10 years, Lincoln and his family now live in the Dallas metroplex, and his love of golf has only grown. He has become one of the best junior golfers in the country. He has five holes-in-one, including three in a 22-day span a month ago. Lincoln also goes to the same childhood coach that Jordan Spieth did and has the same winning percentage as Scottie Scheffler on the Northern Texas PGA Junior Tour.

Not bad footsteps to be following.

Those are just a few of the amazing things Lincoln has accomplished, and he just turned 11 in January.

When he was 6, he got his first two aces within a month of each other. Fast forward five years, his tally is up to five holes-in-one, more than even some professionals have.

On Feb. 25, he was playing in a tournament at the Wigwam in Litchfield Park, Arizona, when he hit a pitching wedge from 101 yards to an island green. The ball one hopped, hit the flag stick and dropped.

“It was loud,” Jon said. “It just went bang.”

A week later, at Rock Creek Golf Club in Gordonville, Texas, Lincoln hit another ace, this one with a 9-iron from 113 yards. Jon was playing in a group behind and found out through a text message from other parents who were keeping score.

Then, 15 days later at Coyote Ridge in Carrollton, Texas, Lincoln played in cold temperatures with the wind chill below freezing in a tournament. On the uphill par-3 11th hole, Jon was standing next to the green and videoed Lincoln’s swing from the tee. He hit a 9-iron from 110 yards.

“It was blind for me because I was below the green, but the ball was tracking and I thought it was a good shot,” Jon said.

Jon shut off the camera as it landed and released. He couldn’t see the ball, but he knew it was a good shot. That’s when Lincoln started yelling and celebrating. Jon walked up to see the green, and he couldn’t see a golf ball.

“That’s when I knew it was in,” Jon said.

Three holes-in-one in 22 days, with two of those coming in tournaments. He won the latter at Coyote Ridge.

Speaking of tournament records, Scheffler, the six-time PGA Tour winner and second-ranked golfer in the world, won nearly 60 percent of his starts on the NTPGA during his career. So far, Lincoln has 27 wins in 47 events (57.4 win percentage) and has finished top two all but five times.

His scoring average in 2023 is 69.67. Lincoln is a bit smaller for his age and doesn’t hit the ball as far as some of his competitors, but he excels at finding ways to score and get the ball in the hole.

Last year, he tied for seventh at the U.S. Kids Worlds and also qualified for the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals at Augusta National. He’s also sponsored by Titleist.

Then there’s the Jordan Spieth connection. Spieth’s first coach was Joey Anders, who teaches at Brookhaven. The Rubis’s are members at Brookhaven, and Anders has been teaching Lincoln at the same age he taught Spieth.

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Lincoln has even played some rounds with Shawn Spieth, Jordan’s father. As Shawn was getting ready for the PNC Championship last year, they played a couple rounds together.

“Shawn is so great, not only with Lincoln, but plenty of the junior golfers at Brookhaven,” Jon said. “It’s really cool.”

Last year at the Dallas Junior Golf Championship, a tournament that dates to the 1920s, Lincoln shot a 59. Jon is quick to point out the Ages 9-10 Division played about 4,200 yards, but no one had shot that low in the tournament’s history.

Most of Lincoln’s events now are played at 5,500 yards or close to, but a couple weeks ago, he and Jon, who’s a near-scratch golfer, went and played a course from 6,800 yards.

And what did Lincoln do? Knocked a wedge close for birdie on the final hole to beat his dad.

“I couldn’t have been happier,” Jon said. “I didn’t think he would beat me this early.”

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Georgia-bound Savannah De Bock is everything that’s great about junior and amateur golf

So much attention is paid to pro golf that it’s easy to forget the true essence of the game is at the amateur level.

GRANITEVILLE, S.C. – Nobody had more fun than Savannah De Bock at the 2023 Junior Invitational at Sage Valley.

The Belgian had such a big smile on her face all week at the nation’s top junior tournament that you’d think she won by a landslide, when in reality she finished on the bottom half of the leaderboard. When’s the last time you walked off a green with a smile after making a double bogey? De Bock did it at least twice.

“Well, it’s really important for me to stay positive, because nothing good can come from me being negative,” she explained. “I’m a really outgoing person, really positive person, so that’s just my way of being and if I’m not joyous, what am I?”

De Bock, No. 51 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, has an infectious personality that you can’t help but gravitate towards. She was sitting alone eating lunch after Saturday’s final round at the pristine Sage Valley Golf Club when four players from the boys’ side of the annual competition immediately came to join her as soon as they saw her. Not long after sitting down the laughter ensued.

“I made new friends, not only my roommates and other girls, but actually other boys, so that’s cool,” said De Bock. “I think I’ll remember the spirit of friendship that was here, I felt at home here.”

Wire-to-wire: Anna Davis, Aldrich Potgieter dominate 2023 Junior Invitational at Sage Valley

She entertained her caddie all week long with songs and jokes and had animated discussions in the middle of the round with fellow players about scrambled eggs. De Bock danced around the property from event to event each night, often in her Gryffindor sweatshirt (a fitting house placement for all you Harry Potter fans out there). After dinner one night, De Bock grabbed a piece of chocolate cake for desert but couldn’t find a fork. Without skipping a beat, she grabbed some chopsticks and went on her merry way.

While she didn’t leave Sage Valley with the trophy, De Bock will take home countless memories, new friends and the unofficial title as the Most Fun Player of the Week.

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“It was just amazing. Everyone is so nice here. I made a lot of friends so that’s really cool,” De Bock said of her experience. “The course is in such great shape. I’ve never played a course so well maintained in my life. The greens are really hard but it’s really fun to play. I learned a lot, so that’s cool. I’m a bit disappointed about my score overall, but I’ve learned a lot, so that’s nice.”

If De Bock was impressed with Sage Valley, she’ll be blown away in two weeks when she ventures 20 miles down the road for the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

“Mostly excited,” she said of her ANWA debut. “A little nervous because it’s such a big competition but I’m looking forward to it.”

De Bock isn’t new to big competitions, especially after her appearance at the Junior Invitational. She won the 2022 European Ladies’ Amateur and finished 14th at the Ladies European Tour’s The Mithra Belgian Ladies Open. That said, she doesn’t have a television at home, so she hasn’t seen much of the ANWA or Masters, but she has spoken about it with her friend and fellow Belgian Clarisse Louis, a two-time ANWA competitor.

After competing in the ANWA, De Bock will head home to Belgium before returning to the Peach State in the fall to attend the University of Georgia, where she’s interested in studying anything from genetics to communication and journalism.

“I’m really looking forward to it because it’s such a great place to train. I know I’m gonna be able to study at the same time, which is always a little hard in Europe. So I’m really excited about it.”

There’s so much attention paid to the professional tours and the millions of dollars at stake that it’s easy to forget the true essence of the game is at the amateur level. Thankfully there are players like De Bock to remind us of that.

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Wire-to-wire winners: Anna Davis, Aldrich Potgieter dominate en route to 2023 Junior Invitational at Sage Valley titles

Last year’s Junior Invitational featured a pair of playoffs. The theme of this year’s event was wire-to-wire winners.

GRANITEVILLE, S.C. — Last year the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley featured a pair of playoffs to decide the boys and girls titles. The theme of this year’s event was wire-to-wire winners.

Aldrich Potgieter and Anna Davis were out in front all week at the nation’s top junior tournament and will leave the pristine club among the South Carolina pines with the trophies and the event’s signature gold jackets. Each player held a five-shot lead entering Saturday’s final round and won in impressive fashion.

“I went into the week wanting to win, thinking I was gonna win,” said Davis after the final round. “I’ve always had high expectations for myself.”

Nika Ito, who finished solo second, holed out from the fairway for eagle on the 17th hole to put the pressure on Davis, who was keeping tabs on the leaderboard all afternoon.

“That’s my second time getting holed-out on having the lead, so I was used to it and thought, ‘Okay, it’s fine. It happens,'” said Davis. “When you’re in that position, you kind of have to expect that stuff to happen so it doesn’t catch you off guard.”

Davis responded by hitting a “pretty bad second shot” that narrowly avoided the water guarding the 17th green.

“I had room because I’m left-handed. If I was right-handed, I would have been standing in the water,” explained Davis. From there the rising star followed Ito’s lead and chipped in to stop the momentum swing.

Davis, an Auburn commit, turned 17 on Friday and celebrated her birthday by walking in the winning putt from just off the 18th green with some serious swagger to finish at 7 under for the tournament.

“Kind of a douche bag move,” she said with a chuckle after the round. “Right off the putter face I thought, ‘that has to be in,’ so I walked it in.”

Ito finished two shots back at 5 under, with Kiara Romero in third at even par after firing the day’s low round of 5-under 67.

Next up for Davis is her title defense in two weeks at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, where she’ll enter with even more pressure and expectations after her win in 2022.

“I think it just it helps like knowing that I can play in this area,” Davis said of the momentum she’ll take to her ANWA title defense. “Augusta and Champions Retreat are very similar to this course. I think just being able to play this kind of golf, being comfortable and being familiar with the area is always very helpful. So I think that just adds on to my win last year.”

Potgieter, the defending British Amateur champion, made eight birdies to win by a whopping 10 shots to set a record for the largest margin of victory in tournament history. The South African fired rounds of 65-70-68 to finish at 13 under for the week. Lee Byungho and Aaron Pounds finished T-2 at 3 under, with Eric Lee in fourth at 1 under and Preston Stout in fifth at even par.

“Yeah, it was awesome week, I really enjoyed it,” Potgieter said of his Junior Invitational debut and win. “Today was good a round. I struggled for a stretch, the par-5 fourth I missed a five-footer or something for birdie and then missed one on five. So that was kind of a disappointing break, but I knew that the back nine had a lot of opportunities and still having to play three par fives, I was still confident enough to put a good score on the board.

“I always run back to what Tiger Woods said, you don’t come to a tournament not to win. I came to kind of prepare for the Masters and getting the win here just gives me more confidence going into that,” added Potgieter. “I think this golf course is pretty similar to Augusta National, so I’m taking this as a learning curve to that course and if I play like this week, I think I’ll do pretty good.”

Potgieter was pleasantly surprised that the rest of the boys field struggled to score while he was under par each day this week.

“Most of the guys were just kind of pissed at me because I was hitting it 50 yards passed everyone,” he jokingly said with a laugh, “so I guess that makes the golf course a little bit easier, carrying all the bunkers and getting in play still.”

As the British Amateur champion, Potgieter earned an spot in the field for the 2023 Masters and will join Davis at Augusta National in two weeks time.

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Anna Davis, Aldrich Potgieter lead at Junior Invitational at Sage Valley, where no lead is safe

The first-round leaders remain atop the leaderboard, but each has a few players within striking distance.

GRANITEVILLE, S.C. – The players at the 2023 Junior Invitational at Sage Valley are treated like royalty the minute they step on the picturesque property tucked away behind the South Carolina pines. They also have 18 king and queen-sized challenges waiting for them as soon as they put a tee in the ground.

Known as one of, if not the best junior golf tournaments in the world, this year’s Junior Invitational – which boasts a field of the top girls and boys golfers from around the world – has been a survival of the fittest test this week, and Friday’s second round at Sage Valley Golf Club was no different. The winds were high, and for the second consecutive day, the scores were as well.

First-round leaders Anna Davis and Aldrich Potgieter remain atop the leaderboard, but each has a few players within striking distance entering the final round.

Davis looks to celebrate 17th birthday with win

Davis turned 17 on Friday and celebrated by taking a five-shot lead over the field to hold a commanding lead ahead of Saturday’s finale.

“It was kind of the same thing as yesterday, I hit just about every fairway and green and then one putt or two putt and then move on to the next hole,” said Davis, who was dissatisfied with her putting on Thursday despite taking the early lead with a 2-under 70. The defending Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion was one shot better on Friday with a 3-under 69. “I just started off a little better, I didn’t have as many three putts so I just had a better start to the round.”

Nika Ito is in solo second at even par, with Fiona Xu and Andrea Revuelta T-3 at 2 over. Kati Li and Bailey Shoemaker round out the top five at 3 over.

While you may think a five-to-eight-shot advantage may be insurmountable, don’t forget what happened last year at Sage Valley, where Shoemaker lost a seven-shot lead in the final round and wound up falling short to Amalie Leth-Nissen in a playoff.

“I love to come from behind, I think that’s the best place to be. Having a lead is pretty hard, especially having a two-day lead,” explained Shoemaker, a USC commit. “I know what happened to me last year, so I’d like to turn the tables and get my own little taste of it. So hopefully, hopefully, I can do a little bit like Amalie did to me last year.

“I’ve been thinking about Sage Valley for the last three months, just hoping to get my little taste of revenge. Hopefully,I can shoot something tomorrow and just post the score and give myself a chance.”

Can anyone catch Potgieter?

Over on the boys’ side, Potgieter has a five-shot lead of his own after following a Thursday 65 with a Friday 70 to sit at 9 under, but he’s not the only player to go low this week. Connor Williams, bound for Arizona State in the fall, fired a bogey-free 5-under 67 on Friday to clip Eduardo Derbez Torres (68) for the day’s low round.

“Honestly, the first few holes I was hitting it really good, gave myself chances. I had a rough stretch off the tee from Nos. 7-10, hit a really bad drive on 10 but got a good break from a kick back in the fairway,” Williams said of his round. “From there I locked in, took it low and made a good eagle on 15, hit a really good drive and only had a 7-iron in, so that helped a lot. Closed it out well.

“You gotta give every shot your full attention because you know the next one can be just as hard,” added Williams, who has become friends with Potgieter after sharing a cottage with him this week. “I did a great job with that today. I took it one step at a time, didn’t really get ahead of myself and it worked out well.”

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