Top Players to Watch at NC Jr. Girls'

SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. (June 7, 2016) -- The 20^th North Carolina Junior Girls’ Championship will be played on June 14-17 at the Country Club of Salisbury in Salisbury.

The golf course at Country Club of Salisbury is a Donald Ross design that has previously hosted 19 Carolinas Golf Association (CGA) championships dating back to 1951 along with many other prestigious amateur and professional events. After hosting the NC Junior Boys' for the first time last year, this will be the first time the club has held the NC Junior Girls' Championship.
 

Each year junior girls from across North Carolina compete in this match play tournament to try and win their state title. Some past champions include Michelle Jarman, Amber Littman, Haley Hammond, Katherine Perry, Sarah Bae, Lucia Polo and Grace Yatawara. The champion will be invited to represent the CGA in the Mid-Atlantic Girls’ Challenge matches at Williamsburg GC in Williamsburg, VA on July 30-31.

Defending champion Grace Massengill of Hickory enters the 20^th NC Junior Girls’ Championship ranked #25 by the Tarheel Youth Golf Association (TYGA). Massengill is looking forward to playing at the Country Club of Salisbury as the defending champion. “I am excited to play in this tournament again. I love match play and I love the golf course.”

While there are added pressures that come with being the defending champion, Massengill is up for the challenge. “I am going to play like I normally do. There is some pressure being defending champ but I feel confident about my game.” Massengill, a high school senior, is a two-time CGA winner (2013 Carolinas Junior Girls' 15 & Under). She will be attending Wofford this fall to play college golf.

49 players are expected to compete at CC of Salisbury. Here are other top-ranked players to watch at this year’s North Carolina Junior Girls’ Championship:

• Haeley Wotnosky of Wake Forest. Wotnosky, a high school sophomore, is the highest ranked player in the field by TYGA at #4. Wotnosky recently finished second at the Peggy Kirk Bell Tour’s Metrolina Classic and ninth at the Vicki DiSantis Girls’ Championship. Wotnosky’s 2015 campaign included two runner up finishes and seven top five finishes. Wotnosky is also a member of the 2015 N.C. Girls’ All-State First Team.

• Callista Rice of Mars Hill. Rice, a high school junior, was recently runner up at the 2016 Vicki DiSantis. Rice is also a back-to-back winner of the 2015 Dogwood State Junior. Rice was named First Team All-State by TYGA and is currently ranked #6. The 16-year-old recently shot 68 en route to a 2nd place finish at the Peggy Kirk Bell Open that was also hosted by the Country Club of Salisbury. Rice has one victory in 2016 under her belt and is committed to play college golf at Clemson.

• Kathryn Carson of Mooresville. Carson, a high school junior, recently won the Peggy Kirk Bell Open at the Country Club of Salisbury with rounds of 75-72-73. Carson has recorded four top-10 finishes in her first five starts in 2016. She was also the runner up for the NCHSAA Girls’ 4A State Championship last fall. Carson is currently ranked #8 by TYGA.

• Riley Smyth of Cary. Smyth, a high school sophomore, has recorded two second place finishes in 2016 on the PKB Girls’ Golf Tour. Smyth won the 2015 PKB Girls’ Golf Tour Chanticleer Classic and finished T3 at the 2015 CGA Twin States Junior Girls'. Smyth’s 2015 campaign also included eight top-10 finishes. She is a member of the 2015 N.C. Girls’ All-State Second Team and is ranked #11 by TYGA.

• Emily Hawkins of Lexington. Hawkins, a high school sophomore, has recorded six top-five finishes in her first seven starts in 2016, including three runner-up finishes. Hawkins won four times on the PKB Girls’ Golf Tour in 2015 and is a member of the 2015 N.C. Girls’ All-State Second Team Golf. She is ranked #12 by TYGA.

• Rachel Kuehn of Asheville. Kuehn, a high school freshman, has had a successful 2016 season thus far, winning the PKB Girls’ Golf Tour Tiger Classic and placing sixth or better in four of her six starts in 2016. Kuehn won six times in 2015 and recorded an impressive one-under-par 71 to win the Phil Wallace Holiday Junior last December. Kuehn placed ninth at the Carolina Junior Girls Championship last summer and is a member of the 2015 N.C. Girls’ All-State Second Team. Kuehn is currently ranked #13 by TYGA.

• Taylor Hinson of Belmont. Hinson, a high school junior, has recorded three top-10 finishes in her first four starts in 2016. Hinson is currently ranked #16 by TYGA.

• Natalie Peterson of Holly Springs. Peterson, a high school junior, has already secured two wins in 2016 in the Optimist Greg Norman Golf Academy Open and the TYGA Pinewild Junior Shootout. Peterson also won the 2015 High Point Junior Open. Peterson’s resume includes 13 top-10 finishes in 2015. She is a member of the 2015 N.C. Girls’ All-State Second Team Golf. Peterson is ranked #17 by TYGA and is committed to play college golf at Georgia Southern.

• Keri Kenkel of Charlotte. Kenkel, a high school junior, has had a successful start to 2016, finishing third at the PKB Girls’ Golf Tour Palmetto Classic in March. Kenkel recorded three wins and seven top-10 finishes in 2015, including a fifth place finish at the Charles Tilghman CPGA Junior Championship in December, shooting two consecutive rounds of 75. Kenkel is ranked #19 by TYGA.

• Samantha Vodry of Mooresville. Vodry, a high school junior, recently finished T-8 at the Peggy Kirk Bell Palmetto Classic. Her 2015 resume includes an impressive T-3 finish at the N.C. Junior Girls’ Championship last summer. Vodry is currently ranked #23 by TYGA.

• Hailey Freedman of Chapel Hill. Freedman, a high school sophomore, reached the semi-finals last year. She had a solid performance at the 2016 Myrtle Beach National Junior Shootout shooting rounds of 74-72 to finish fourth. Freedman finished sixth at the NCHSAA Girls’ 4A State Championship and had four top-five finishes in 2015. Ranked #24.

• Grace Yatawara of Salisbury. Yatawara, a high school senior, N.C. won this championship in 2014. She is the back-to-back NCHSAA Girls’ 1A/2A State champion. Yatawara finished fifth at the 2015 Joe Cheves Junior Invitational and fifth at the Carolinas Junior Girls Championship. A member of the 2015 Second Team N.C. Girls’ All-State Golf Team, she will attend East Carolina University in the Fall. Ranked #26 by TYGA.
   

Related: Starting Times | Hole-by-hole Scoring | History

Full Field of Players

Adam, Nicole, Pinehurst, NC	Kenkel, Keri, Charlotte, NC
Battle, Mackenzie, Aberdeen, NC	Ketchum, Morgan, Winston-Salem, NC
Bonifay, Anna, Pfafftown, NC	Kramer, Nicole, Charlotte, NC
Bowman, Bryson, Summerfield, NC	Kuehn, Rachel, Asheville, NC
Boyd, Erica, Charlotte, NC	Martin, Lauren, Mooresville, NC
Bruxvoort, Hannah Rose, Chapel Hill, NC	Massengill, Grace, Hickory, NC
Carson, Kathryn, Mooresville, NC	Mast, Rachael, Lexington, NC
Cox, Michaela, Greensboro, NC	McDonald, Anna, Hickory, NC
Cozart, Taylor, Taylorsville, NC	Melting, Parker, Mint Hill, NC
DeBusk, Samantha, Lexington, NC	Mirovich, Dannie, Mount PLeasant, NC
Fobes, Mallory, East Bend, NC	Nguyen, Elizabeth, Pinehurst, NC
Freedman, Hailey, Chapel Hill, NC	Petersen, Natalie, Holly Springs, NC
Gooch, Janie, Raleigh , NC	Rice, Callista, Mars Hill, NC
Hamilton, Riley, Reidsville, NC	Schuster, Katherine, Kill Devil Hills, NC
Harn, Michelle, Charlotte, NC	Sinclair, Ryann, Mooresville, NC
Harriman, Madison, High Point, NC	Smyth, Riley, Cary, NC
Hawkins, Emily, Lexington, NC	Tsiros, Ana, Asheville, NC
Hayes, Sasha, Winston Salem, NC	Uppal, Muskan, Cornelius, NC
Hensley, Channing, Wake Forest, NC	Vodry, Samantha, Mooresville, NC
Hinson, Taylor, Belmont, NC	White, Mary Slade, Winston Salem, NC
Hodges, Charleigh, Mooresville, NC	Williams, Shalie, Shawboro, NC
Holland, Sophie, Cornelius, NC	Williams, Taylor, Lincolnton, NC
Isaacson, Madison, Greensboro, NC	Wotnosky, Haeley, Wake Forest, NC
Jarrell, Alexis, Davidson, NC	Yatawara, Grace, Salisbury, NC
Joy, Hailey, Reidsville , NC

Scoring will be provided by the CGA throughout the championship, offering 9 and 18-hole updates. Live updates will also be available on the CGA’s official Twitter, @cgagolf1909 and @CarolinasJunior. Continue to visit the CGA website throughout this championship and all year long for complete championship coverage including scores, interviews, photos, and recaps.

Play begins on Tuesday, June 14 at 8:00 am. All competitors will play 36-holes of stroke play with the top 16 advancing to the championship flight for four rounds of match play. The Championship flight finals are scheduled for Friday morning, June 17th at 8:00 am.

Championship Schedule

Tuesday, June 14
7:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Player registration
8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. Round 1 stroke play qualifying
12:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Players’ lunch

Wednesday, June 15
8:00 a.m. - 9:20 a.m. Round 2 stroke play qualifying
11:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. Players’ lunch
2:00 p.m. - 2:49 p.m. Round 1 matches

Thursday, June 16
8:00 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. Quarter-finals matches
12:30 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. Semi-finals matches

Friday, June 17
8:00 a.m. Championship match

                                       

About the Carolinas Golf Association (CGA)

The CGA is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational organization that was founded in 1909 to promote and to protect the game of golf in the Carolinas by providing competitions, education, support and benefits to golf clubs and golfers. The CGA is the second largest golf association in the country with over 700 member clubs represented by nearly 150,000 individuals.

The CGA annually conducts 43 championships and five team match competitions for men, women, juniors, and seniors. It also runs over 140 One-Day (net and gross) events and qualifying for USGA national championships. The CGA serves golf in the Carolinas with numerous programs such as: the USGA Handicap System; tournament management software and support; course measuring and course/slope ratings; agronomy consultation; answers about the Rules of Golf, Rules of Amateur Status, and Handicapping; Carolinas Golf Magazine; Interclub series; Tarheel Youth Golf Association; Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame; expense assistance for USGA Junior and Girls' Junior qualifiers from the Carolinas; and the Carolinas Golf Foundation (CGF). The CGF has distributed more than $1,500,000 since 1977 to benefit Carolinas' golf initiatives including junior and women's programs.    

For more information about the CGA, visit our website.

 

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