Players to Watch at DiSantis Girls'

Czarnecki, Chang, Cox, Kim and Sumner top the list of players to watch in CGA Vicki DiSantis Girls' Championship

The Carolinas Golf Association’s girls’ championship season gets started for 2016 with the 11th Vicki DiSantis Girls’ Championship on May 7-8, 2016 at Pine Island Country Club in Charlotte, NC. 

 

This year marks the ninth consecutive year the tournament has been hosted by Pine Island CC.  All but one past champion has played Division I college golf, including: two-time champion Austin Ernst (LSU), Amber Littman (East Carolina), Megan Moore (East Carolina), Katherine Perry (North Carolina), Chelsey Couch (South Carolina) and Kelli Murphy (Auburn).  2013 champion Madison Moosa and 2014 champion Emily Cox are still in high school, but will certainly continue the trend of past champions playing college golf at the highest level.

 

Inspired by a rolling piece of farmland in the mid-1960s, golf course architect Charles M. Mahannah created Pine Island CC’s course so that every golfer would enjoy the design.  With the latest renovation direction by golf course architect Michael Gleason of Pinehurst, N.C. the course is one of the finest USGA-regulated courses in the region. Dramatic, architecturally sound and extremely innovative, this premier private course provides fun and challenging play for golfers of all ages and skill levels.

 

Here are 10 players to watch at this year Vicki DiSantis Girls’ Championship:

 

Ashley Czarnecki of Greenville, S.C.  Czarnecki, a high school senior, was named the 2015 Carolinas Junior Girls’ Player of the Year and won the 2015 Beth Daniels award as the SC Junior Girls’ Player of the Year.  In 2015 she won the SC Junior Girls’ Championship, the SC Junior Match Play Championship and the George Holliday Junior.  The 17-year-old has committed to play college golf at Wofford College.

 

Jennifer Chang of Cary, N.C.  Chang, a high school sophomore, was named the 2015 NC Junior Girls’ Player of the Year by the Tarheel Youth Golf Association (TYGA) and is currently ranked number one in NC by TYGA.  Over the past year, the 16-year-old has won the NCHSAA 4A state championship, CGA’s Jimmy Anderson Girls’ Invitational for the third straight year, the Carolinas-Georgia Junior, the NC Trusted Choice Big Girls’ Championship and finished tied for second in last year’s Vicki DiSantis Girls’ Championship.

 

Emily Cox of Lancaster, S.C.  Cox, a high school junior, is the Vicki DiSantis Girls’ defending champion after winning her first CGA championship in last year’s tournament.  Last summer, Cox also won the SCJGA Blade Junior and reached match play in the U.S. Junior Girls Amateur.  Cox is currently ranked #4 in SC.

 

Gina Kim of Chapel Hill, N.C.  Kim, a high school sophomore, won the 2015 NCHSAA 3A state championship and finished tied for ninth in the U.S. Junior Girls’ Amateur.  The 16-year-old is currently ranked #2 in NC.

 

Kathleen Sumner of Charleston, S.C.  Sumner, a high school junior, had a great 2015, winning the CGA’s Twin States Girls’, SCHSAA 2A Championship, SCJGA’s Cheraw Fall Challenge and Players’ Championship.  Sumner is currently ranked #3 by the SCJGA.

 

Callista Rice of Mars Hill, N.C.  Rice a high school junior, won the 2015 Dogwood State Junior for the second straight year and was named first team All-State by TYGA.  The 16-year-old won last month’s PKBGT Masters at Cutter Creek GC and is currently ranked #7 by TYGA.

 

Gracyn Burgess of Lexington, S.C.  Burgess, a high school sophomore, won the SCJGA Ford-Picard Christmas Classic and finished in second place in the Sea Pines Junior Heritage and WSCGA SC Junior Girls’ Championship.  Burgess is currently ranked #2 on the SCJGA junior rankings.

 

Sarah Spicer of Bahama, N.C.  Spicer, a high school senior, won the 2015 NC Women’s Amateur along with top five finishes in the CGA’s Carolinas Girls’ Championship and the Dogwood State Junior.  Spicer has committed to play college golf at Virginia Tech.

 

Victoria Huskey of Greenville, S.C.  Huskey, a high school senior, won the 2015 SCHSAA 3A State Championship and the CPGA Carolinas Junior along with second place finishes in the Blade Junior, Beth Daniels Junior Azalea, the Jimmy Self Junior, the Orangejacket Junior and the Cheraw Fall Challenge.  The 18-year-old will play college golf at College of Charleston this coming fall.

 

Siranon Shoomee of Sanford, N.C.  Shoomee, a high school senior, won the 2015 Joe Cheves Junior Invitational, finished in second place in the NCHSAA 2A state championship and competed in last summer’s U.S. Junior Girls’ Amateur.  The 18-year-old is ranked #5 in NC and has committed to play college golf at East Carolina. 

 

Others to watch at the Vicki DiSantis are Rachel Kuehn of Asheville, N.C., Jessica Spicer of Bahama, N.C., Jodee Tindall of Rock Hill, S.C., Jensen Castle of West Columbia, S.C., Kathryn Carson of Mooresville, N.C., Haeley Wotnosky of Wake Forest, N.C., Samantha Vodry of Mooresville, N.C., Hailey Cleary of Lexington, S.C., Moon Cheong of Charlotte, N.C., Carly Burkhardt of Greenville, S.C., and Kendall Dobbins of Summerfield, N.C.