PREVIEW: 14th Vicki DiSantis Girls' Championship

 

SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. (May 7, 2019) -- The Carolinas Golf Association will conduct the 14th Vicki DiSantis Girls' Championship from May 11-12, 2019 at Pine Island Country Club in Charlotte, N.C.

 

Related: Championship Website | Starting Times | Scoring | History

 

For the 12^th consecutive year, the Vicki DiSantis Girls’ Championship returns to Pine Island Country Club in Charlotte, N.C. All but one past champion has gone on to play 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), Kelli Murphy (Auburn), Madison Moosa (Furman), and Emily Cox (Southern Mississippi), Gina Kim (Duke) and Gracyn Burgess (Clemson).

 

Last year’s champion, Rachel Kuehn of Asheville, N.C. is a high school senior and will start her freshman year at Wake Forest University in the fall of 2019. This year, we are guaranteed a first-time champion. Here are the top-ranked Carolinas junior girls to watch in this year’s field:

• Katherine Schuster of Kill Devil Hills, N.C. is currently ranked no. 3 in the Carolinas Junior Girls' rankings and is our 2018 Carolinas Junior Girls’ Player of the Year. In last year’s championship, Schuster show the low final round (69) to finish runner up. Also in 2018, Schuster won the national title in the girls 14-15 age group of the Drive, Chip, and Putt Championship, the Hope Valley Junior Invitational, the NCHSAA - Girls’ 1A/2A State Championship, the Carolinas Junior PGA Championship and the Peggy Kirk Bell Girls’ Golf Tour Orange Whip Classic. Most recently, Schuster played in the LPGA Tour Pure Silk Girls’ Junior Championship where she finished runner-up. Schuster is a member of the 2021 graduating class and has verbally committed to play college golf at Clemson University.
• Emily Dunlap of Greenville, S.C. is currently ranked no. 6 in the Carolinas Junior Girls’ rankings. Dunlap won the 2018 South Carolina Junior Match Play Championship at Rock Hill Country Club to claim her first CGA championship title. Also in 2018, Dunlap won the top individual honors at the AAAAA Upstate High School Championship. So far in 2019, she has three top-ten finishes including a second place finish at the Morgan Lucas Championship, a T10 at the Sea Pines Junior Heritage and sixth place at the Peggy Kirk Bell Tour’s Palmetto Classic. Dunlap is a member of the 2019 graduating class and will start her freshman year at College of Charleston in the fall of 2019.

• Alexis Sudjianto of Charlotte, N.C. is currently ranked no. 7 in the Carolinas Junior Girls’ rankings. Sudjianto’s sole CGA win came at the 2016 Carolinas Girls' 15 & Under Championship. Last year, she finished runner up in both the Carolinas Junior Girls’ Championship and North Carolina Junior Girls’ Championship. She finished tied for seventh in this event. Also in 2018, she was the CISAA conference champion and finished third at the NCISAA Division I state meet. Sudjianto is a member of the 2019 graduating class and will start her freshman year at Carnegie Mellon in the fall of 2019.

• Rachel Rich of Mount Pleasant, S.C. is currently ranked No. 9 in the Carolinas Junior Girls’ rankings. Rich is the reigning Women’s South Carolina Golf Association Junior Girls’ champion. Rich finished tied for fourth in this event last year. Rich led her high school team, Oceanside Collegiate, to the Class AAA State Title last year. Rich is a member of the 2020 graduating class.
• Maria Atwood of Holly Springs, N.C. is currently ranked No. 12 in the Carolinas Junior Girls’ rankings. Atwood won the 62^nd Carolinas Junior Girls’ Championship last June to claim her first CGA championship title. Since that win, Atwood has gone on to win twice on the Peggy Kirk Bell Girls’ Golf Tour at the Gate City Classic and the North Carolina Series Finale. Atwood is a member of the 2022 graduating class.

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.

The Vicki DiSantis Junior Girls' Championship is 36 holes of stroke play competition. Entry is open to any female amateur golfer ages 12 to 18, who has not started college, maintains a residence in North Carolina or South Carolina, is a member in good standing of a club which is a member of the Carolinas Golf Association (CGA) and has a current USGA Handicap Index® at a CGA member club that does not exceed 18.3.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:

Saturday, May 11
Round 1 – 18 holes stroke play (tee times begin at 12:30 p.m. off #1 and #10 tees)
Lunch immediately following play for players and spectators

Sunday, May 12
Round 2 – 18 holes stroke play (tee times begin at 8:00 a.m. off #1 and #10 tees)
Ice cream and awards immediately following play for players and spectators