VERO BEACH — The Inaugural PGA Junior League Golf National Championship was a huge success with Team California taking top honors in the two-day event featuring a match play round-robin tournament format of play. Co-ed teams (ages 13 & under) included the West Division represented by California, Texas and Illinois with New Jersey, Georgia and Florida representing the East Division.
Team Florida included Christopher Lee, Jasmine Ferguson and Nicholas Estrada of The First Tee of the Palm Beaches, Michael Checo, Matthew Glenn, Dylan Glatt and Justin Cao of Boca Raton, Griffin Thompson, Sarah Noonan and Corey Stepanek of the IRGF Players Club.
Rusty Bacigalupi (Boca Raton) served as Team Captain with Roger Van Dyke and Anthony Donadio (IRGF Players Club) serving as Teach Coaches.
The Opening Ceremony included a Welcome Reception/Dinner, team pictures and team gifts was hosted at Medinah Country Club, host of the 2012 Ryder Cup Matches to be played later this month. Representatives from each team participated in a Golf Skills Challenge at Medinah including driving, pitch shots and putting. Team Florida finished in 2nd place in the Skills Competition.
Each of three competitions features four 2-person teams playing 9-hole matches with four opposing 2-person teams in a Scramble Format of play. Points are awarded to the winning team of each 3-hole sequence (called FLAGS). Each 9-hole competition includes 3 FLAGS……with a possible 3 points.
A very strong Team California finished 3-0 beating Texas 10 1/2 to 1/ 1/2 and Illinois 10 to 2 on Saturday…….and defeated Team Georgia in the finals 8 1/2 to 3 1/2 on Sunday.
Team Florida lost to Team Georgia in the opening match 8 1/2 to 3 1/2 with Georgia finishing at 17 under par with Florida at 6 under par. The #1 team from Team Georgia carded a 7 under par 29.
In the closest match of the National Championship Team Texas etched out a victory against Team Florida 7 to 5 in spite of Team Florida shooting 9 under par and Team Texas 7 under par…..due to the match play format.
Griffin Thompson and Sarah Noonan, members of the IRGF Players Club (Team Florida) were undefeated in the Regional Tournament in Ocala and the National Championship at Cog Hill. Corey Stepanek teamed up in the National Championship with Justin Cao of Boca Raton to win 2 matches, lose 1 match and tie 2 matches.
For additional information about the 2013 PGA Junior League Golf season and the IRGF Players Club, contact
Roger Van Dyke, president, IRGF at (772) 713-9593 or Anthony Donadio, IRGF program coordinator at (772) 766-1146.
