Harlow and Zhao earn medalist honors as PNGA Junior Boys’ and Girls’ Championships turn to match play
Moscow, Idaho – Christian Harlow of Vancouver, Wash. shot rounds of 65-63 (-12) to earn medalist honors at the 71st PNGA Junior Boys’ Amateur, while Niuniu Zhao of Woodinville, Wash. shot rounds of 70-71 (-3) to earn medalist honors at the 70th PNGA Junior Girls’ Amateur Championship. Both championships are being held concurrently this week, August 10-14, at Vandal Golf Course in Moscow, Idaho.
This concludes the 36-hole stroke play portion of the championships to determine the seeding for their respective match-play brackets. For the Boys’ championship, 32 players advanced; for the Girls’, 16 advanced.
Championship Links:
Junior Boys’:
Junior Girls’:
Harlow’s 12-under par score was five strokes clear of second-place Moses Haddad (Lake Owego, Ore.). Harlow was one of three players to record an opening round of 65 Monday and maintained form Tuesday. He birdied four of his first eight holes in round 2, eventually going out in 31 as a result. In the absence of any bogeys, he carded three more birdies on the back nine to secure a clean and very low round of 63.
Harlow frequently plays in Oregon and earned a top-5 finish at the AJGA Adidas Junior All-Star at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in August 2025. On the Rocky Mountain Junior Tour that same year, he won the boys’ 14-18 division in The Southern Experience event.
Haddad will be the Boys’ second seed, followed by Andy Metzler (Boise, -6). Six players tied at 3-under.
In the Girls’ championship, Zhao was the only player to record both stroke play rounds under par. After opening with a 70 that included four birdies, Zhao returned on Tuesday’s morning wave and turned in only three pars on her opening nine holes. She extinguished the damage of a third-hole double bogey with birdies on holes 4, 6 and 7, but dropped two more shots with bogeys on 8 and 9 to make the turn in 38. Settling in, she birdied the 13th before carding another grinding stretch of birdie-bogey-birdie on holes 15-17. It totaled to a back side of 33 and total of 71, a 1-under round that secured her top seed for the match play portion.
Zhao is one of the Northwest’s best junior players. She has four total World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) contributing wins, including the 2026 Washington State Junior Amateur and 2025 WJGA State Championship. She is ranked No. 65 in the Rolex AJGA Ranking and won the 2025 K.J. Choi Foundation Seattle Junior Championship held in her hometown.
Behind Zhao, Amanda Peng (Bellevue, Wash., -1), Ira Upadhyay (Issaquah, Wash., +2), Riley Wilfong (Cle Elum, Wash., +3) and Finlay Nihei (Corona, Calif., +5) rounded out the top five seeds.
To be eligible for the PNGA Junior Boys’ and Girls’ Amateur Championships, contestants must not have reached their 19th birthday by midnight on August 14, 2026, and must have a Handicap Index or Factor not exceeding 8.4 for boys or 12.4 for girls. They must also be members in good standing of a PNGA Member Association (Alaska Golf Association, BC Golf, IGA, MSGA, OGA, WA Golf) or have received a Presidential Invitation.
The PNGA Junior Boys’ and Girls’ Amateur championships are two of 11 major, regional amateur championships for men, women, juniors and senior conducted annually by the PNGA throughout the Northwest.
