PNGA Junior Girls’ Player of the Year Ellie Slama earns 2017 OJG Player of the Year honors
WOODBURN, ORE. – Craig Ronne (Klamath Falls, Ore.) and Ellie Slama (Salem, Ore.) have been named the 2017 Oregon Junior Golf Players of the Year, announced this past weekend by Oregon Junior Golf and the Oregon Golf Association.
The announcement was made at the 2017 Oregon Junior Golf Tournament of Major Champions, held Saturday, Sept. 16th at Aspen Lakes Golf Course in Sisters, Ore.
Slama was twice named the PNGA Junior Girls’ Player of the Year, in 2015 and 2016.
This is the third-consecutive year that Slama, 18, has earned the honor. Her illustrious OJG career came to a close this summer, but not before she won the two biggest events of the summer – the 2017 Oregon Junior Amateur Championship and the 2017 Oregon Junior Stroke Play Championship. Slama also won this year’s Peter Jacobsen Junior, and represented Oregon and Oregon Junior Golf at the 2017 Girls Junior Americas Cup in July.
Regionally, Slama tied for first at the 2017 Girls Junior PGA Championship, earning a T30 finish at the national championship later in the summer.
In total, Slama is a two-time winner of the Oregon Junior Amateur and Oregon Junior Stroke Play Championship, as well as a two-time (2016, 2017) state champion at South Salem High School. She is currently playing collegiate golf at Oregon State University, competing in her first event just this week.
Congrats to Ellie Slama for winning Girls Oregon Junior Golfer of the year! What an impressive junior golf career #OregonJuniorGolf pic.twitter.com/w8vEu4wEh0
— Oregon Junior Golf (@oregonjrgolf) September 18, 2017
Ronne, 17, had an outstanding OJG season before beginning his senior year at Klamath Union High School. As with Slama, Ronne won both the Oregon Junior Amateur title and Oregon Junior Stroke Play Championship this year. He also won the Peter Jacobsen Junior Challenge, and finished second at this year’s Centennial Junior, falling in a playoff for the title.
Ronne also represented OJG and Oregon at both this year’s Hogan Cup and the Junior Americas Cup. He finished T12 individually at this year’s Hogan Cup Team Matches, and earned a T20 finish at the Junior America’s Cup. Ronne also finished T12 at the 2017 IMG Academy Junior World Championships.
This is Ronne’s first OJG Player of the Year honor. He is committed to play for the University of Oregon beginning in 2018.
