Quarterfinals set at PNGA Junior Boys’ and Girls’ Amateur Championships
Pendleton, Ore. – The quarterfinal matchups are set at the 67th PNGA Junior Boys’ and 66th Junior Girls’ Amateur Championships, taking place this week at Wildhorse Golf Course in Pendleton, Ore.
Matches in the Boys’ rounds of 32 and 16, and matches in the Girls’ round of 16 were contested today as the region’s top junior players continue to battle it out in match play.
Championship Links:
Junior Boys’:
Junior Girls’:
No. 1 seed in the Boys’ championship, Max Herendeen of Bellevue, Wash., easily dispatched both of his opponents in today’s first day of match play, only losing one hole across both of his matches. He won his morning match 6&5 over Forrest Van Alstine of Vancouver, B.C. and in this afternoon’s Round of 16, he tallied another 6&5 win over Charlie Derrheim of Delta, B.C.
The 17-year-old Herendeen has had an outstanding summer on the golf course. In May he won the WIAA 3A Boys High-School State Championship, in June he finished in second at the Washington Men’s Amateur, he qualified for and played in the U.S. Junior Amateur in July, and just last week he won the Boys Junior PGA Championship.
Junior Boys’ quarterfinal matchups:
- (1) Max Herendeen (Bellevue, Wash.) vs (9) Will Koch (Portland, Ore.)
- (13) Grady Millar (Vancouver, Wash.) vs (21) Jake Rodgers (Mulino, Ore.)
- (18) Ryan Vest (Vernon, B.C.) vs (23) Baylor Larrabee (Ferndale, Wash.)
- (14) Braxton McDonald (Coldstream, B.C.) vs (27) Trey LeCheminant (Yakima, Wash.)
In the Junior Girls’ championship, No. 1 seed Rebecca Kim dropped her match in the Round of 16 to No. 16 seed Lucia Morelli of Mercer Island, Wash. by a score of 5&4. Morelli, who earned the final spot in match play by winning a six-hole playoff, was too much to handle for Kim. She went 4-under in the 14 holes she played and she never saw a deficit in the match.
Morelli is a rising junior in high school and plays on the Mercer Island High School girls golf team. She finished in the top-20 in the 2022 WIAA 3A Girls High-School State Championship and helped lead the Mercer Island team to a 4th place finish.
Junior Girls’ quarterfinal matchups:
- (16) Lucia Morelli (Mercer Island, Wash.) vs (9) Jade Gruher (Camas, Wash.)
- (4) Jillian Breedlove (Pasco, Wash.) vs (12) Nicole Koong (Sammamish, Wash.)
- (2) June Hsiao (Coquitlam, B.C.) vs (7) Erin Lee (Langley, B.C.)
- (14) Jasmine Chen (Camas, Wash.) vs (6) Angela Park (Pasco, Wash.)
The two championships are being held concurrently August 15-19, and are being conducted by the Pacific Northwest Golf Association (PNGA). Both championships are considered as counting events for the World Amateur Golf Ranking, as well as AJGA Performance Based Entry.
Both championships consist of 36 holes of stroke play qualifying, to be held August 15-16, to determine seeding for the match play portion of the championships. For the Boys’ championship, 32 players will advance to match play; and for the Girls’, 16 players will advance.
All matches will be contested over 18 holes in a single-elimination format, with the exception of the two final matches, which will both be played over 36 holes on Friday, August 19.
