Szentanai, Metzler set for PNGA Junior Boys’ final match; Conser and Otto to meet in PNGA Junior Girls’ final
Nampa, Idaho – The final matches are set for the 70th PNGA Junior Boys’ and 69th Junior Girls’ Amateur Championships, hosted this week at RedHawk Golf Course in Nampa, Idaho.
Aidan Szentanai from Boise, Idaho, will meet fellow Boisean Andy Metzler in the Junior Boys’ final, while Madeleine Conser of Portland, Ore., will face Tatum Otto from Bellevue, Wash., in the Junior Girls’ final.
The final matches for both championships will be contested over 36 holes on Friday, August 15. The Junior Boys’ final will tee off at 7:00 a.m., and the Junior Girls’ final will tee off at 7:40 a.m.
Championship Links:
Junior Boys’:
Junior Girls’:
Szentanai took control of his morning quarterfinal match against Lucas Williams (Seattle), going as high as a 4-up early and making the turn 3-up. Williams cut Szentanai’s lead to just 1-up entering the 18th hole, but Szentanai won the last hole to win the match 2-up. He then met Connor Holden in the semifinal, and came back from an early 1-down deficit to eventually best Holden
Szentanai won the 2024 Idaho Junior Amateur and finished second in that same championship this year.
As for Metzler, he maintained a steady offensive pace in the morning quarterfinal, slowly expanding a lead over Eden Kim (Coquitlam, B.C.) until the match was clinched, 4 & 3. Metzler then did battle with No. 2 seed Cade McVicker (West Linn, Ore.), and found himself 3-up over McVicker by the turn. McVicker got the match to just 1-up in Metzler’s favor after the 16th, but Metzler held on to win by that margin and secure a final match with Szentanai, at the golf course some 26 miles from both their hometowns.
Metzler has two top-10 finishes in AJGA events this year, at the AJGA Junior All-Star at College station and Future Legends Junior Championship.
Conser’s day began with a match against Nadalie Cannell (Hermiston, Ore.), where she won five of the opening six holes and had the match completed 5-up in her favor after 14 holes. Facing defending PNGA Junior Girls’ champion Amy Seung Hyun Lee in the semifinal, Conser went 1-down on the match’s opening hole, but eventually opened a 3-up lead that she never fully lost en route to a ticket-punch to the final match.
Conser is currently No. 218 in the Rolex AJGA Rankings and No. 800 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR). She won the Oregon Junior Amateur earlier this year.
Otto spent her quarterfinal morning in close competition with Ira Upadhyay, but the former eventually built a 3-up advantage and won the match, 2 & 1. A bout with Ella Wilson (Hayden, Idaho) was next, and Otto won two of the first three holes, made the turn 2-up, and expanded her lead all the way to a 5 & 4 win.
Otto is one week removed from a fourth-place finish at the WJGA State Championship and won the 2024 WJGA Joel Dahmen Invitational.
Both boys’ and girls’ championships began with 36 holes of stroke play qualifying (August 11-12) to determine seeding for the match play portion of the championships. For the Boys’ championship, 32 players advanced to match play; for the Girls’, 16 players advanced.
These championships are two of 11 major regional amateur championships for men, women, juniors, and seniors conducted annually by the PNGA throughout the Northwest.
