Playoff Drama Highlights the Finishes of the NOPGA Junior Section Championships

ALLIANCE: What is championship golf without a playoff or two? Or five?

The boys and girls turned most of the final day of the NOPGA’s Junior Section Championships into more extended time than you’d find in your basic international soccer game.

It took five playoffs to determine one winner, two runnersup and the eventual 10 players who will serve as alternates to the national PGA Junior Championships to be played at famed Congressional Country Club later this summer.

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The top two boys and girls from Section championships across the country earned the trip to Congressional, but five alternates were determined by each Section as well.

You want parity? Look had to look no further than the Junior Section Championships, which concluded on Tuesday at hilly – and sometimes very windy – Alliance Country Club. At the end of regulation play, there were 12 players tied for the 12 available spots, either as qualifiers or alternates.

While the official summer solstice – the longest day of the year – was last week, Tuesday at Alliance felt like the second-longest day of the year. The day that started at 7:30 a.m. did not end until a little after 8 p.m.

Rocky River’s Julian Dugan and Westlake’s Cara Heisterkamp staged final-round rallies to win respective championships while Akron’s Ryan Dinan and Solon’s Serena Wu finished as respective runners-up.

Dugan started the day three shots out of the lead while Heisterkamp was even further behind, five shots in arrears.

Dugan, a recent St. Ignatius graduate headed to Purdue University-Fort Wayne, posted the only lights out victory, winning by five shots with a final-round rally worthy Paul Lawrie in the 1999 Open Championship at Carnoustie (thank you Jean Van de Velde).

Dugan was the only player in the field of 96 boys to break par on Tuesday, with a one-under 69 to go with his opening 72 for a 36-hole score of one-over 141. The next-best final 18 by those in contention was 75, suggesting the field faded around him.

Dugan credited his victory to an attitude adjustment, something he said he has been working on for some time.

“Sometimes I would have a temper tantrum and act like an idiot,” he said. “But I have worked on the mental part of the game, staying calm and just playing. That has helped.”

Dugan had nines of 34-35. After an opening 3-putt bogey he played his next eight holes in 2-under as the winds swirled around ACC’s 6,411 yards. He had two bogeys on the back but answered both with birdies on the next hole.

Meanwhile, no one was able to mount a charge or keep pace and he cruised home.

“I am not a scoreboard watcher,” he said. “I don’t like knowing what is going on. I just want to play golf. I had no idea how big a lead I had until very late. I wasn’t comfortable until the final hole.”

It wasn’t as stress-free for Heisterkamp (74-74), who rallied from a shaky start to either own or share the lead by playing her final 13 holes in even par.

Wu, the first-round leader, also struggled out of the gate and made the turn in 43. The reigning NOPGA Player-of-the-Year in the 11-15 age group eventually righted the ship and played the back nine in one-over 36.

Heisterkamp (74-74) and Wu (69-79) staged a back-and-forth, tug-of-war all day and tied at eight-over 148 as the lead changed hands throughout regulation play.
Heisterkamp, who will attend Indiana University in August after helping Magnificat to a runnerup finish in last fall’s Division I state tournament and a whirlwind summer, did not let her day-long rally go to waste. She prevailed on the first extra hole with a par to Wu’s bogey.

“At the beginning of the day I wrote down ‘fight’ and that’s what I was going to do, fight all day long,” she said. “I wanted to stay positive and not let any negative thoughts get in my head.”

Wu had a one-shot lead through 14 holes but double-bogeyed the par-3 15th hole to fall one behind as Heisterkamp made her eighth par in a 10-hole stretch to take a one-shot lead.
She had a chance to pad her lead but missed a short putt on the 17th and three-putted for bogey to Wu’s par on the par-3 final hole to force the playoff.
Undaunted, Heisterkamp took control on the first extra hole, the 186-yard 10th. After Wu landed her tee shot in the green-side bunker on the left, Heisterkamp faded a choked-down 8-iron to about five feet and two-putted for par to win.

Extra holes were required to determine the runnerup spot behind Dugan as Dinan (71-75) and North Benton’s James Morgan (72-74=146) tied for second.
Dinan, who will attend Cleveland State in the fall, earned the trip to Maryland with a birdie on the first playoff hole when he rolled in a 10-foot putt from below – where else at Alliance? – the hole. That left Morgan as the first alternate.

A playoff was necessary to determine the final four alternate spots.

Hudson’s Sam Fauver (70-77=147) earned the second spot by defeating first-round leader Mick Ambrose (69-78=147), from Canfield. Westlake’s Patrick Myers (75-73=148) clinched the fourth spot with a solo sixth place finish and Canton’s Eddie Karam I76-73=149) was awarded the final spot when Akron’s Braden Herstich (77-72=149) decided not to participate in a playoff.

To sum it up, Dugan and Dinan are off to Bethesda (July 30-Aug. 2) while Morgan, Fauver, Ambrose Myers and Karam – in order — wait for either Dugan or Dinan to elect not to play.
The drama was more intense on the girls side where Heisterkamp and Wu, who is a junior at Solon High, staged a back-and-forth tug-of-war all day.

Wu had a one-shot lead through 14 holes but double-bogeyed the par-3 15th hole to fall one behind. Heisterkamp had a chance to pad her lead but missed a short putt on the 17th and three-putted for bogey to Wu’s par on the par-3 final hole to force the playoff.

Undaunted, Heisterkamp took control on the first extra hole, the 186-yard 10th. After Wu landed her tee shot in the green-side bunker on the left, Heisterkamp faded a choked-down 8-iron to about five feet and two-putted for par to win.

Aurora’s Brooklyn Mallard (79-72=151) finished a solo third for the first alternate spot but playoffs were required to determine the remaining four spots. In order they are Akron’s Annelise Stencel (77-77=154), Fairview Park’s Kayla Knaze (78-76-154), Aurora’s Gracyn Vidovic (79-76=155) and Kent’s Madolyn Kost (80-75=155).

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