Northern Ohio Section dominates Singles Matches; and rolls to second straight Junior Ohio Cup title
By: Tim Rogers, NOPGA Media
COLUMBUS: Victories come in different ways.
Some arrive gift-wrapped, complete with a big red ribbon and a smiley face thanks in part to an opponents’ misadventures.
Others are achieved through exemplary performance, snatching victory from the jaws of possible defeat as they say.
Some are expected. Others are not. The levels of satisfaction are decidedly different yet equally as joyous.
No one was quite sure what to expect prior to the start of the second Junior Ohio Cup.
No one, however, expected what transpired on Sunday during the 16 singles matches at the Columbus Country Club.
It was stunning. It was sterling. Above all, it was decisive and it was impressive.
For the second year in a row the kids from the Northern Ohio Section of the PGA defeated their counterparts from the SOPGA, 16-8, with a performance that bordered on the magical.
The NOPGA won 10 of the 16 matches. It tied in four others and lost two. The boys went 6-0-2. The girls went 4-2-2.
The day began with the teams tied at 4-4 following Saturday’s eight Fourball matches.
Team Captain Drew Pierson and assistant Jimmy Beers felt it would take a total team effort to win. A total team effort is what they got.
“Today certainly far exceeded any of our expectations,” said Pierson, who becomes the first person to have his named inscribed on both the Ohio Cup trophy and their Junior Ohio Cup trophy. “The SOPGA team played some great golf today. We just played a lot better.”
Winning for the boys were Aryan Ahlawat (Broadview Heights), Jackson Sommer (Westlake), Dexter James (Hudson), Fitch Farina (North Ridgeville), Craig Carneval (Avon) and Daniel Gambone (North Canton).
Ahlawat, the NOPGA 2024 Player-of-the-Year, Sommer and Carneval won both their matches with Ahlawat teaming with Silas Kirkpatrick and Sommer and Carneval adding Fourball victories as well as their singles matches.
Kirkpatrick (Clinton) and Jacob Rainieri (Mogadore) tied their singles matches Raineri, grandson of long-time NOPGA member and course owner John Rainieri, earned his tie by winning the last two holes — and three of the last four –against Lucas Massa.
Kirkpatrick, who answered a last-minute SOS to join the team on Friday when another player withdrew, won the last hole thanks to a daring driver-off-the-deck second shot that led to a birdie on the 542-yard closing hole against Jack Hutcheson.
“I was one-down so why not?” Kirkpatrick said to Beers as they walked up the 18th fairway.
“He had nothing to lose and everything to gain,” said Beers. “You gotta hand it to him.”
Emerson Glending (Avon), Ellie Gonzalez-Ribble (Brunswick), Annelise Stencel (Akron) and Serena Wu (Solon) all won their matches, with Glending and Stencel producing two points each.
Julia Van Bokkelen (Hudson) and Gracyn Vidovic (Aurora) halved their matches, with Van Bokkelen winning her last three holes with pars to erase what had been a 3-down deficit with three holes to play.
And how about Vidovic, who, like Kirkpatrick, answered a distress call Sunday morning from Junior Golf Coordinator Haleigh Gray to replace Gianna Reginelli, who woke up with a fever and was forced to withdraw.
Vidovic, who earned two points in last year’s victory but wasn’t on this year’s team, had come to watch on Saturday but planned on watching the Ashland University women’s team playing in a tournament on Sunday in nearby Springfield.
“I was having breakfast at Bob Evans when Haleigh called,” said Vidovic, who halved a back-and-forth match with Katelyn Miley with a par on the final hole to Miley’s double. “I didn’t get to finish eating.”
Not only that, she used Reginelli’s clubs, bag, and team uniform.
“Almost unheard of,” said Pierson.
Ahlawat played his final six holes in one-under in defeating Jakob Allen, 2-and-1. The match was tied through 14 holes but Ahlawat made four straight pars against a pair of bogeys to win.
Sommer won five straight holes starting with birdies on the eighth and 10th to beat Casey Colton, 4-and-3.
James, the youngest player on the roster, was 3-down after four holes to Israel Coblentz but won 10 of the next 12 holes enroute to a 4-and-2 win. The 15-year-old had seven birdies – including three in row on 13, 14 and 15 and another on the final – to win.
Farina took advantage of some loose play by Aidan Fischer, was 5-up through 10 and coasted to a 5-and-4 victory.
Carneval was tied with Braylon Haney through nine holes but birdied four of the first five holes on the back and closed out a 5-and-4 win.
Gambone, playing in his second Junior Cup, held a 1-up lead over Peyton Lawley and took control with a par on the 12th and a birdie on the 13th to go 3-up. He closed out a 3-and-2 win on the 16th.
Glending took the lead on the third hole against Cadence Monroe-McCoy and never trailed enroute to a 4-and-3 victory. Gonzalez-Ribble birdied two of the last five holes on the front to go 3-up against Aubrey Arnold and finished with six pars through seven holes on the back.
Stencel, winner of four points over the last two years, was 4-up after six holes against Grace Boone and was never challenged on the way to a 5-and-4 victory.
Wu, also making her second Cup appearance, benefitted from some unfortunate play by Caroline Zeiger and led 3-up after a birdie on the par-3 13th and parred three of the next four holes for a 2-and-1 victory.
The Junior Ohio Cup returns to the north in 2025 at a site yet to be named. As far as 2024 was concerned the south worked out just fine.
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