Rose Zhang of Irvine wrapped up the 2019 Rolex Junior Player of the Year award by winning Girls Division of the American Junior Golf Association’s 42nd Rolex Tournament of Champions by nine strokes over Sadie Englemann of Austin, Texas, at PGA National Resort and Spa www.pgaresort.com in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
Kelly Chinn of Great Falls, Va., won the Boys Division by four strokes over Karl Vilips of Australia.
Zhang (pictured, left), a junior at Pacific Academy, became the ninth player to win the Girls Division of the Rolex TOC and earn the Rolex Junior Player of the Year Award in the same year, joining the likes of Jenny Lidback (1981), Heather Farr (1982), Grace Park (1996), Alison Lee (2013) and Andrea Lee (2014).
A four-time Rolex Junior All-American who is No. 1 in the Rolex AJGA Rankings and has committed to Stanford, Zhang posted a score of 71-67-69-68—275, 13-under-par, while playing on the Champions Course in the first and third rounds and the Fazio course in the second and fourth.
Engleman, who also has committed to Stanford, finished at 74-71-73-68—286, and Annabell Fuller of England was third at 73-74-72-68—287.
Zoe Antoinette Campos of Valencia shot 73-75-69-71—288 to tie for fourth with Lucie Malchirand of France, who totaled 73-72-72-71—288, Alex Plano of Lake Worth, Fla., who finished at 77-71-72-68—288, and Bohyun Park of South Korea at 75-74-71-68—288.
Catherine Park of Irvine was eighth at 75-71-73-71—290, followed by Brooke Rivers of Canada at 71-76-71-73—291, while Amari Avery of Riverside shot 78-72-70-72—292 to tie for 10th with Amanda Sambach of Davidson, N.C., who came in at 75-71-72-74—292.
Chinn (pictured, right) took the Boys title at 65-71-67-71—274, followed by Vilips at 67-68-71-72—278, while Tucker Clark of Phoenix totaled 71-72-71-67—281 to tie for third with Aaron Du of China, who finished at 68-73-70-70—281, and Benjamin James of Milford, Conn., who finished at 70-71-69-71—281.
Ian Maspat of San Diego was the leading Californian in the Boys Division field in a tie for 13th at 71-73-70-73—287.
Past winners of the Rolex Tournament of Champions include Phil Mickelson, David Duval, Charles Howell, David Gossett, Webb Simpson, Sam Burns, Heather Farr, Kellee Booth, Inbee Park, Morgan Pressel and Alison Lee.
For complete results, visit https://www.ajga.org/tournaments/2019/rolex-tournament-of-champions/leaderboard
