TournamentCentral
86th NCGA Junior Championship Spyglass Hill | July 6-7
BOYS: Fresh off his NCGA/CIF Northern California
High School Championship while playing for Bellar- mine, 16-year-old Eddie Lai opened with a 5-under 67 at Spyglass Hill and went wire-to-wire, finishing with a three-round total of 2-under 214. “I’m happy to be a part of the history,” said
Lai, who joins Ken Venturi and Johnny Miller among the list of champions. San Jose’s Lai took a two-stroke lead after
the first round, and extended it to five after 36 holes. He finished with 15 birdies in the three rounds, and played the par 3s at Spyglass in an impressive 5 under. Lai’s final round included back-to-back chip-ins on
Nos. 12 and 13, and a clinching birdie on No. 15, his fifth 2 of the tournament. “I kept focusing on my own game,” said Lai, who was
watched throughout by Oregon head coach Casey Mar- tin. “I made some mistakes down the stretch but it was a great learning experience.” Frenso’s Blake Hathcoat finished 1 over for the cham-
pionship, a stroke ahead of third-place finisher Shrish Dwivedi of Redwood City. In the Boys’ 14-15 division, Fremont’s Aaron Chen
shot 2-over 218 to beat co-runners-up Charles Osborne and Cameron Henry by eight strokes. In the Boys’ 10-13 division, Scout McNealy, the
younger brother of Stanford star Maverick, shot a two-round total of 7-over 151 to beat runner-up Ethan Chung by two GIRLS: Two-time defending JTNC Player of the Year
Sabria Iqbal showed what she was made of at the right time, making up a two-stroke deficit on Yale- bound Sydney Babiak to cap- ture her first NCGA Junior Championship.
Iqbal shot 75-72–147 to edge Babiak by a stroke. “I knew I had to play well
to catch Sydney,” Iqbal said. At last year’s champion-
ship, Iqbal shot 79-82 at Spyglass Hill. In 2013, she shot 164 over both rounds. “The course was in my
head,” Iqbal said. “It won’t be anymore.” Finishing third at just two
strokes back was 2013 champion and 2014 runner-up Samantha Hutchison, who heads to UC Davis this fall.
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NCGA.ORG / FALL 2015 Eddy Lai Sabrina Iqbal Jessica Luo
CWAC State Amateur Championship Quail Lodge | Aug. 4-8
Every day 15-year-old Jessica Luo survived meant her
family had to find a new hotel room. Six wins and four hotel rooms later, Luo won the CWAC State Amateur Championship. “There were a lot of hotel rooms and a lot of different beds. It was very hectic,” Luo said. “Thankfully, my mother and brother came down on Friday and brought me some different clothes.” Luo’s golf in the
final two matches was impressively steady, as she played her last 31
holes in 1 under. “It’s surreal and amazing,”
said San Jose’s Luo, who plays on the Junior Tour of Northern California. “It’s my first time playing in this event. When I saw the list of champions…it’s just incredible.”
Luo won the CWAC in her debut, joining a pres- tigious list of champions that includes current LPGA Tour members Mina Harigae and Natalie Gulbis, plus women’s golf legend Juli Inkster. Luo qualified as the No. 9 seed but was dominant
once match play began, knocking out No. 1 seed Alison Lillie in the quarterfinals, 5 and 3. Luo trailed just four holes in her six matches—all in the semifinals against Benicia’s Kathleen Scavo—but still won by closer than 3 and 2. Luo beat San Ramon’s
Yonnhee Kim 5 and 3 in the 18-hole finals to clinch the title. “This is the farthest I’ve
ever gone in this champion- ship,” said Kim, who’s verbally committed to UC Davis for 2016. “It’s a great field. I’m not upset with how I played.”
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