Rising Stars Shine Bright at U.S. Girls’ Junior Quarterfinals
Las Vegas - The eight players who emerged from a week of testing matches at Atlanta Athletic Club have brought plenty of pedigree, poise and promise to the U.S. Girls’ Junior quarterfinal stage. Each, in their own way, has demonstrated the ability to seize the moment in Johns Creek.
Grace Carter, the 15-year-old from Jupiter, Florida, has been the week’s headline act so far. Playing in her first U.S. Girls’ Junior, she led stroke play with a sparkling 6-under total of 136 — the youngest medalist since Lucy Li in 2018. “I never imagined I’d be top seed in my debut,” she said after surviving a tense final hole in her Round of 16 match against Clairey Lin, which she edged 1 up. Carter, the reigning women’s club champion at Jonathan’s Landing and winner of back-to-back AJGA events earlier this year, has looked every bit the player to beat.
Xingtong Chen, 16, of Singapore, has been equally impressive. Also making her championship debut, the WAGR No. 291 showed the class that has already earned her starts in the HSBC Women’s World Championship. After dispatching Mia Clausen in the last 16, 3 and 2, she spoke of how her back-to-back Singapore Junior titles and victory in the Singapore Open Amateur had prepared her for this week’s grind.
Canada’s Aphrodite Deng, the most accomplished player in the field on paper, arrived as one of the favourites and has navigated a tricky path. Ranked 36th in the world and a winner of prestigious events such as the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley and Mizuho Americas Open this season, the 15-year-old edged Yujie Liu in 19 holes to keep her hopes alive. “You just have to keep believing, no matter how much the match swings,” Deng said.
Two other players have impressed with their resilience. Rayee Feng, 17, from Short Hills, New Jersey, made the cut at this year’s U.S. Women’s Open and has drawn on that experience to see off Anita Lumpongpoung 2 up in the Round of 16. Meanwhile, Chloe Kovelesky, 18, a Wake Forest sophomore and member of last year’s U.S. National Junior Team, battled through marathon matches — winning on the 22nd hole against Anna Fang — to underline her grit.
Katelyn Kong, 18, of Los Angeles, has also caught attention with her calm demeanour, even as one of the lowest-ranked players left standing. Kong, who made her USGA debut at the U.S. Women’s Open as a qualifier medalist, is showing the kind of form that earned her All-Big West honours at UC Irvine. She needed just 17 holes to dispatch Music Ponmani in her last match.
Emerie Schartz and Shyla Singh complete the line-up of quarterfinalists, both making deep runs as high seeds fell around them. Schartz, 17, from Kansas, playing with her younger sister on the bag, continues to show the competitive spirit that brought her two state titles, while Singh, 17, of Australia, playing left-handed and signed to Oregon, routed Rachel Lee 5 and 4 in one of the most emphatic wins of the day.
As play resumes, each of these eight has a shot at history. The U.S. Girls’ Junior has long been a proving ground for future champions. This year’s quarterfinalists are already proving they belong in that conversation.