On February 23-24, the Peggy Kirk Bell Girls’ Golf Tour heads to Davidson, NC to play the River Run Girls Classic.
The home of the LPGA Symetra Tour Classic, River Run Country Club plays host its inaugural event on the tour. The club previously hosted the Web.com TOUR’s Chiquita Classic.
A Bell National exclusive event, the field features several of the top-ranked players on the PKBGT Performance Index. Competing at 5,800 yards, the field spans across six states throughout the eastern United States.
We take a closer look at the players to watch at the event!
Bell National
Headlining the 33 player Bell National field is University of Virginia commit Amanda Sambach (Davidson, NC 2021). Competing in her hometown of Davidson, Sambach is currently the top-ranked player on the PKBGT Performance index. In two PKBGT appearances this season, she finished third at the Tournament of Champions and second at the PKBGT Invitational. She looks to finish atop the leaderboard once again at the River Run Girls Classic.
Caroline Curtis (Richmond, VA 2019) enters the tournament ranked fifth on the PKBGT Performance Index. This will be the first event of the 2019 PKBGT season for Curtis, who will be joining the University of Alabama Women’s Golf Team next fall. She is coming off a 2018 season in which she won two events: The Carolina’s Classic at Carolina Trace CC and the Palmetto Classic at the University of South Carolina.
Ranked 13th on the PKBGT Performance Index coming into the tournament, Kayla Smith (Burlington, NC 2019) looks for her first finish on a PKBGT event this season. Smith’s 2018 was capped by a win at the Women’s Health Classic Junior Challenge Symetra Qualifier, earning a spot in the Symetra Tour’s Self Regional Healthcare Women’s Classic.
Tatum Walsh (Midlothian, VA 2021) looks to make a run toward the top of the leaderboard at River Run. She is currently ranked 30th on the PKBGT Performance Index and won the MAPGA Kingsmill Championship Junior Invitational in November. Walsh won four events on the Middle Atlantic Series last season.
Riding a win at the 2019 Orange Whip Classic into this event, Kallie Pavlish (Charlotte, NC 2020) makes her Bell National debut at River Run Country Club. Pavlish’s performance at the Walker Course at Clemson University was the top in her four-year PKBGT career. She looks to add to her resume with a strong performance at the River Run Girls Classic.
Final Thoughts
We wish all of our competitors the best of luck in the inaugural River Run Girls Classic! With several of the top-ranked players on the tour in attendance, the competition promises to be stiff on a challenging course shared by the likes of the LPGA’s Symetra Tour.
About the PKBGT
Founded in 2007 by the Triad Youth Golf Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization, as a local girls’ golf tour in the Triad region of North Carolina, the tour began as a simple concept: create more effective competitive playing opportunities for girls. By utilizing innovative yardage-based divisions instead of the traditional age-based format, the tour focused on developing tournament experience at the players’ pace. The 2019 season will feature over 90 tournaments in 9 states on the East Coast and with over 900 members, the PKBGT is the largest girl’s only tour in the country. Learn more about the PKBGT at http://www.pkbgt.org/.
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