On Saturday-Sunday, July 27-28, the Peggy Kirk Bell Girls’ Golf Tour plays the 2019 PKBGT Wolfpack Classic at Lonnie Poole Golf Course in Raleigh, NC.
Before closing out the 2019 PKBGT National Series at Mrs. Bell’s home course, back-to-back classic events at Division I facilities will serve as a staunch challenge and preparation for the Tour Championship.
College courses comprised a bulk of the 2019 national schedule, sprinkled across the year. Early on, Georgia Southern University, Clemson University and the University of Georgia hosted the largest girls’ only tour in the nation. Furman University, UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Wilmington, East Carolina University and Coastal Carolina University each opened their fairways and greens to test the PKBGT’s top talent.
First up in the back-to-back: NC State’s Lonnie Poole Golf Course. Joining in on the Carolina fun, the tour settles into Raleigh for the weekend’s 2019 PKBGT Wolfpack Classic. Home course to the NC State Women’s Golf program and the NC State PGM program, Lonnie Poole will test the field of 64.
Players will compete in one of two divisions: Bell National at 5,831 yards and Futures National at 5,020 yards. With the field set, let’s take a look at the players to watch in next weekend’s PKBGT Wolfpack Classic!
Bell National
Leading the Bell National field into Raleigh, Alexia Siehl (Fort Mill, SC 2022) enters the event as the top ranked player on the PKBGT Performance Index. Siehl is ranked 27th and sits in eighth place on the Bell National Order of Merit. She has three top ten finishes on the year, highlighted by a T7 finish at the Carolina’s Classic. Look for Siehl to make a push toward her first top-five finish in Raleigh.
Settling in to the Bell Series, Prep Preview Order of Merit Champion Macy Pate (Boone, NC 2024) looks to climb the ladder in the Bell National Order of Merit. She is currently ranked 50th on the Bell Order of Merit and 57th on the Performance Index. Pate earned back-to-back top-five finishes at the Irish Creek Girls Classic and the Precision Girls’ Championship. Her first taste of Bell division success was a T7 finish at the Carolina’s Classic.
A taste of the course she’ll call home for the next four years, Ryann Sinclair (Mooresville, NC 2019) competes in the PKBGT event before joining the Wolfpack in the fall. An incoming freshman on the NC State Women’s Golf team, Sinclair enters the tournament ranked inside the top 100 of the Performance Index. She competed in the PKBGT Invitational and PKBGT Open Championship this season, and earned a T10 finish at the Last Chance Qualifier.
Along with Pate, McKenzie Daffin (Fayetteville, NC 2021) continues to grow in the Bell division. Daffin took the Futures National division by storm, winning the Coastal Carolina Classic and earning four other top ten finishes. Her first experience in the Bell division resulted in a 12th place finish at the Precision Girls’ Championship.
Futures National
Fresh off her third win of the 2019 season, Sophie Lauture (Raleigh, NC 2024) heads home to compete in her backyard. The Raleigh native tops the Futures National Order of Merit with a handful of events left to play. Lauture took championship trophies home at the RocketTour Players Championship, the PKBGT Masters and the Precision Girls’ Championship. She possesses six top-five finishes along with her victories.
Grace Ridenour (Cary, NC 2025) has been neck and neck with Lauture throughout the 2019 campaign. Currently ranked second on the Order of Merit, Ridenour has two wins to her name on the year. She earned first-place honors at the Palmetto Dunes Resort Classic and the Palmetto Classic. Though she’s yet to taste victory outside of the Palmetto State, Lonnie Poole could be the setting to complete that task.
Rounding out the players to watch in Raleigh, Ellen Yu (High Point, NC 2026) enters the event as the highest-ranked player on the Performance Index in the Futures National field. Yu is currently ranked 101 on the Performance Index and sits in third place on the Order of Merit. She has four wins this season and four other top-five finishes. She prevailed victorious at the PKBGT Spring Invitational, the Carolina’s Classic, the PKBGT Open Championship and the Southeast Classic.
Final Thoughts
We would like to wish all of our competitors the best of luck in Raleigh at the 2019 PKBGT Wolfpack Classic. NC State’s pristine D1 facilities promise to test the tour’s top talent! To stay up to date on the leaderboard, be sure to follow live scoring HERE!
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 player’s 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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