On Saturday-Sunday, September 28-29, the Peggy Kirk Bell Girls’ Golf Tour played the 2019 PKBGT Middle Atlantic Series Finale at Fawn Lake Country Club in Spotsylvania, VA.
As the PKBGT grows and expands into new regions across the eastern seaboard of the United States, the Middle Atlantic series proves to be one of the strongest and fastest-growing areas for both the PKBGT regional and national circuits. What began as a nine-event series in 2016 with 62 unique participants, the series has expanded to ten events and 144 participants in 2019.
Operated and promoted in partnership with the Middle Atlantic PGA, these PKBGT regional events offer innovative yardage-based divisions to girls aged 9-18. The PKBGT Series Progression allows players to progress towards playing collegiate golf by playing yardage/skill appropriate tournaments as they develop their game.
What was at stake?
Along with the Order of Merit honors, the 2019 Middle Atlantic Prep and Futures champions have earned their spot in the 2019 PKBGT Tournament of Champions.
In addition, both players will have the opportunity to compete in the inaugural PKBGT Regional Invitational, to be held at Carolina National Golf Club in Bolivia, NC. This invitation-only event was started in 2019 to bring together the top competitors across the PKBGT’s six regional series spanning from Orlando, FL to Philadelphia, PA.
An exciting carrot for the Prep competitors, the top three finishers of the Prep Invitational will earn their spot in the 11th annual PKBGT Invitational this November – an event whose past champions include numerous NCAA All-Americans and LPGA Tour Professionals.
To add to the fun, players will be recognized for their 2019 Middle Atlantic Order of Merit titles at the Storie Apparel Awards banquet, held at Carolina National on Saturday, October 26th.
For Discovery players the top 33% of the Middle Atlantic Discovery Order of Merit have earned their spot in addition to all event champions to play in the prestigious (and fun!) Discovery Invitational played on Hilton Head Island this November.
Although the rain may have delayed round one of the series finale, the skies cleared up and all 36 holes of golf was completed over the weekend! Let’s see how the leaderboard finished up.
Prep Division
Claiming the first place spot in the Prep division was Elizabeth Coffren (Owings, MD 2020) after posting consistent rounds of 74-73=147 to earn her first victory of the 2019 PKBGT season! Coffren, who recently verbally committed to play collegiately next year for the Blue Hens at the University of Delaware, carded five birdies over the course of the weekend. With her first victory of the season, Coffren has yet again earned her spot to compete in the 2019 PKBGT Tournament of Champions and the new 2019 PKBGT Prep Invitational!
Just three strokes behind Coffren was Emma Landis (Virginia Beach, VA 2020) who posted rounds of 73-77=150. Landis, who led the field entering today’s final round, carded 26 pars and three birdies over the weekend.
Finishing in third place for the season finale was Paris Fieldings (Suffolk, VA 2023) who carded rounds of 74-77=151 to end up one stroke behind Landis. In fourth place was Rachel Detore (Fredericksburg, VA 2020) with rounds of 75-78=153, moving her up to a 2nd place finish in the 2019 Storie Apparel Order of Merit standings for the series!
Rounding out the top five with consistent rounds of 77-77=154 was Helen Yeung (Clarksville, MD 2024).
To view the full Storie Apparel Prep Middle Atlantic of Merit standings, click here.
Futures Division
The magic of the 1.5X point multiplier was evident as Madison Lehr (Mechanicsville, VA 2024) not only took home a first place finish at Fawn Lake, but a ten-point jump up to first place on the Futures Middle Atlantic Order of Merit! Lehr, who won the finale with rounds of 75-79=154 for a five-shot victory, has now earned her spot in both the 2019 PKBGT Tournament of Champions, the 2019 Prep Invitational and the 2020 Linville Cup!
In second place for the Futures Division was Kaurvaki Bajpai (Chantilly, VA 2023) with rounds of 76-83=159. Bajpai carded four birdies over the course of the weekend, moving her 10 spots up the Order of Merit for a T12 place finish for the season.
Just one spot behind Bajpai finishing in third place was Sawyer Brockstedt (Rehoboth Beach, DE 2025) who posted rounds of 82-78=160 in her debut PKBGT regional series event of the season.
In fourth place was Makayla Grubb (Stafford, VA 2025) with rounds of 84-80=164. Rounding out the top five with rounds of 84-81=165 was Gabbie Hollberg (Moseley, VA 2022).
To view the full Storie Apparel Futures Middle Atlantic Order of Merit standings, click here.
Discovery Division
What better way to end the Middle Atlantic Series than a sudden-death playoff, right? How about finishing the playoff with a HOLE-IN-ONE?!?! In the Discovery Division at today’s finale, Michelle Yeung (Clarksville, MD 2027) and Sydney Neou (Leesburg, VA 2027) battled it out down the stretch to both finish with a two-day total of 73. Yeung, who carded rounds of 36-37 defeated Neou on the fourth playoff hole after making a hole-in-one! We’d say that’s how you end on a positive note!
Yeung, who has shown great play over the course of the season, carded three birdies over the weekend to capture her third victory of the Middle Atlantic regional series.
Despite coming up short in today’s sudden-death playoff, Sydney Neou’s second place finish was enough to secure the season-long Order of Merit by just seven points! Neou, who has now earned her spot in the 2020 Linville Cup, her second appearance at the coveted championship, earned four victories over the course of the season.
Finishing in third place in today’s finale event was Abigail Avallone (Adamstown, MD 2026) with scores of 39-41=80.
In fourth place was Raquel Walker (Burke, VA 2026) after carding rounds of 41-43=80. Just one stroke back from Walker, rounding out the top five, was Samantha Nguyen (Springfield, VA 2026). Following in their sister’s footsteps, both Walker and Nguyen competed alongside their siblings at this weekend’s finale.
To view the full Storie Apparel Discovery Middle Atlantic Order of Merit standings, click here.
Final Thoughts
With continued growth of both the series and girls’ golf as a whole in the Middle Atlantic region, it turned out to be yet another great year on the Middle Atlantic circuit! A huge thanks to our series partner – the Middle Atlantic PGA – for their continued support of the series and girls’ golf. Another thanks to Storie Apparel for providing all regional members with a logoed PKBGT polo!
A huge congratulations to our three new Storie Apparel Order of Merit Champions – Ester Choi (Prep), Madison Lehr (Futures) and Sydney Neou (Discovery)! Stay tuned as we recap and recount the success of these three throughout the series.
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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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