Southern Pines, NC-The Peggy Kirk Bell Girls’ Golf Tour concluded its championship season over the weekend at Forest Creek Golf Club for the PKBGT National Tournament of Champions. The girls took on one of the most prestigious golf clubs in North Carolina at Forest Creek Golf Club as they battle for the ultimate title: Champion of the Champions.
To earn an invitation to the event, players were required to have met the specific pre-tournament qualifications. The top participants punched their ticket to the TOC by winning a tournament on the 2020 PKBGT Tour circuit, winning the 2020 Storie Apparel Regional or National Order of Merit race in their respective division, finishing at the top of the field at 2020 PKBGT Championship Events or finishing runner up at PKBGT Classic events.
The 70 competitors will be split into two separate divisions of play; the Bell National Division and the Prep Preview Division. There will be representatives from nine different states along the east coast, ranging from Florida to Pennsylvania.
Bell National
An event which saw a total of six leaders over the course of two days provided plenty of drama heading down the final stretch of holes on Sunday to crown the Champion of the Champions. Tied atop the board after day one was Ella Perna (Durham, NC 2022) and Katie Scheck (Greensboro, NC 2021). On a day where birdies were tough to come by, the two leaders made 60% of the 29 birdies posted between the two divisions. Perna and Scheck with rounds of 73 (+1), had a talented group of players just behind them including Sydney Yermish (Wynnewood, PA 2023) at (+2), Maria Atwood (Holly Springs, NC 2022), Abby Franks (Roebuck, SC 2023) and Morgan Ketchum (Winston-Salem, NC 2022) at (+4).
Due to a hard overnight frost, the final round of the National Tournament of Champions was pushed back to 11:30 AM with a shotgun format. Warmer temperatures and little to no breeze gave the field a must more welcoming golf course when they hit their opening tee-ball. Making an early charge up the leaderboard was Morgan Ketchum (Winston-Salem, NC 2022), and Abby Franks (Roebuck, SC 2023) who birdied the ninth holes to get Franks tied at the lead and Ketchum just a shot off the duo of Scheck and Atwood. Katie Scheck (Greensboro, NC 2021) held the solo lead for five holes on her front nine before bogeys on five and six took her out of position. Atwood overtook Scheck and Franks as the sole leader on the twelfth hole after back-to-back birdies on eleven and twelve. Franks moved into a tie on the fourteenth hole when her birdie dropped. She took solo lead when her birdie on the fifteenth rolled into the cup.
As Franks and Atwood walked up to the par-three seventeenth, in the penultimate pairing, Yermish was putting together quite a back-nine. which included birdies on twelve, fourteen, and a tap in birdie on the sixteenth to get her to (+1) for the tournament. While Yermish was tapping in on the sixteenth, Franks and Atwood failed to convert their par putts on the seventeenth making Yermish the sole leader of the tournament.
After the round, Yermish admitted that her nerves got the best of her as she hit her final drive of the day. Her tee ball left her in a poor position, which forced a punch-out into the middle of the fairway. Sydney knocked her third to the back of the green and about ten feet from the hole. With confidence, the Wynnewood, PA native celebrated with a major fist bump as the ball disappeared into the hole. She would go on to win by two shots over Maria Atwood (Holly Springs, NC 2022) and Abby Franks (Roebuck, SC 2023).
1. Sydney Yermish (Wynnewood, PA 2023) / 74 / 71 = 145 (+1)
2. Maria Atwood (Holly Springs, NC 2022) / 76 / 71 = 147 (+3)*
3. Abby Franks (Roebuck, SC 2023) / 76 / 71 = 147 (+3)
4. Katie Scheck (Greensboro, NC 2021) / 73 / 74 = 147 (+3)
5. Sarah Lydic (Oceanview, DE 2024) / 77 / 71 = 148 (+4)
*Denotes Scorecard Playoff*
Click Here to View Full Bell National Leaderboard
Futures National
The Disney Girls Classic champion, Kylie Bowes (Bluffton, SC 2022) held a two-shot overnight lead in the Prep National Tournament of Champions thanks to a trio of birdies in round one. The player Bowes did not want to see in the rear-view mirror was once again in striking distance, and she took advantage of it. Madison Messimer (Myrtle Beach, SC 2025) opened play with a round of 76 (+4). Bowes, Messimer, and Katherine Brictson (Raleigh, NC 2024) were the only players in the field to have their names atop the leaderboard on either day. The final round belonged to Messimer, who birdied three holes en route to a round of even-par. Although holes ten, eleven, and fifteen got away from the Grand Strand resident, Messimer was able to walk away with a three-shot victory at Forest Creek Golf Club. This is Madison’s second title in the 2021 season, she also made the cut at the PKBGT Invitational. In total, Messimer captured nine titles in the 2020 calendar year.
1. Madison Messimer (Myrtle Beach, SC 2025) / 76 / 72 = 148 (+4)
2. Kylie Bowes (Bluffton, SC 2022) / 74 / 77 = 151 (+7)
3. Katherine Brictson (Raleigh, NC 2024) / 77 / 76 = 153 (+9)*
4. Tyler Spriggs (Cary, NC 2023) / 77 / 76 = 153 (+9)
5. Saia Rampersaud (Durham, NC 2025) / 84 / 70 = 154 (+10)
*Denotes Scorecard Playoff*
Click Here to View Full Prep Preview Leaderboard
View Full Scoreboard
About the PKBGT
Founded in 2007 by Girls Golf of America, a non-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization, 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 2020 season will feature over 110 tournaments in 9 states on the East Coast, and with over 1,000 members, the PKBGT is the largest girl’s only Tour in the country. Learn more about the PKBGT at http://www.pkbgt.org/.
For complete coverage of the Peggy Kirk Bell Girls’ Golf Tour, follow the PKBGT on social media @PKBGirlsTour (Twitter), facebook.com/girlsgolftour (Facebook), @pkbgirlstour (Instagram), or visit our website at www.pkbgt.org.
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