We are less than ten days away from the most prestigious PKBGT event of the year: the 14th PKBGT Invitational. The PKBGT Invitational is a 54-hole championship event played on both the east and west courses of Bermuda Run Country Club in Advance, North Carolina outside Winston-Salem – with layouts of over 6100 yards at each venue. With players from 18 states – let’s take a look inside this year’s field of 54 at the 2022 PKBGT Invitational!
Strength of Field in a Class by Itself
The PKBGT Invitational has always brought together the top junior players in the country and has been ranked a top-15 junior girls event in the country by Golfweek Rankings. 50 out of the 54 players in the field are ranked in the Top 1,000 on the Junior Golf Scoreboard national rankings! 20 of these players are ranked inside the Top 500 making the average player ranked 650th in the country!
Past Champions Achieve Great Heights
11 different ladies have raised the championship bowl at the PKBGT Invitational in its 13 year history (View the Event History). All 11 have played or committed to play at the collegiate level. Inaugural Invitational champion Katherine Perry Hamski, 2010 champion Katie Kirk, 2011 & 2012 champion Lucia Polo, and 2013 champion Anna Redding play professionally on the LPGA Tour and/or the LPGA Epson Tour. The Wake Forest University duo of 2014 champion Emilia Migliaccio and 2015 champion Rachel Kuehn are two of the top amateur players in the world and both have won the North & South Amateur. The 2017 & 2019 champion Amanda Sambach is a sophomore at the University of Virginia and 2018 champion Anna Morgan is staring at Furman University. All four of these players were named to the ANNIKA Award watchlist which honors the player of the year in college golf. 2020 Champion Adrian Anderson is a freshman playing for the College of Charleston and defending champion Sara Im is committed to play at Vanderbilt University.
The Best of the Best
It wouldn’t be the PKBGT Invitational without the best of the best PKB players teeing it up at Bermuda Run and that’s what we have with three of the top eight ranked PKBGT Performance Index players in the field. The highest ranked player in the field is Macy Pate (Winston-Salem, NC 2024), who is ranked 2nd on the PKBGT Performance Index. Macy knows Bermuda Run well after finishing runner-up a year ago as well as shooting a 13-under 57 in her high school conference championship (Read about the 57 and Macy in Golfweek)! Macy is the 39th ranked player in the country, a North Carolina Girls State Junior champion, Wake Forest commit and will look to finish the job this year at the 14th PKBGT Invitational.
Close behind Macy in the PKBGT Performance Index rankings is 3rd ranked Ellen Yu (Greensboro, NC 2026). Ellen is coming off of a strong 2022 PKB season where she had Top-8 finishes in all eight of her starts pushing her to the Bell National Order of Merit title. The 84th ranked player in the country has 12 career PKB wins including the 2021 PKBGT Masters and heads to Bermuda Run aiming to add another impressive trophy to her resume.
The 8th ranked player on the PKBGT Performance Index is Karsyn Roberts (Pikeville, NC 2024). This will be Karsyn’s first time playing in the PKBGT Invitational but has been playing excellent golf of late. Eight top-10 finishes this year including a win at the Coastal Carolina Classic shows that she has what it takes to make a push for the title.
Verballed, Sealed, Delivered
Richmond commit Heather Appelson (Wake Forest, NC 2023) has had a memory filled 2022 not just committing to play collegiately but winning her first National Series event as well at the Hampton Roads Girls Classic. She is playing well with top-12 finishes in her last four starts and will be looking to add another great memory to 2022.
The 11th ranked player on the PKBGT Performance Index and 183rd ranked player nationally is High Point University commit Anna Howerton (Winston-Salem, NC 2023) who looks to build on her 12th place performance in last years Invitational. The 5-time PKB champion also comes off a 3rd place finish at the 13th CGA-PKBGT Jimmy Anderson Junior Girl’s Championship.
Alexsandra Lapple (Pinehurst, NC 2023), the Notre Dame commit, is playing in her fourth PKBGT Invitational as the 59th ranked player on the PKBGT Performance Index. Before heading to South Bend, Alexsandra will head to Bermuda Run to try and add another PKBGT trophy to her trophy case,
7 players in the Invitational field have verbally committed to play collegiate golf:
- Emma Abramson — Williams College
- Heather Appelson — University of Richmond
- Anna Howerton — High Point University
- Macy Johnson — Radford University
- Alexsandra Lapple — University of Notre Dame
- Macy Pate — Wake Forest University
- Grace Wang — University of Michigan
State Champions in the Mix
18 states will be represented at Bermuda Run including six players who conquered their state’s junior championships!
- Emma Abramson — Massachusetts Girls Junior Championship
- Molly Brown Davidson — 59th Alabama Girls State Championship
- Kylie Eaton — Rhode Island Women’s Amateur Championship
- Sophia Li — 59th New York Girls Junior Amateur Championship
- Grace Wang — Michigan Girls Junior Amateur Championship
- Leah Edwards — North Carolina Junior Girls’ Championship
Molly Brown Davidson (Springville, AL 2025) is heading back to Bermuda Run after a T17 finish last year in the PKBGT Invitational. Davidson is the 67th ranked player in the country and has won two Alabama state titles this year! Grace Wang (Rochester Hills, MI 2023) is making her first PKB start after her win at the Michigan Girls Junior Amateur Championship. Emma Abramson (Sandwich, MA 2023) is looking to get her first PKB win after several top-10 finishes in 2022. The New York Girls Junior Amateur Champion Sophia Li (New York, NY 2025) heads to her first PKBGT Invitational seeking another illustrious title in 2022. Kylie Eaton (Greenville, RI 2023) is playing in her second Invitational and aiming for her first PKB win. Leah Edwards (Greensboro, NC 2025) won the North Carolina Junior Girls’ Championship and is a two-time PKB champion.
Youngsters in the Field
They say age is just a number, which proves to be true for Riley Grimm (Pinehurst, NC 2028), Jenna Kim (Raleigh, NC 2027), and Aphrodite Deng (Short Hills, NJ 2028), three of the youngest players in the 2022 field. Riley has proven she knows how to win compiling 16 career PKB wins including five in 2022 which helped her win the 2022 Futures National Order of Merit Race! Jenna is no stranger to winning either boasting 17 PKB wins to her name! Jenna comes into the championship hot after back-to-back wins at the CGA-PKBGT Jimmy Anderson Junior Girls and the NCISAA Women’s State Championship. After competing in the PKBGT/NB3 National Championship, Aphrodite will head to Bermuda Run seeking another impressive victory to go along with a CJGA World Junior Challenge Championship and a New Jersey State Invitational Championship!
Follow the Action…
The field is set and ready to compete in what will be another thrilling PKBGT Invitational and we look forward to seeing all the competitors next weekend at Bermuda Run Country Club!
The first round of the 14th PKBGT Invitational, begins Saturday, November 12th, on Bermuda Run’s West course.
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