On Saturday-Sunday, May 11-12, the Peggy Kirk Bell Girls’ Golf Tour plays the 2019 PKBGT DuPont Girls Classic at DuPont Country Club in Wilmington, Delaware.
Several weeks back, the PKBGT’s Mid-Atlantic members marched the grounds on the same course that LPGA legends graced over a five-year span hosting the McDonald’s LPGA Championship from 2005-2009. Gazing down the same fairways at Bulle Rock GC as Annika Sorenstam, Se Ri Park and Anna Nordqvist in their journey to the pinnacle of women’s golf -an LPGA major championship- participants at the 2019 PKBGT Mid-Atlantic Girls Championship received a taste of the toughest test the sport has to offer.
Next week, the tour travels further back in time to a course that hosted the LPGA Championship for the 11 years prior to its move to Havre de Grace. An era that began with Laura Davies’ two LPGA championships and concluded with the first two in Sorenstam’s three-peat, taking the LPGA Tour by storm.
The girls will have another chance to channel their inner Annika, Laurie, Se Ri, Anna or whichever LPGA pro they aspire to follow. In the tour’s northernmost trip of the 2019 national season, the PKBGT takes on the nations first state, docking our ship in the Port of Wilmington.
Dupont Country Club plays host to the event formerly known as the Pennsylvania Classic, now dubbed the PKBGT DuPont Girls Classic with the change of scenery and a move to Delaware. 46 girls from around the PKBGT’s Mid-Atlantic region will compete between two divisions: Bell National at 5,812 yards and Futures National at 5,244 yards.
Another opportunity to take on an elite LPGA challenge, let’s take a look at the players to watch in the 2019 PKBGT DuPont Girls Classic!
Bell National
Headlining the field of 32 in Wilmington next weekend, Sydney Yermish (Pinehurst, NC 2023) enters the tournament as the highest ranked player in the field on the PKBGT Performance Index, sitting inside the Top 30 at No. 27. Yermish also tops the field as the highest ranked player on the Bell National Order of Merit, currently ranked No. 18. Her best performance of the season took place with a tiebreaker playoff win at the 2019 PKBGT Tar Heel Classic, with a T10 finish at the 2019 PKBGT Commonwealth Classic added to her resume.
After strong performances with a fourth-place finish at the 2019 PKBGT Commonwealth Classic and an eighth-place finish at the 2019 PKBGT Masters, Sue Lee (Lorton, VA 2022) looks to climb back into the top of the leaderboard at DuPont Country Club. Lee is currently ranked inside the Top 50 (No. 45) on the Performance Index and No. 32 on the Order of Merit. She struggled at Bulle Ruck, finishing 19, but is primed for a return to form next weekend.
Entering the final round in Havre de Grace with the lead, Faith Mcilvain (Elicott City, MD 2020) fell just short in her quest for the championship title. She held on for an impressive T2 finish, boosting her ranking in the Performance Index to No. 71 and her Order of Merit position to No. 65. Mcilvain tied with Yermish in 10th place at the 2019 PKBGT Commonwealth Classic.
Kaia Wu (Princeton, NJ 2022) enters the tournament ranked inside the Top 100 of the Performance Index (No. 81) and the Order of Merit (No. 72). Wu’s best performance of the 2019 season came at the Country Club of Landfall with a fifth-place finish. She has two more Top 10 finishes to her name this season: eighth place at the 2019 PKBGT Commonwealth Classic and T9 at the 2019 PKBGT Mid-Atlantic Girls Championship.
Rounding out the players to watch in Wilmington, Hannah Lydic (Ocean View, DE 2022) doesn’t have to leave her home state to compete in next weekend’s event. The Delaware native finished T2 at the 2019 PKBGT Mid-Atlantic Girls Championship at Bulle Rock GC. With a limited sample size, Lydic sits inside the Top 100 on the Order of Merit (T98) and just outside on the Performance Index (No. 103).
Futures National
Picking up right where we left off, fellow Delaware native Sarah Lydic (Ocean View, DE 2022) hopes to complete a sister tag-team weekend of success in their home state at the 2019 PKBGT DuPont Girls Classic. Lydic is fresh off two strong performances: a win at the 2019 PKBGT Commonwealth Classic followed by a runner-up finish at the 2019 PKBGT Mid-Atlantic Girls Championship. Lydic is currently ranked 26th on the Futures National Order of Merit and hopes to increase her position with another top finish in Wilmington.
Riding off three Top 10 finishes, Amelia Cho (Ashburn, VA 2024) hopes for another elite performance in adding to her total. Cho finished in eighth place at the 2019 PKB Foundation Classic and 10th at the 2019 PKBGT Mid-Atlantic Girls Championship. Her best performance of the season came in a T3 finish at the 2019 Commonwealth Classic. She is currently ranked 15th on the Order of Merit.
Taylor Park (Fairfax, VA 2022) enters the 2019 PKBGT DuPont Girls Classic as the highest ranked player in the field on the Order of Merit. Park’s current position in ninth place is a product of several Top 10 finishes this season. She finished T10 at the PKB Foundation Classic and 2019 PKBGT Commonwealth Classic, with her top performance coming at the 2019 PKBGT Mid-Atlantic Girls Championship with a T6 finish.
Closing our “Players to Watch” list, Katie Vu (Fairfax Station, VA 2024) tries to make a push in the rankings with another strong outing this weekend. She had her best finish of the season, coming in fourth place, at the 2019 Mid-Atlantic Girls Championship. Vu is currently T59 on the Order of Merit, and a top finish in Wilmington could help improve her ranking.
Final Thoughts
We would like to wish all of our competitors the best of luck in next weekends event, the 2019 PKBGT DuPont Girls Classic! A weekend in Wilmington promises to be fun-filled and packed with intense, electrifying competition! Who will emerge as the champion come Sunday? Stay tuned to live scoring to find out!
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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