Peters seeded No. 4 at PNGA Junior Girls Amateur Championships
Kenedee Peters
FLORENCE, Ore. — Three swings is all that separate the top six Pacific Northwest junior girls golfers going into Wednesday’s Round of 16 at the 62nd PNGA Junior Girls Amateur Championships at Sandpines Golf Links in Florence, Ore.
The leaderboard is filled with the usual suspects and the girls that have been there all summer once again rose to the top with Tuesday’s round.
Cassie Kim from Yakima is one swing better than the rest of the field (76-73) at 149. Brittany Kwon of Bremerton closed hard with the best round of the day, 2-under-par 70, to move into a tie for second with Montgomery Ferreira, who had the other sub-par round of the day, 71. Both are at 150.
Ephrata senior Kenedee Peters was the first-day leader and settled into a tie for fourth (76-75-151) with Phoebe You of West Vancouver, B.C., who turned the identical scores.
Peters, who has given a verbal commitment to play Pac-12 golf at Washington State, goes into the match play portion of the tournament with two consistent rounds, looking for that breakout, low round.
“Everybody wants that low round, but I’ve been getting lower and lower. It will come if I just keep doing what I’m doing,” she said.
Her scoring average is right at even par and she’s been waiting for that big round. Now that the field has been trimmed from 32 of the best junior golfers in the Pacific Northwest to just 14 and ties, Peters moves into match-play mode where she just has to be one stroke lower than her opponent.
She is seeded No. 4 and will play No. 13 May Wang of Portland today in the Round of 16. Peters, who made it to the semifinals of the 116th PNGA Women’s Amateur earlier in the summer, could end up with an international showdown with Yue, should both advance on Wednesday.