The East Team includes four boys and two girls who have won an AJGA Invitational during the 2016 season. Ryan Gerard won five matches en route to victory at the 2015 Polo Golf Junior Classic, while Jaravee Boonchant opened the calendar year with a win at the ANNIKA Invitational. Eugene Hong (Haas Family Invitational) and Gina Kim (Rolex Girls Junior Championship) won in mid-June, and most recently Karl Vilips won the KPMG Stacy Lewis Junior All-Star Invitational and Davis Shore won the Rolex Tournament of Champions.
Five of the East’s boys will play for the second year in a row: Hong (2015 record: 2-1-1), Andrew Kozan (0-3-1), S.M. Lee (3-1-0), Won Jun Lee (1-3-0) and Shore (1-3-0).
On the girls’ side, Youngin Chun will become just the second player in Wyndham Cup history to play for both the East and West Teams. Last year, Chun lived in Austin, Texas, and recorded a 1-2-1 record for the West Team; this year she lives in Tampa, Florida, and will play for the East. Since 1990, Heather Bowie is the only other player to play for both teams (East: 1990, West: 1991-1993).
Chun will be joined by Emilia Migliaccio and Ana Paula Valdes as the Wyndham Cup veterans among the East’s girls. Migliaccio tallied a 1-1-2 record last year and has five top-five finishes in 2016, including a win at the Scott Robertson Memorial, while Valdes’ season includes a win at the Sergio Garcia Foundation Junior Championship.
East players making their Wyndham Cup debut include 14-year-old Rachel Heck, the youngest player on either team, and Austin Hitt, who has top-10 finishes in six of his last seven national tournaments.