The first round of The PING Invitational kicks off Saturday morning. The talented field includes 27 Rolex Junior All-Americans and 53 AJGA champions, all vying for one of the AJGA’s final Invitational trophies of the 2016 season.
Group to watch
Noah Goodwin of Corinth, Texas, Davis Shore of Knoxville, Tennessee, and Norman Xiong of San Diego, California, are ranked Nos. 1, 2 and 3 in the Polo Golf Rankings. Together, the boys have combined for seven top-10 AJGA 2016 finishes, including two Invitational wins at the Thunderbird International Junior (Xiong) and Rolex Tournament of Champions (Shore). The trio tee off No. 1 at Karsten Creek at 9:20 a.m.
Transamerica Scholastic Junior All-American
Nate Menon of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, was recently recognized by the AJGA for his academic, golf and community achievements as a Transamerica Scholastic Junior All-American . The 2017 grad is verbally committed to Stanford and making his seventh Invitational appearance. Menon’s top Invitational finish was T7 at the 2016 Haas Family Invitational.
New faces
Thirteen of the 24 girls in the field are making their tournament debut at The PING Invitational. Rose Zhang of Irvine, California, is the youngest girl in the field and ranked No. 27 in the Polo Golf Rankings. In her first AJGA season (six events), Zhang posted two victories and never finished outside the top 10. Zhang tees off No. 10 at 10 a.m.