BRASELTON, Ga. — Twelve junior golfers were named to the 2019 PING Junior Solheim Cup United States Team, the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) announced Tuesday.
The first 10 players were selected based on a combination of the AJGA’s Rolex AJGA Rankings and the Golfweek / Sagarin Junior Girls Rankings as of Monday, July 29. The final two spots on the U.S. Team were reserved for captain’s picks.
The following players earned entry through the Rolex AJGA Rankings:
· Amanda Sambach of Davidson, North Carolina
· Sadie Englemann of Austin, Texas
· Michaela Morard of Huntsville, Alabama
· Christine Wang of Houston, Texas
· Brianna Navarrosa of San Diego, California
Earning entry through Golfweek / Sagarin Junior Girls Rankings were:
· Rose Zhang of Irvine, California
· Alexa Pano of Lake Worth, Florida
· Zoe Antoinette Campos of Valencia, California
· Phoebe Brinker of Wilmington, Delaware
· Briana Chacon of Whittier, California
The final two captain’s picks were Lucy Li of Redwood Shores, California, and Rachel Heck of Memphis, Tennessee. Of the 12 players selected, three have experience from the 2017 PING Junior Solheim Cup, won by the United States team in Iowa (Heck, Li and Zhang).
Modeled after the Solheim Cup, the PING Junior Solheim Cup biennially features the 12 best female junior golfers (ages 12-18) from the United States against the 12 best junior girls from Europe. The team event includes foursomes, four-ball and singles matches played over two days and rotates between U.S. and European host sites coinciding with the Solheim Cup. The 10th edition of the PING Junior Solheim Cup will be hosted by Gleneagles, Scotland, on September 10-11, 2019, immediately prior to the Solheim Cup.
LPGA legend Mary Bea Porter-King will captain the U.S. team. As a player, Porter-King was inducted into the Arizona State Hall of Fame in four sports (golf, softball, volleyball and basketball). She was named College Athlete of the Year in 1973, but despite many awards in golf, she is most widely known for scaling a fence to administer CPR to save the life of a drowning three-year old boy in 1988 during an LPGA Qualifying round in Phoenix.
The United States leads the all-time PING Junior Solheim Cup series 6-2-1 and has won five consecutive matches. Team Europe last won, 14-10, when the event was hosted in Sweden in 2007. The 2015 United States Team was the first team to win on foreign soil, 13-11, at St. Leon-Rot Golf Club in Heidelberg, Germany.
AJGA alumnae who have graduated from PING Junior Solheim Cup to the Solheim Cup on Team USA include Paula Creamer, Brittany Lang, Alison Lee, Brittany Lincicome, Morgan Pressel and Lexi Thompson.
Meet the 2019 Team USA
Rose Zhang | Irvine, California
Age: 16
Class of 2021
Verbal Commit: Stanford University
Rolex AJGA Ranking: 1
Golfweek / Sagarin Junior Girls Ranking: 2
Zhang is a three-time Rolex Junior All-American. She has six national junior golf victories, including three AJGA Invitational wins in 2018 at the ANA Junior Inspiration, Swinging Skirts AJGA Invitational and The PING Invitational. As a member of the winning 2017 PING Junior Solheim Cup team, Zhang had a 1-1-1 record.
Alexa Pano | Lake Worth, Florida
Age: 14
Class of 2022
Rolex AJGA Ranking: 3
Golfweek / Sagarin Junior Girls Ranking: 4
Pano is a two-time Rolex Junior All-American. She has three national junior golf victories, including her most recent win at the 2019 Rolex Girls Junior Championship. As a three-time member of the Wyndham Cup East Team, Pano has a match play record of 7-5-0.
Zoe Antoinette Campos | Valencia, California
Age: 16
Class of 2021
Verbal Commit: University of California, Los Angeles
Rolex AJGA Ranking: 17
Golfweek / Sagarin Junior Girls Ranking: 7
A two-time Rolex Junior All-American, Campos has won three AJGA titles including the 2017 KPMG Stacy Lewis Junior All-Star Invitational. Her best finish to date in 2019 came at the Thunderbird International Junior where she placed fifth.
Phoebe Brinker | Wilmington, Delaware
Age: 17
Class of 2020
Verbal Commit: Duke University
Rolex AJGA Ranking: 18
Golfweek / Sagarin Junior Girls Ranking: 8
Brinker has three AJGA career wins including consecutive titles at the 2016 and 2017 Windham Mountain Resort Junior All-Star and a victory at the inaugural AJGA Colonial Junior in 2018. Brinker was named a 2017 Rolex Junior All-American and was a member of the victorious 2019 Wyndham Cup East Team.
Briana Chacon | Whittier, California
Age: 17
Class of 2019
Signed National Letter of Intent: University of Oregon
Rolex AJGA Ranking: 19
Golfweek / Sagarin Junior Girls Ranking: 12
Chacon was named a Rolex Junior All-American in 2018 and won the 2018 AJGA Junior at San Jose presented by Live View Golf. Most recently Chacon made it to the quarterfinals in the 2019 U.S. Girls’ Junior Amateur Championship.
Amanda Sambach | Davidson, North Carolina
Age: 16
Class of 2021
Verbal Commit: University of Virginia
Rolex AJGA Ranking: 8
Golfweek / Sagarin Junior Girls Ranking: 22
Sambach has four wins in her AJGA career including the 2018 Rolex Tournament of Champions. She was a member of the victorious 2019 Wyndham Cup East Team and her best finish to date in 2019 came at the Callaway Golf / Ollie Schniederjans Junior Classic presented by UHY LLP CPA’s.
Sadie Englemann | Austin, Texas
Age: 17
Class of 2020
Verbal Commit: Stanford University
Rolex AJGA Ranking: 11
Golfweek / Sagarin Junior Girls Ranking: 19
Three-time Rolex Junior All-American, Englemann has four AJGA career wins including the 2018 Buick Shanshan Feng AJGA Girls Invitational where she earned an exemption to play in a Symetra Tour event. She was a member of the 2018 and 2019 Wyndham Cup West Teams.
Michaela Morard | Huntsville, Alabama
Age: 17
Class of 2020
Verbal Commit: University of Alabama
Rolex AJGA Ranking: 12
Golfweek / Sagarin Junior Girls Ranking: 23
A four-time Rolex Junior All-American, Morard is the current AJGA Player Representative on the AJGA Board of Directors. She is a three-time AJGA Junior All-Star Team member and has six AJGA career wins and has won the Alabama State Individual Championship four times (2015-2019).
Christine Wang | Houston, Texas
Age: 17
Class of 2020
Verbal Commit: University of Southern California
Rolex AJGA Ranking: 25
Golfweek / Sagarin Junior Girls Ranking: 33
Wang was named a 2018 Rolex Junior All-American, has two AJGA career victories and was a member of the victorious 2018 Wyndham Cup West Team. Her best finishes to date in 2019 came at the C.T. Pan Junior Championship where she placed second and the Hunter Mahan Junior Championship presented by Baylor Scott & White Performance Center at The Star where she finished T2.
Brianna Navarrosa | San Diego, California
Age: 17
Class of 2020
Verbal Commit: University of Southern California
Rolex AJGA Ranking: 14
Golfweek / Sagarin Junior Girls Ranking: 16
The two-time Rolex Junior All-American has two AJGA career victories including one Invitational win at the 2019 Buick Shanshan Feng AJGA Girls Invitational. Along with being a two-time member of the AJGA Junior All-Star Team, Navarrosa won the 2019 Canadian Women’s Amateur.
Lucy Li | Redwood Shores, California
Age: 16
Class of 2020
Rolex AJGA Ranking: 15
Golfweek / Sagarin Junior Girls Ranking: Not Ranked
Li won the 2017 ANA Junior Inspiration and earned an exemption into golf’s first major, the ANA Inspiration where she was the only amateur to make the cut. The 14-year-old was a member of the 2016 and 2018 U.S. Junior Ryder Cup Team and in 2014, Li became the youngest player (age 11) to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open. She is a two-time Rolex Junior All-American and won the in 2019 Polo Golf Junior Classic at Liberty National. She was a member of the winning 2017 PING Junior Solheim Cup United States Team.
Rachel Heck | Memphis, Tennessee
Age: 17
Class of 2020
Verbal commit: Stanford University
Rolex AJGA Ranking: 28
Golfweek / Sagarin Junior Girls Ranking: 26
Heck was the female 2017 Rolex Junior Player of the Year and is a four-time Rolex Junior All-American. She was a member of the victorious Wyndham Cup East Team in 2019 and competed as an amateur in the 2019 ANA Inspiration. She has an undefeated (3-0-0) record as a returning member of the winning 2017 PING Junior Solheim Cup Team.
About the PING Junior Solheim Cup
The PING Junior Solheim Cup is owned and hosted by PING and will be operated by the American Junior Golf Association with assistance from the Ladies Professional Golf Association and the Ladies European Tour.
Founded by Karsten and Louise Solheim, the Karsten Manufacturing Corporation is a long-time sponsor of the LPGA and AJGA. As the makers of PING golf equipment, the Solheim family continues to ensure the same superior workmanship today that they built into their original clubs more than 46 years ago. Now under the direction of John Solheim, Karsten and Louise’s youngest son, the company continues in its efforts to manufacture the highest quality golf equipment. The PING name is known world over. Besides its presence in the United States, PING markets custom-fit and custom-built equipment to more than 70 countries.
About PING
The tournament owner and title partner, PING, designs, manufactures and markets a complete line of golf equipment including metal woods, irons, putters and golf bags. The family-owned company was founded in 1959 by the late Karsten Solheim. Solheim is the only person to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame as a golf club manufacturer. Today, the Phoenix-based company is under the direction of Solheim's youngest son, John A. Solheim. PING game-improvement products can be found in more than 70 countries. For more information, visit ping.com.
About the AJGA
The American Junior Golf Association is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the overall growth and development of young men and women who aspire to earn college golf scholarships through competitive junior golf. The AJGA provides valuable exposure for college golf scholarships and has an annual junior membership (boys and girls, ages 12-19) of more than 7,000 members from 50 states and 60 foreign countries. Through initiatives like the Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE) Grant, a financial assistance program, and Leadership Links, a service-oriented platform that teaches juniors charitable-giving skills, the AJGA fosters the growth of golf’s next generation.
AJGA alumni have risen to the top of amateur, collegiate and professional golf. Former AJGA juniors have compiled more than 900 victories on the PGA and LPGA Tours. AJGA alumni include Rickie Fowler, Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Tiger Woods, Paula Creamer, Ariya Jutanugarn, Cristie Kerr, Stacy Lewis, Brittany Lincicome, Anna Nordqvist, Inbee Park and Lexi Thompson.