Meja Ortengren of Stockholm, Sweden, fired a 5-under-par 67 on the Champions Course and will enter the final round with an eight-shot lead. Jackson Koivun of San Jose, California, remains in the lead after shooting a 2-under-par 70 on the Fazio Course at PGA National Resort & Spa in the third-round of the Rolex Tournament of Champions.
The 44th edition of the Rolex Tournament of Champions features 144 of the best junior golfers in the world from 26 states and seven countries. The tournament assembles the Rolex Junior All-Americans with the past year’s champions to create The Greatest Week in Junior Golf. There are 81 current or former Rolex Junior All-Americans in the field, with a total of 91 AJGA champions competing.
Past winners of the Rolex Tournament of Champions include Phil Mickelson, David Duval, Charles Howell, David Gossett, Webb Simpson, Sam Burns, Heather Farr, Kellee Booth, Inbee Park, Morgan Pressel and Alison Lee.
Ortengren continued her dominating lead in the Girls Division finishing eight strokes ahead of the girls field after 54 holes of play. Ortengren opened her day with back to back birdies on hole Nos. 2 and 3. Another birdie on No. 6, followed by three straight on the back nine on Nos. 11 through 13 moved Meja to 5-under on the day.
The Stockholm, Sweden, native is making her first AJGA stroke play start after an impressive 2-1 record in the PING Junior Solheim Cup this past September.
Alexa Pano of Lake Worth, Florida, moves into second place at 3-under-par 213. A 2-under-par 70 on the Champions course has her in solo second moving over to the final round on the Fazio Course.
Yurang Li of Fullterton, California, jumped into solo third at 1-over-par 217 for the tournament. The 2024 graduate carded a 1-over-par 73 on day 3 at the Champions course.
Anna Davis of Spring Valley, California, Kaitlyn Schroeder of Jacksonville, Florida, and Kary Hollenbaugh of New Albany, Ohio, are tied for fourth at 2-over-par 218.
Schroeder is a verbal commit to the University of Alabama and Hollenbaugh is a letter of intent signee to Ohio State University.
Koivun kept a steady par pace in the first nine holes of his round. The 2023 graduate proceeded to birdie hole No. 12 and collected his second eagle of the week on the par 4 No. 15. The Auburn verbal commit will enter the final round up two strokes at 10-under-par 205.
Koivun entered the week with one invitational win this year coming at the Jack Burke Jr. Invitational. The 2021 Rolex Junior All-American also has three top-5 AJGA finishes and is No. 8 in the Rolex AJGA Rankings.
Eric Lee of Fullerton, California, made the most of moving day. The verbal commit to the University of California, Berkeley shot a 5-under-par 67 and has climbed to second on the leaderboard. The 2023 graduate opened his bogey-free round with two birdies on Nos. 1 and 2. The First Team Rolex Junior All-American finished the round with three consecutive birdies on hole Nos. 15 through 17. Lee has three top-10 AJGA finishes on the year.
William Love of Atlanta, and Ben James of Milford, Connecticut, are in third at 6-under-par 209. Love shot a 3-under-par 69 with four birdies while James went 2-under-par 70 as well as four birdies.
Caleb Surratt of Indian Trail, North Carolina, and Michael La Sasso of Raleigh, North Carolina, are T5 at 5-under-par 210. Surratt is a University of Tennessee signee and a two-time Rolex Junior All-American. La Sasso is a North Carolina State University signee.