East leads 9 to 6 after first day

Santa Rosa, CA - The 33rd Wyndham Cup began play on Tuesday morning at Mayacama Golf Club with four-ball, followed by afternoon mixed foursomes. The East team just barely took the lead in the morning after winning four matches to the West teams three, securing 5.5 points. The East earned three more points during the afternoon bringing their total to nine to the West's six.

Since 1990, the Wyndham Cup has brought together 40 of the country’s top junior golfers (20 males and 20 females) in an East versus West team match play tournament. In addition to featuring some of the world’s best junior golfers annually, the Wyndham Cup is known for its iconic host venues. A list that features Old Sandwich Golf Club, Mayacama Golf Club, The Stanwich Club, and Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge.

Mayacama Golf Club hosts in 2023 for the second time since 2017. Notable alumni who competed in the Wyndham Cup at Mayacama include LPGA Tour champion Rose Zhang, Major champion Patty Tavatanakit, Youngest qualifier for the U.S. Women's Open Lucy Li, and PGA TOUR member Cole Hammer.

Before play, two seniors on each team participated in the ceremonial striking of the tee. Sara Im of Duluth, Georgia, and Bryan Kim of Brookeville, Maryland, did the honors for the East, while Kiara Romero of San Jose, California, and Carson Kim of Yorba Linda, California, had the honor for the West.

The East team started strong and secured the first point of the 33rd Wyndham Cup. PJ Maybank of Cheboygan, Michigan, and Camden Smith of Sandy Springs, Georgia, secured the match on No.17 at 2&1 over Kush Arora of Pleasanton, California, and Boston Bracken of Saint George, Utah.

During the second match, University of Southern California verbal commit Jasmine Koo of Cerritos, California, and University of Virginia commit Jaclyn LaHa of Pleasanton, California, secured the first point for the West Team 1-up over University of Alabama verbal commit Molly Brown Davidson of Springville, Alabama, and Northwestern University verbal commit Megan Meng of Pennington, New Jersey.

The East and West teams went back and forth the rest of the morning and were tied until the East's Elizabeth Rudisill of Charlotte, North Carolina, and Sara Im, claimed the final match 2&1 over the West's Asterisk Talley of Chowchilla, California, and Alice Zhao of Irvine, California, to win the morning 5.5 over the West's 4.5.

The afternoon mixed foursomes was when the East began to pull away. The East won three matches outright to the West's one. One match was tied giving each team a half point.

The first match of the afternoon looked promising for the West when Arora and LaHa went up two through four holes. The rest of the match saw steady play, but the West took the match 2&1 over the East's Phillip Dunham of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida and Thanana Kotchasanmanee of Rome, Georgia.

The following match was dominated by the East's Gerardo Gomez of Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida, and Kathryn Ha of Roanoke, Virginia, setting the tone for the rest of the afternoon. East won 4&3 over the West pairing Johnnie Clark of Mesa, Arizona and Ashleen Kaur of Cypress, Texas.

The third match of the afternoon ended in the only tie of the mixed foursome pairings. Siblings Anna and Billy Davis of the West team won three of the last four holes to tie the East's William Jennings of Greenville, South Carolina, and Molly Brown Davidson of Springville, Alabama.

In the following match Smith and Rudisill of the East went up early winning six of the first nine holes. They would go on to win the match 5&3 against 2023 Polo Golf Junior Classic champion Jay Leng Jr of San Diego, California, and 2023 PING Heather Farr champion Gracie McGovern of Scottsdale, Arizona.

The final match of the day ended in the East's favor on No.18 when the East's Will Hartman of Marvin, North Carolina, and Meng won the last hole to win 2-up over the West's Byungho Lee of (South Korea) Plano Texas, and Yana Wilson of Henderson, Nevada.

After day one the East leads the West 9 to 6. Day two of competition at the 33rd Wyndham Cup will feature morning foursomes and afternoon mixed foursomes. Morning tee times begin at 7:30 a.m.

Follow along with the tournament on social using the hashtag - #WyndhamCup or follow the AJGA on Twitter and Instagram at @AJGAGolf.

Day One Results

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