Rehoboth Beach Junior Open shows off great young talent
June 17, 2005
The 2005 edition of the Rehoboth Beach Junior Open gave 60 or so young golfers from several states a chance to compare their own progress with a wide range of competitors. As often happens at this popular event, held at Rehoboth Beach Country Club, there were several surprising finishes.
Erica Pellegrini won the Girls Championship with a 76 from the red tees, her first time ever in which she scored lower than 82. She is twelve years old.
Pellegrini will enter the eighth grade at Garnet Valley Middle School in Pennsylvania. Pellegrini and her dad play golf at Ed Oliver Golf Course near Wilmington.
“The whole course set up for me well today. I really liked the fast greens. I made a bunch of saving pars, and birdied the 8th and 9th holes,” said Pellegrini.
Julie Robinson of Rehoboth Beach shot a 79 for second place. The Worcester Prep School student enters 11th grade this fall, and plays golf on her school’s team.
“I tripled my first hole [No. 18], and bogeyed the next one. I started playing much better after we returned to the back nine; that 40 on the front nine, whew!” she said.
Robinson will be trying to qualify for the U.S. Junior Championship later this summer, and also plans to play in the Delaware State Amateur.
Erik Hoffstadt of Wild Quail near Wyoming, Delaware won the Boys 11-13 Championship with an 83. Patrick McCahan of Prospect Bay Country Club in Maryland took second, one stroke behind Hoffstadt.
The 76 shot by John Mlynarski IV, of Harbourtowne Golf Course near Oxford, Maryland, won the Boys 14-15 Championship. Greg Matthias of Delcastle Golf Course in Wilmington earned second place with an 82.
Three boys tied for first place in the 16-18 category, when each scored 72 on the bright, warm day. They were forced into a playoff for the two top spots, but it was all over after only one extra hole. Eric Onesi, who plays out of Fieldstone near Wilmington, won first place, while Jay Whitby of Wild Quail took second. Pat Clark of Cripple Creek Country Club, in Ocean View, finished third.
Whitby won the main prize of the day, however, when the Delaware State Golf Association’s Scholarship Committee announced their awards at the luncheon preceding the tournament’s shotgun start. Whitby will be using his $4,000 scholarship to offset the costs of going to play on the golf team at the University of Arkansas, in Little Rock. Whitby is currently ranked as the #1 junior golfer in Delaware by Golfweek magazine.
The DSGA Committee also awarded four additional scholarships, each for $2,000. John Purple, Cape Henlopen High School’s leading golfer for the last two years, accepted the award. He’s currently planning to attend Methodist College in North Carolina for their Golf Management Program. Hugh T. Ellison, of Worcester Prep School in Berlin, Maryland, will use his scholarship at the University of Delaware. Philip J. Margiotta graduated from Salesianum High School in Wilmington, and will be going to the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Robert S. Wharton, of Garnet Valley High School in Boothwyn, Pennsylvania, has not yet selected a college.
In addition, the Committee also awarded two $1,000 scholarships to Joseph and John Brown. Both brothers attend St. Mark’s High School in Wilmington, and both plan to enter the Golf Management Program at Methodist College.
The scholarships are officially for one year only, but are renewable every year if the recipients keep up their grades. Currently the Scholarship Fund is supporting 18 students in a wide variety of colleges and universities.
Junior golfers (and their parents) looking for more information about the Scholarship Fund should contact Rehoboth Beach CC golf pro Ron Barrows, at 302-227-1096.
Wagamon part of another winning team
Christina Wagamon was among the best girl golfers when she attended Cape Henlopen High School a few years ago, and she’s continuing that winning tradition in her ongoing college golf career.
She took eleventh place among all players with a combined 84-83-92 (259) total, as her Catawba College team won it’s first-ever South Atlantic Conference Women’s Golf Championship this spring. Wagamon is back in the Cape Region this summer, serving an internship at Rehoboth Beach Country Club before she heads back to Catawba for her senior year.
Pete Oakley’s Excellent Champions Tour Adventure
Pete Oakley’s opening-round 72 in the Bayer Advantage Classic put him in 49th place after the first round, but not far out of the lead. Unfortunately, bad weather cancelled the second round, and also took its toll on Oakley and most of his competitors during a rain-delayed final round. Oakley struggled to a 76, dropping down to 69th overall for the week.
The Champions Tour is off this week, so Oakley planned to come back to the Cape Region to rest and prepare for the next event.