Four Teams Advance to Semifinals at the 2024 17u National Car Rental PGA Jr. League Championship

Four teams have secured their spots in the semifinals of the 2024 17u National Car Rental PGA Jr. League Championship at Twin Warriors Golf Club—and broke a few records along the way.

Team New York entered Day Two in fourth, but surged up the leaderboard to claim the No. 1 seed with a 58-under par aggregate team score, the lowest two-day qualifying score in 17u Championship history.

Led by Joseph Dolezal, 17, and partner Bryce Karty, 17, who went 11-under on the first nine, Team New York also achieved the lowest 9-hole round in 17u Championship history with an 18-under par performance this morning. The pair said their strong showing, which included three eagles and 11 birdies across 18 holes, was “a lot of fun.”

“We started off with a tough drive, and then we hit a good second shot,” Karty said. “We were just kind of rolling from there, getting the ball in the hole pretty quickly and having a lot of fun.”

Team New York Coach Megan Younkman, LPGA, who serves as the Director of Instruction at Bethpage Golf Course in Farmingdale, N.Y., attributed her team’s success to positive attitudes and strong putting.

“They really made a lot of putts, and their attitudes were really positive,” Younkman said. “They were having fun today and just had more fun the lower they went. Our players have a long history with PGA Jr. League, and this is the last year for a lot of them, so what a way to go out!”

Team Utah (Lehi) edged Team Virginia (Dulles) to claim the No. 2 seed with 55-under across 36 holes at Twin Warriors. With all four of the top-seeded teams surpassing 53-under on Days 1 and 2, Team Utah Coach Tele Wightman, PGA, said the play was “flawless.”

“Coming into today, I thought if we scored 24-under, we’d still be good to get into the semifinals,” he said. “Luckily, we went 30-under because 24-under wouldn’t have been good enough.”

Defending champion Team Virginia ended Day Two at 55-under, entering the Semifinals ranked third, just like they did in 2023. It’s all part of the plan, according to Coach Scott Holmes, PGA, who leads the team based out of 1757 Golf Club in Dulles, Virginia.

“Today the objective was to get to the final four and just continue to play some good golf,” he said. “The kids are fighting hard. We were ranked third [in the semifinals] last year and won it all, so I’m hoping for a repeat.”

Team Illinois (Lemont) claimed the final Semifinal spot with a 53-under. Coach Kevin Weeks, who led his team to their second semifinal appearance in as many years, was proud of his team’s performance.

“I’m so proud of the kids,” the PGA of America Golf Professional said. “One of my pairs battled yesterday and battled again today, shooting 13-under across 18 holes, and they played great and had a blast. It’s a learning lesson for them that having fun is where you need to play golf.”

Tomorrow morning, the Nos. 1 and 4 seeds and the Nos. 2 and 3 seeds will compete in match play to determine who advances to the Championship round. Semifinal play will begin at 9 a.m. MT on Sunday, with the Championship match beginning around 1 p.m. MT. The two teams not advancing to the Championship match will compete for third and fourth place. Groups and starting times will be available here.

The eight teams not competing in the Semifinals can participate in the Twin Warriors Fiesta de Tamaya, a two-person event with prizes awarded for first and second place and closest to the hole. Team Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh) finished fifth with a -51; Team Texas (Farmers Branch) claimed sixth with 50-under; Team California (San Jose) edged Team Florida (Palm Beach Gardens) to claim the seventh seed after utilizing the first tiebreaker (entire aggregate team total score from both days of stroke play qualifying); Team Minnesota (Blaine) was ninth with -41; Team North Carolina (Fuquay-Varina) was 10th at 36-under, Team Ohio (Bainbridge) was 11th at -32; and Team Kansas (Lenexa) finished 12th with -23.

For Championship scoring, news and more, visit PGA.com.