Asia Young runs away from the field to earn decisive victory at Arizona Silver Belle

December 30, 2024 | by Justin Golba of AmateurGolf.com

Asia Young (Arizona Silver Belle Photo)

Young carded rounds of 69-69-70 to get to 8-under and secure the wire-to-wire win in Arizona

Asia Young of Bend, Ore., pulled away from the field in the overall division at the 2024 Joanne Winter Arizona Silver Belle at Briarwood Country Club in Sun City West, Ariz.

Young carded rounds of 69-69-70 to get to 8-under and secure the wire-to-wire win.

In each round, the 2027 graduate finished with just one bogey. She began the final round four strokes ahead of the field and never looked back.

“This week was really special," Young told the tournament committee after the round. "Something I did well this week, which I am really proud of, was I made good decisions and kept the cards pretty clean with limited bogeys. That is something I have been working on, and when I am out of position, I just get it back in play and at make par or bogey at worst."

Young added, "There were definitely a lot of coaches this week and people watching, which was amazing, but something I did to really stay in the moment and make sure I didn’t get nervous or ahead of myself was to try to do my very best with every shot and just be patient and let it happen.”

In the 14-and-under division, Kelly Zhang of Hillsborough, Calif., class of 2030, the youngest golfer in the field, finished the 54 holes with rounds of 73-69-72 to win the division and finish T3 overall in the field of 90 golfers.

Zhang racked up the greatest number of birdies, with a three-day total of 15, five more than Mia Clausen of Carlsbad, Calif., with 10. Gabriella Gu finished in second place for the 14&U division, two strokes behind Zhang, with rounds of 70-75-71 to finish even par.

On day one, hole two, Gu holed out for an eagle. To top that off, Gu aced hole three on day three for her first-ever hole-in-one.

The stiffest competition came from our 15-16 age division. Five golfers finished under par and ranked as follows: Asia Young finished 8-under; Rina Kawasaki of Palos Verdes Estates, Calif., finished in solo second place at 3-under; Ha Young Chang of Surrey, BC., finished in solo third place at 2-under.

Jessica Jang of La Canada, Calif., and Nicole Tang of Bellevue, Wash., finished T4 at 1-under to round out the top five.

Rina Kawasaki shot the lowest round of the tournament at 68, a clean bogey-free card, 33 out, 35 in.

Luna Lu and Raquel Walker tied with 216 strokes, even par for the tournament. In a scorecard playoff, Luna Lu secured the division, finishing with 71 on day three with five birdies on the day.

Angela Arora, a junior at the University of Arizona, won the 19-23 division at 4-over. Melanie Walker, a junior at the University of Missouri, was runner-up at 9-over.

Results: Arizona Silver Belle Championship

Place	Player	Location	Pts	Scores
1	Asia Young	Bend, OR	400	69-69-70=208
2	Rina Kawasaki	Palos Verdes Estates, CA	300	70-75-68=213
T3	Ha Young Chang	, Canada	200	74-70-70=214
T3	Kelly Zhang	Hillsborough, CA	200	73-69-72=214
T5	Jessica Jang	La Canada, CA	200	73-72-70=215

View full results for Arizona Silver Belle Championship

About the Arizona Silver Belle Championship

Asia Young runs away from the field to earn decisive victory at Arizona Silver Belle

Founded in 1971 by Joanne Winter, LPGA, the Joanne Winter Arizona Silver Belle Championship was to encourage competition in golf for young women amateur golfers under the age of 24. Today, it is nationally recognized and included in the major golf r...