The RLX Ralph Lauren Junior Classic started today with the first two rounds of Pool Play. The 64-player field this year is headlined by 54 past AJGA champions and 29 Rolex Junior All-Americans. The 32 boys and 32 girls are competing in the only match-play format event on the AJGA schedule. Seven boys and six of the girls are ranked within the top 25 of the Rolex AJGA Rankings.
Seventeen juniors, eight in the Boys' Division and nine in the Girls' Division, went undefeated through two matches.
Wheaton Ennis of Litchfield Park, Arizona
Will Hartman of Marvin, North Carolina
Blades Brown of Nashville, Tennessee
Sterling Hurd of Austin, Texas
Tyler Mawhinney of Fleming Island, Florida
Jackson Byrd of Saint Simons Island, Georgia
William Ma of San Diego, California
Mason Howell of Thomasville, Georgia
Lisa Herman of Jenks, Oklahoma
Jasmine Koo of Cerritos, California
Lily Peng of San Ramon, California
Ryleigh Knaub of Debary, Florida
Yujie Liu of Beijing, China
Jude Lee of Walnut, California
Yu-Chu Chen of Allen, Texas
Kathryn Ha of Roanoke, Virginia
Sophia Li of New York, New York
No. 1 seed Wheaton Ennis showed his dominance over his pool by winning 7&6 in the morning over Jackson Ormond of Webster, New York. He won his afternoon match over Daniel Zou of The Woodlands, Texas, 5&3. Ennis is headed to Texas A&M in the fall.
No. 2 seed Megan Meng of Pennington, New Jersey, was upset in her second match of the day where Samantha Chiou of Orinda, California, won 1 up.
Some of the biggest wins of the day included:
Morning win by Ennis over Ormond at 7&6
Morning win by Brown over Aidan Dortch of Dallas Texas, at 8&7
Morning win by Brooks Simmons of Dallas, Texas over Jon Ed Steed of Enterprise, Alabama at 6&4
Morning win by Ma over Michael Lugiano of Jackson Township, Pennsylvania, 6&5
Mawhinney win over Hunter Stetson of Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, at 6&4
Byrd win over Nathan Miller of Dallas, Texas, at 6&5
Herman win over Lucy Yuan of La Jolla, California, at 5&4
Liu win over Emma Wang of Palo Alto, California, at 6&5
Helen Yeung of Clarksville, Maryland, win over Gloria Nip of Port St. Lucie, Florida, at 5&3
Matches to watch Wednesday include:
Boys Division
Ennis (Pool A), Hartman (Pool B), Brown (Pool C), Byrd (Pool E), Ma (Pool F), Howell (Pool G) all have two points in their pool.
In Pool D, Sterling Hurd of Austin, Texas, and Mawhinney both have two points
In Pool H, Chase Hughes of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Pennson Badgett of Pilot Mountain, North Carolina, lead their pool with one and a half points each. Charles Nelson of Dallas, Texas, is in the mix with one point.
Girls Division
In Pool A, Jasmine Koo and Lisa Herman have a deciding final match to see who will be the outright winner. A tie would force a playoff between the two.
In Pool B, Maye Huang of Katy, Texas holds a half point lead over Megan Meng and Samantha Chiou.