Alexa Pano finished as the runner-up in 2018 at the 70th U.S. Girls’’ Junior Championship at Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach, Calif., and is set to contend for this year’s U.S. Junior Title at SentryWorld Golf Course. USGA/JD Cuban photo

Portage County Gazette

By John Kemmeter

The top girls junior golfers in the world will be in Stevens Point next week for the 71st U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship.

SentryWorld Golf Course will host the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship Monday through Saturday, July 22-27, as 156 players will compete, with the Semifinal Matches and Championship Match to be broadcast nationally on Fox Sports 1 (FS1).

It will be the second United States Golf Association (USGA) Championship held at SentryWorld, which also hosted the 1986 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links.

The Junior Championship is open to female amateur golfers who will have not reached their 19th birthday before July 21, 2019.

The 156 golfers who will compete advanced through Sectional Qualifying, which was held in 41 sites nationwide between June 17 and July 2.

Practice rounds are set to take place Saturday and Sunday, July 20 and 21, before the first round begins at 7 a.m. Monday, July 22.

The second round is set for Tuesday, July 23, after which the field will be reduced to 64 for the start of 18-hole match play Wednesday, July 24.

Match play for the Round of 32 and Round of 16 is scheduled for Thursday, July 25, with the Quarterfinals and Semifinals set for Friday, July 26, as the Semifinals are set to be broadcast live on FS1 from 1 to 3 p.m.

The 36-hole Championship Match will be held Saturday, July 27, and broadcast on FS1 from 1 to 3 p.m.

Last year, Yealimi Noh, 17, of Concord, Calif, defeated Alexa Pano, 14, of Lake Worth, Fla., 4 and 3, in the Championship Match at Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach, Calif.

Earlier this month, Noh made her LPGA Tour debut as a professional and will not defend her Title, while Pano is set to be in Stevens Point to compete for the Junior Championship.

Pano was seven years old when she was one of eight golfers featured in the 2013 Netflix documentary “The Short Game,” and is currently the top-ranked Girls Junior golfer in the nation in the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings, and ranked second in the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) rankings.

NCAA Division 1 Stanford University commit Rose Zhang of Irvine, Calif., is the top-ranked golfer in the AJGA rankings, and made the cut at the U.S. Women’s Open May 30 through June 2.

Other top contenders for the Junior Championship include 2017 Girls’ Junior Champion and Duke University commit Erica Shepherd of Greenwood, Ind.; 2017 Semifinalist and Florida State University commit Taylor Roberts of Parkland, Fla.; 2018 quarterfinalist and Mississippi State University commit Ashley Gilliam of Manchester, Tenn.; and 2018 quarterfinalist and Michigan State University sophomore Valery Plata of Colombia; while Jo Baranczyk of Green Bay will be the only golfer from Wisconsin competing in the event.

Admission is free, as tickets are not required and spectators are encouraged to attend.