Clara Ding made par on the second playoff hole, and Miles Russell made two birdies on the back to secure the girls’ and boys’ championships at the fifth running of The Elite Invitational at Marsh Landing Country Club.
Ding, the youngest player in the field and the only one from the class of 2029, rallied from a late two-shot deficit against fellow Canadian and UCLA commit Michelle Xing with a birdie on the 17th before Xing’s bogey on 18 forced a playoff.
“I wasn’t thinking too much when I was putting,” said Ding, of her winning stroke and the relief that came after tapping in from two feet. “It was really fun [today] because we were all having fun, even in the last group.”
Ding’s teammates that had followed the group for the last few holes mobbed her and showered her with water bottles in the immediate aftermath for a storybook scene.
Russell, the defending Rolex Junior Player of the Year, returned to the home course of his youth and converted the overnight lead into a three-shot victory on a muggy, challenging afternoon for the field. The sophomore left little doubt on the back, birdieing 16 and 18 after an up-and-down day for the rest of the final group.
“I didn’t put too much pressure on myself,” said Russell, whose resume includes a quarterfinal berth at the U.S. Junior and a PGA Tour entry. “Some of the lines are a little different now playing the different tees, but I remembered pretty much everything about the course which gave me a little bit of an advantage.”
