Photos by Amanda Cantor of the AJGA and Mike Major.
Author: Charlie Hanger
Alaythia Hinds and Callia Ward steadily made their way up the leaderboard on Saturday and ended up in the same place at the end of their final rounds: tied at even par and headed for a playoff.
In the end, Hinds, a junior from Rancho Murieta, CA, emerged with the win after making a birdie on the par-5 18th in the playoff. She shot 74-70 for an even-par 144 total. Ward, a sophomore from Albuquerque, shot 73-71.
Alexis Lamadrid (2027) from Phoenix, who had a share of the lead with Koa Seymour after the first round, shot 73 on Saturday to finish alone in third place, one over for the tournament. Seymour struggled, shooting 79 to finish seven over.
Brenna Preap (2023) from Stockton, CA, and Julia Vollmer (2024) from San Antonio were tied for fourth at two over. Last year’s champ, Alona Avery (2024), was sixth at five over.
This was the third annual Mack Champ Invitational, but the first time the girls and boys played separate events. The boys tournament was in March at Memorial Park Golf Course in Houston for the third consecutive year. The girls moved to The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, TX. The LPGA’s first major of the season, the Chevron Championship, will be played on the same course next week.
After a two-under 70 on Friday that included a hole-in-one on No. 3, Aleah Shields-Rodipe seemed poised to cruise to victory in the 12-and-under division at the third annual Mack Champ Invitational.
She went into Saturday’s final round with a comfortable six-shot lead over Vivian Lott, but things got interesting on No. 12, their third hole of the day, when Lott came up with an ace of her own. The girls shot matching 39s on their first nine, but Lott made a run on the final nine, going one under through the first five holes to Shields-Rodipe’s three over.
In the end, Shields-Rodipe held off the charge, shooting 40 on her final nine for a seven-over 79 and five-over total, three shots ahead of Lott, who shot 76-76 to finish eight over.
Shields-Rodipe, a 7th-grader from Conroe, TX, just down the road from The Club at Carlton Woods, has played in every Mack Champ Invitational and finished second in her age division last year. Lott (Fayetteville, GA) and third-place finisher Layla Phillips (Harbor City, CA) are both sixth graders who made their MCI debuts in last year’s tournament.
Aleah Shields-Rodipe, a 7th-grader from nearby Conroe, TX, made a hole-in-one on the par-3 third on Friday. She also had an eagle on the par-5 eighth on the way to a two-under 70. She leads the 12-and-under division by six shots.
Koa Seymour and Alexis Lamadrid are tied atop the 13-18 division heading into the final round of the Mack Champ Invitational.
Seymour, a member of the class of 2025 from Valley Village, CA, had an up-and-down round with six birdies, four bogeys and a double to shoot 72. Lamadrid, a member of the class of 2027 from Phoenix, was more consistent with three birdies, two bogeys and a double to end up with the same total.
Julia Vollmer (2024, San Antonio), Zoe Hobbs (2024, Tomball, TX), and Alaythia Hinds (2024, Rancho Murieta, CA) are a shot behind at one over.
In the 12-and-under division, Aleah Shields-Rodipe, a 7th-grader from Conroe, TX, has a commanding lead after shooting 2-under 70. She made a hole-in-one on the par-3 third hole and an eagle on the par-5 eighth on the way to a front-nine 32; she cooled off a bit on the back, shooting 38. Vivian Lott of Fayetteville, GA, is second at four over and Layla Phillips of Harbor City, CA, is third at five over.
If the girls playing in this year’s Mack Champ Invitational are looking for a role model, they could do a lot worse than Amari Avery.
Since winning the inaugural MCI in 2021, Avery has been racking up accomplishments – All-American at USC, three time competitor at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, an 8-1-0 record for the United States in the Curtis Cup and Arnold Palmer Cup.
Now she’s earned an invitation to The Chevron Championship, the first major of the LPGA Tour season, which will be played April 20-23 at The Club at Carlton Woods, the site of this week’s Mack Champ Invitational for Girls. It will be Avery’s major championship debut.
Avery, from Riverside, CA, is currently ranked 11th in the women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking. Her sister Alona, a high school junior, won the MCI in 2022 and will be competing again this week.
The Cameron Champ Foundation has partnered with the PGA of America to revive Junior PGA WORKS, a companion tournament to the PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship (PWCC).
The Junior PGA WORKS will feature 12 boys and 12 girls, most of whom were competitors in this year’s Mack Champ Invitational. The 36-hole event will be played at Shoal Creek Club on May 6 and 7. The PWCC, known as the “Most Culturally Significant Championship in Collegiate Golf,” will be played May 8 to 10 at Shoal Creek and Bent Brook Golf Course in Birmingham, AL.
“We are proud to partner with the Cameron Champ Foundation in the return of Junior PGA WORKS,” said PGA President and Director of Golf at the Country Club of Lansing, John Lindert. “Junior PGA WORKS is a terrific opportunity for elite high school players to compete on an elevated stage and experience the excitement of the PWCC.”
This year’s PWCC will feature a lineup of 30 teams and 52 individuals representing 44 Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-serving institutions and other minority-serving institutions from all over the country.
The 24 players competing in the Junior PGA Works, presented by Medical Property Trust, will have the chance to showcase their talents in front of these college coaches and to participate in the entire Championship week, including PGA WORKS Beyond the Green, a career exploration event designed to educate and inspire talent from historically underrepresented backgrounds to pursue careers in the business of golf and beyond.
“As a foundation, we believe that creating sustainable pathways for diverse juniors from underserved and underrepresented backgrounds is critical to changing the face of the game and providing opportunities for those same juniors beyond the course,” said Jeff Champ, CEO and Co-Founder of the Cameron Champ Foundation. “We also believe that the best way to build these pathways and increase access is by finding like-minded partners for collaboration. We are proud to partner with the teams at Medical Properties Trust and PGA WORKS to mark the return of this event so that the juniors will be able to showcase their talent.”
Junior PGA WORKS was part of the PWCC from its creation in 1986 through the late 1990s.
You can read more about the event on pga.com.
The groups for the first round of the Mack Champ Invitational for Girls are set. The tournament will be played on the Nicklaus Course at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, TX, a change of venue after two years at Memorial Park Golf Course in Houston.
Defending champ Alona Avery tees off at 1pm.
Thanks to Babygrande Golf for this interview with Cameron! Scroll down to see all of the videos.
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Shiv Parmar held off defending champ KJ Ofahengaue to win the third annual Mack Champ Invitational on Sunday.
Parmar, a member of the class of 2025 from Selma, TX, was incredibly consistent over the weekend, making five birdies and just one bogey over his last 36 holes. His three day total of 4-under 212 was good enough to beat Ofahengaue by a shot in the 13-18 division.
In the 12-and-under division, Houston native Isaiah Diaz won with a final round 65, the low round of the tournament.
Ofanhengaue was trying to become the second family member to win at Memorial Park Golf Course this season. His cousin Tony Finau won the PGA Tour’s Cadence Bank Houston Open on the same course in November.
Trey Rusthoven of St. Peters, MO, shot 70 on Sunday to finish third at 2 under. Roman Solomon, who won the inaugural Mack Champ Invitational in 2021, was fourth at 1 over, and Awesome Burnett rounded out the top five at 2 over after shooting 69, the lowest final round score in the 13-18 division.
Both of the seniors in the top 5 will be playing college golf next year, Ofahengaue at Utah Tech and Rusthoven at Central Michigan.
This was the third year in a row the Mack Champ Invitational was held at Memorial Park in Houston, but it was the first time that it was an all-boys event. The Mack Champ Invitational for Girls will be played April 13-15 in The Woodlands, TX, at The Club at Carlton Woods, site of The Chevron Championship, the first major of the LPGA Tour season.
