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SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. (January 26, 2023) -- North Carolina is home to some of the most talented junior golfers in the country, but only one girl and one boy can be named the North Carolina Junior Players of the Year each year by the Tarheel Youth Golf Association (TYGA) and Carolinas Golf Association (CGA). Macy Pate of Winston-Salem, N.C. and Carson Bertagnole of Pinehurst, N.C. have earned that honor for 2022 by having the most successful year in junior golf events at the local, state, regional and national levels.

This is Pate’s second consecutive year earning both of the illustrious North Carolina Junior Girls’ and Carolinas Junior Girls’ Player of the Year titles. She is the first player in CGA and TYGA history to ever do so.

In the 18 events Pate played in 2022, she captured victories in five of them including the CGA’s 5th Hope Valley Invitational, the Sea Pines Junior Invitational and the 14th Peggy Kirk Bell Golf Tour Invitational. During the future Wake Forest Demon Deacon’s 2022 campaign, she collected 13 top-10 finishes out of her 18 starts.

The five-time CGA Champion made a run on the national level, first by earning medalist honors at the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship Qualifier at Forest Oaks Country Club. Then she battled her way through stroke play and the Round of 64 to make it to the Round of 32 in the U.S. Girls’ Junior at The Club at Olde Stone. Pate will be starting her collegiate career in the Fall at Wake Forest University.

Carson Bertagnole set the tone for his triumphant year on the junior golf circuit with a big win at the first CGA Junior Championship of the year. Bertagnole bagged the 3rd HV3 Invitational in style after winning a two-hole playoff with Harold Varner III there to celebrate his first CGA Championship title.

Bertagnole went on to bring home the hardware at the TYGA Wedgewood Shootout and AJGA Junior at 12 Oaks within just three weeks of his HV3 Invitational win. Those three wins added to the Pinecrest High School sophomore’s impressive record of 16 top-10 finishes in his 24 events played in 2022. Earning runner-up at the 10th Creed Junior Boys’ Invitational and a third place finish at the 73rd Carolinas Junior Boys’ Championship helped Bertagnole ascend to the top of the North Carolina Junior Boys’ Rankings to secure his Player of the Year title.

The Player of the Year awards were determined by a combination of each player’s tournament scoring differential and the total points earned in the TYGA North Carolina Junior Rankings from January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2022 and who have not started college.

About the Tarheel Youth Golf Association (TYGA)

The Tarheel Youth Golf Association (TYGA), a division of the Carolinas Golf Association, a 501 (c) 3 organization, provides playing opportunities for its members, conducts educational seminars and events, acts as a junior golf informational clearinghouse, provides free USGA handicaps to junior golfers in North Carolina, recruits sponsor clubs that grant junior access to golf facilities in North Carolina, publishes monthly North Carolina junior rankings, and awards Junior Player of the Year and All-State awards to the top juniors in North Carolina. Membership is open to any boy or girl who are legal residents of N.C.; are 18 years of age and under; and who have not started college.
 

About the Carolinas Golf Association (CGA)

The CGA is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational organization that was founded in 1909 to promote and to protect the game of golf in the Carolinas by providing competitions, education, support and benefits to golf clubs and golfers. The CGA is the second largest golf association in the country with over 700 member clubs represented by nearly 150,000 individuals.

The CGA annually conducts 48 championships and five team match competitions for men, women, juniors, and seniors. It also runs over 150 One-Day (net and gross) events as well as qualifying for USGA national championships. The CGA serves golf in the Carolinas with numerous programs such as: the USGA Handicap System; tournament management software and support; course measuring and course/slope ratings; agronomy consultation; answers about the Rules of Golf, Rules of Amateur Status, and Handicapping; Carolinas Golf Magazine; Interclub series; Tarheel Youth Golf Association; Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame; expense assistance for USGA Junior and Girls' Junior qualifiers from the Carolinas; and the Carolinas Golf Foundation (CGF). The CGF has distributed nearly $2,000,000 since 1977 to benefit Carolinas' golf initiatives including junior and women's programs.     

For more information about the CGA, visit our website.

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