Sage Valley Junior Invitational crowns two new champions

AIKEN, Sc. (WRDW/WAGT) - For the first time ever, the Sage Valley Junior Invitational saw a fourth round of play, and two golfers are going home with gold jackets.

The conditions were tough on Saturday, but the mental battles that some golfers were fighting were even tougher.

New Zealand’s Joshua Bai led the boys division the entire tournament, and entered the final round with a two shot lead.

Going into the back nine, that lead was shared with Jackson Byrd, son of PGA Tour golfer Jonathan Byrd.

Bai three-putted two out of the first three holes on the back nine, and Byrd carried a two shot lead into the thirteenth hole.

Playing in the same group as Bai and Byrd was Miles Russell, who had been lurking behind the two since Wednesday.

Russell was four shots off the lead with just five holes left to play, but a few costly mistakes by Bai and Byrd put him by himself in first place.

As he walked up the eighteenth green, Russell only needed to get up-and-down for bogey to win the tournament.

“I was able to kind of capitalize on that and get a little momentum, but it was kind of the opening I was waiting for and I was able to take advantage,” said Russell.

The 16-year-old from Jacksonville Beach has played at Sage Valley multiple times, but had never cracked the top-five until Saturday.

Having already made appearances in two PGA Tour level events, he now adds a gold jacket to his young resume.

Russell (-9) beat out Bai (-7) and Byrd (-6) to win the Boys Division.

“It’s so cool,” he said. “This golf course is definitely one of the toughest we play on.”

Not many players were able to go low Saturday due to high wind gusts, but that wasn’t going to stop the Girls Division leader.

Canada’s Aphrodite Deng led by four shots going into Saturday, and she continued to put a gap on the field as the day progressed.

Heading into the final hole, the tournament was already hers, but it didn’t stop her from hitting arguably the shot of the day.

Her approach into the eighteenth green rolled five feet from the hole, giving her the only birdie of the day between the girls and boys.

“I was just trying to get it on the green and I know that the pin was really tough today, so I wasn’t expecting it to be that close,” said Deng.

Deng (-7) beat out China’s Yujie Liu (-1) and two others at even-par.

While there was plenty of good golf played this week, only two can come out on top.

Miles Russell and Aphrodite Deng are the 2025 Sage Valley Junior Invitational champions.