East Team Wins Ballenisles Junior Cup At Ballenisles Country Club
Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. (July 25, 2023) – The East Team won the 10th Annual BallenIsles Junior Cup at BallenIsles Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The two-day, Ryder Cup-style tournament was played Saturday, July 22 and Sunday, July 23 on the Club’s legendary East Course and featured the area’s most accomplished male and female junior golfers, ages 18 years and younger.
“The highlight of the BallenIsles Junior Cup is the camaraderie between the kids,” said Jeff Fitzherbert, PGA, director of golf, BallenIsles Country Club. “They all were interested in each other’s matches and were very excited to have been a part of this great team event.”
The 10th Annual BallenIsles Junior Cup featured 20 male and 12 female golfers. East and West Team members included:
East Team: Bento Assis, Jackson Kantowski, Josh Deblinger, Jacob Kutner, Sophia Quinones, Christiana Marcellus, Jay Brooks, Oscar Crowe, Ryan Lopez, Sabrina Kim, Abigail Sheldon, Alex Heard, Sam Brown, Elijah Zamarron, Yvette O’Brien, Gabriella Albert
West Team: Christian Figueredo, Corbin Scott, Nicco Salemi, Brayden Jenard, Nicole Yugay, Staci Pla, Sebastian Kawas, Lorenzo Rodriguez, Aiden Arce, Brianna Castaldi, Olivia Marano, Tomy Jaunet, Brett Moore, Max Fonseca, Grace Carter, Punchy Mahathep
Private golf community in Palm Beach Gardens
Since 2011, BallenIsles Country Club has invited South Florida’s top junior golfers to participate in the BallenIsles Junior Cup. Played on the club’s newly renovated Nicklaus Design East Course, the BallenIsles Junior Cup is a fun team competition, and is sponsored by Cleveland Golf and Srixon.
ABOUT BALLENISLES COUNTRY CLUB:
In 1963 legendary Florida developer John D. MacArthur and the PGA of America teamed up with golf course architects Dick Wilson and Joe Lee to design a championship-caliber golf facility. Over the next ten years, BallenIsles, then called PGA National Golf Club, hosted numerous major tournaments like the PGA Championship and PGA Seniors Championship and was home for the Professional Golfers’ Association of America. The Club was also the host site for the original PGA TOUR Qualifying School and held the inaugural PGA Merchandise Show. When the MacArthur/PGA of America agreement expired in 1973, the Club was renamed the JDM Country Club for John D. MacArthur. For the next 15 years, the prestigious local country club hosted many celebrities and professional golfers and staged many events on the three golf courses on the property. In 1988, the three golf courses and surrounding property were sold by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and renamed BallenIsles Country Club. A multi-year and multimillion dollar plan to develop a private country club community was unveiled. Since the early 2000’s, BallenIsles Country Club has been consistently ranked as one of the Top 100 Clubs in America.
A $35 million clubhouse renovation was completed in November 2018, featuring 115,000 square feet of luxurious space; three championship courses with 54 holes of golf; a world-class 21-court tennis and 9-court pickleball complex; and a state-of-the-art Sports Complex with a full-service Cosmo & Company salon and spa, fitness center, Pilates & group exercise studios and resort-style swimming pool.
The recent $9.3 million golf enhancements to the East Course by Nicklaus Design, practice grounds and ‘71 Golf Learning Center follow the construction of a $1.3 million pickleball complex in 2021; and the 2020 redesign of BallenIsles’ South Course by famed golf course architect Rees Jones. The Club also recently announced a $19 million renovation and expansion project of the Club’s existing Sports Complex. Construction on the the project will begin in August 2023, with completion slated by the end of 2024.