ST. CATHARINES, Ont. – The Republic of Korea soared up the leaderboard to take the team lead following the second round of the 2025 World Junior Girls Golf Championship at St. Catharines Golf & Country Club in St. Catharines, Ont.
All three members of the defending champions fired under par rounds to shoot a collective score of -9 under to put the Republic of Korea (Korea) into the lead at 12-under, four shots ahead of opening round leaders, France and two-time champions, Spain.
“All three girls played really good today, and it seems like they’re getting used to the course,” said Republic of Korea Coach Min Naon. “The grass is different, compared to Korea. I thought the wind was going to pick up in the afternoon but it was a nice day so they could play their own golf, so it’s good.”
Yeonseo Kim is not only making her debut at the World Junior Girls Golf Championship, but also the first time she’s representing her country.
Kim recorded a bogey-free 5-under 67 on Thursday to help lead Korea, while playing with an injured finger, that occurred earlier in the week. “Her round was incredible…she has very good concentration and focus,” added Naon.
Seojin Park, who is making her third appearance at the world championship, moved into second in the individual standings following a 4-under 68 to improve to 7-under for the tournament. Yun Seo Yang also shot an under-par round with a 3-under 69. The two lowest scores count towards the team’s collective score each day.
Both the team and individual leaderboards changed throughout the day, and Spain found themselves on top for much of the morning. At days end, Spain shot a combined score of 6-under led by a pair of 3-under 69’s from Adriana Garcia Terol and Nagore Martinez.
“I am very proud of them. They played very good today and also yesterday, they are a great team and get along very well,” said Spain’s Coach Adriana Zwanck.
“We also need to be calm and patient because this is golf, I don’t like to cheer too soon. I am going to try to make them feel relaxed and keep practicing because the other teams are really good and anything can happen at the end of the tournament,” added Zwanck.
Opening round leaders, France shot a team total of 1-under, led by Louise Landgraf’s 2-under 70 and Giselle Zhao’s 1-over 73. Italy jumped into fourth at 6-under following a pair of 2-under 70’s from Gemma Simeoni and Natalia Aparicio on Thursday. Team Canada 1 and Colombia are tied for fifth at 4-under while Team Canada 2 and England are tied for seventh at 3-under.
“I think we’ve come a long way in our junior girls’ program in terms of depth. I definitely feel that we have more depth and more talent coming up in our pipeline and just really looking forward to seeing what they can do for the rest of the week,” said Team Canada 2 Coach, Jennifer Ha following her team’s combined score of 5-under for the second round.
Ruihan Kendria Wang of Vancouver, B.C. led the way with a 3-under 69 and Clara Ding of White Rock, B.C. added a 2-under 70 to count for the team. Team Canada 2 is also represented by three-time tournament participant Eileen Park of Red Deer, Alta.
Ha added that the team will try to keep momentum going while working on a couple things.
“One of their big goals was to be able to play with each other, the Canada 1 and Canada 2 teams on the last couple days so hopefully that feeds as motivation and gets them to be in the final few groups the rest of the week,” she added.
Michelle Xing of Richmond Hill, Ont. (Team Canada 1) tied Wang for the Canadian low round on Thursday. Xing closed her day with back-to-back birdies, carding five in total on her final nine holes of the day. Clairey Lin of Langley, B.C. shot a 2-under 70 and Shauna Liu of Maple, Ont. recorded an even par 72.
England’s Charlotte Naughton carded the low round of the day with a bogey-free 6-under 66 to take the individual lead in St. Catharines.
Naughton opened with two birdies on the front nine before another on No. 12 and then added three straight from 15 through 17 and closed with par to move to 8-under for the tournament and now holds a one-shot lead over Park.
“I played really steady, and I am really happy to finish with three birdies in a row then a par. I played well, I just held all my birdie putts and had very good lag putts as well. Yesterday, I struggled a bit with the pace but today I definitely got it,” said Naughton following her round.
Naughton has enjoyed a successful season thus far. In May, she became the first ever English champion of the German Girls’ International Amateur Championship and was runner-up at The R&A Girls Amateur Championship in Wales last month. The 17-year-old will be representing England and Europe next week at the 2025 Junior Ryder Cup at Nassau Country Club and Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York and added that the opportunity means a lot to her.ST. CATHARINES, Ont. – The Republic of Korea soared up the leaderboard to take the team lead following the second round of the 2025 World Junior Girls Golf Championship at St. Catharines Golf & Country Club in St. Catharines, Ont.
All three members of the defending champions fired under par rounds to shoot a collective score of -9 under to put the Republic of Korea (Korea) into the lead at 12-under, four shots ahead of opening round leaders, France and two-time champions, Spain.
“All three girls played really good today, and it seems like they’re getting used to the course,” said Republic of Korea Coach Min Naon. “The grass is different, compared to Korea. I thought the wind was going to pick up in the afternoon but it was a nice day so they could play their own golf, so it’s good.”
Yeonseo Kim is not only making her debut at the World Junior Girls Golf Championship, but also the first time she’s representing her country.
Kim recorded a bogey-free 5-under 67 on Thursday to help lead Korea, while playing with an injured finger, that occurred earlier in the week. “Her round was incredible…she has very good concentration and focus,” added Naon.
Seojin Park, who is making her third appearance at the world championship, moved into second in the individual standings following a 4-under 68 to improve to 7-under for the tournament. Yun Seo Yang also shot an under-par round with a 3-under 69. The two lowest scores count towards the team’s collective score each day.
Both the team and individual leaderboards changed throughout the day, and Spain found themselves on top for much of the morning. At days end, Spain shot a combined score of 6-under led by a pair of 3-under 69’s from Adriana Garcia Terol and Nagore Martinez.
“I am very proud of them. They played very good today and also yesterday, they are a great team and get along very well,” said Spain’s Coach Adriana Zwanck.
“We also need to be calm and patient because this is golf, I don’t like to cheer too soon. I am going to try to make them feel relaxed and keep practicing because the other teams are really good and anything can happen at the end of the tournament,” added Zwanck.
Opening round leaders, France shot a team total of 1-under, led by Louise Landgraf’s 2-under 70 and Giselle Zhao’s 1-over 73. Italy jumped into fourth at 6-under following a pair of 2-under 70’s from Gemma Simeoni and Natalia Aparicio on Thursday. Team Canada 1 and Colombia are tied for fifth at 4-under while Team Canada 2 and England are tied for seventh at 3-under.
“I think we’ve come a long way in our junior girls’ program in terms of depth. I definitely feel that we have more depth and more talent coming up in our pipeline and just really looking forward to seeing what they can do for the rest of the week,” said Team Canada 2 Coach, Jennifer Ha following her team’s combined score of 5-under for the second round.
Ruihan Kendria Wang of Vancouver, B.C. led the way with a 3-under 69 and Clara Ding of White Rock, B.C. added a 2-under 70 to count for the team. Team Canada 2 is also represented by three-time tournament participant Eileen Park of Red Deer, Alta.
Ha added that the team will try to keep momentum going while working on a couple things.
“One of their big goals was to be able to play with each other, the Canada 1 and Canada 2 teams on the last couple days so hopefully that feeds as motivation and gets them to be in the final few groups the rest of the week,” she added.
Michelle Xing of Richmond Hill, Ont. (Team Canada 1) tied Wang for the Canadian low round on Thursday. Xing closed her day with back-to-back birdies, carding five in total on her final nine holes of the day. Clairey Lin of Langley, B.C. shot a 2-under 70 and Shauna Liu of Maple, Ont. recorded an even par 72.
England’s Charlotte Naughton carded the low round of the day with a bogey-free 6-under 66 to take the individual lead in St. Catharines.
Naughton opened with two birdies on the front nine before another on No. 12 and then added three straight from 15 through 17 and closed with par to move to 8-under for the tournament and now holds a one-shot lead over Park.
“I played really steady, and I am really happy to finish with three birdies in a row then a par. I played well, I just held all my birdie putts and had very good lag putts as well. Yesterday, I struggled a bit with the pace but today I definitely got it,” said Naughton following her round.
Naughton has enjoyed a successful season thus far. In May, she became the first ever English champion of the German Girls’ International Amateur Championship and was runner-up at The R&A Girls Amateur Championship in Wales last month. The 17-year-old will be representing England and Europe next week at the 2025 Junior Ryder Cup at Nassau Country Club and Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York and added that the opportunity means a lot to her.
“I think a lot of my tournaments this season went towards qualifying and I think this is a great challenge out here which is going to be similar to the Ryder Cup with the rough and the fast greens which we’re not to use to back at home in England.”
Garcia Terol is 5-under and is in third alone. Simeoni, Aparicio, Yang, Kim and Martinez are all tied for fourth at 3-under. Ding, June Weckman (Finland), Maria Errichetto (Colombia) and first round leader, Alice Kong (France) are tied for ninth at 2-under.
In total, a field of 23 teams, 69 players in total are competing for the team and individual championships. The individual champion will receive an exemption into the 2026 CPKC Women’s Open, taking place at Royal Mayfair Golf Club in Edmonton, Alta., August 17-23, 2026. The top three players and ties will also earn exemptions into the 112th Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship, presented by BDO, taking place at The Toronto Golf Club in Mississauga, Ont., July 20-24, 2026.
Several players who have competed in the World Junior Girls Golf Championship have gone on to great success on the LPGA Tour. Canadian Brooke Henderson, a 14-time LPGA Tour winner and Canada’s winningest professional golfer, finished fourth in the individual competition at the inaugural championship in 2014.
Other notable competitors who went on to become LPGA Tour winners include Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand who won back-to-back World Junior titles in 2018 and 2019 as well as Yuka Saso of the Philippines who won the 2016 World Junior title. 2023 CPKC Women’s Open winner, Megan Khang of the United States competed in the inaugural tournament in 2014. Other former World Junior competitors who have gone on to win on the LPGA Tour include Hannah Green of Australia and Maja Stark and Linn Grant of Sweden. Hye-Jin Choi from the Republic of Korea won both the 2015 team and individual championship at the World Junior Girls Golf Championship and has earned several top five finishes on the LPGA Tour.
For the both the team and individual leaderboard, following the second round of the 2025 World Junior Girls Golf Championship, please click here.
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