JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Playing in the final group alongside Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 Nelly Korda and five-time LPGA Tour winner Hannah Green, 16-year-old Gianna Clemente hung tough in the final round of the Mizuho Americas Open, winning the modified Stableford AJGA competition with a total of 149 points.
She began the day with a two-point lead over defending AJGA champion Yana Wilson, and Clemente parred her first seven holes of the day to earn 14 points, then sitting at 127 points with 10 holes to play. She made her first final-round birdie on the par-5 8th hole, an effort that earned her three more points in the Stableford event, and she parred the ninth hole to turn with 132 total points.
Clemente birdied again on the par-5 10th hole, parring the 11th before making her first mistake on No. 12, double-bogeying the par 4 to not earn any points for the first time since her first hole on Thursday at Liberty National. She steadied herself with pars on 13 and 14, picking up another birdie on the par-4 15th hole to have 144 points with three holes to play.
The teenager parred 16 and then bogeyed 17, ultimately needing a bogey or better to avoid a playoff with Wilson and Anna Huang, who both finished with 147 points. After finding the green in two and running her birdie effort well by, Clemente wound up burying her resulting par putt, earning her first AJGA victory since the 2023 Girl’s Junior PGA Championship.
“(This one ranks) very high,” said Clemente. “Last year, I definitely didn't play the way I wanted to, but this is just such a beautiful place and such a special event. I think that the way the event is run, the people here, obviously getting to play alongside the pros, it doesn't get much better than that. To be able to win at a place like this and event like this, it's really, really special.”
One of the highlights of the Mizuho Americas Open is the opportunity the AJGA participants have to compete alongside the world’s top professional talent over the weekend at Liberty National Golf Club. For Clemente, getting to tee it up in the final round with two of the hottest players on the LPGA Tour this season was an experience she will never forget and taught her lessons that she’ll look to apply to her own game when she finds herself in contention again down the line.
“I think just watching them and their composure,” Clemente said of what she learned from Green and Korda. “Obviously, they're pretty much in the same situation that I am, just on a bigger stage. Both were very, very close, and even though I wasn't playing with my playing competitors, I knew it was really close. To watch them stay composed and patient, which is what I was trying to do as well, I think watching them do that was really cool.”
LPGA Tour fans are more than familiar with Clemente, having not only watched her compete at last year’s Mizuho Americas Open but also in 2022 at the three events for which she Monday qualified as a 14-year-old – the CPKC Women’s Open, the Dana Open and the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G. She also played in the 2023 CPKC Women’s Open and has teed it up in two Epson Tour events, the 2022 Twin Bridges Championship and the 2023 Florida’s Natural Charity Classic.
Luckily, fans of Clemente’s won’t have to wait very long to watch her play in another LPGA Tour tournament, as the 16-year-old is scheduled to tee it up in the ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer in Atlantic City, N.J., in just a few weeks’ time. She has yet to make a cut in any of the LPGA Tour events in which she has competed, and that’s a goal that Clemente will be looking to accomplish at the Seaview, Bay Course starting on June 7 as she works to carry this momentum forward.
Clemente will surely be leaning on what she gleaned from her victory at the Mizuho Americas Open as she chases that made cut down next month in the Garden State. But Clemente will also be implementing the lessons she learned from her near-miss at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur as she fights for a weekend spot at the ShopRite LPGA Classic, something that we’ve also heard Nelly Korda talk about throughout the 2024 season.
“I think blocking a little bit of (the attention) out just comes with experience,” said Clemente. “At Augusta, the crowds were very loud and very close to you as well. Being in that final group I think just taught me a little bit of how to block it out even more. It's good when the crowds are embracing you and want to see you win and things like that. It's good when it's a positive on the positive side, but sometimes you do have to block it out. I think it just comes with experience.”
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