Rowland Heights Golfer Advances to Semifinals

Henry Liaw of Rowland Heights won two matches Friday in the U.S. Junior Golf Championship at Oak Hills Country Club in San Antonio and advanced to the semifinals.

Liaw will play Chanin Puntawong of Bradenton, Fla. in a semifinal match at 8 this morning.

Liaw, ranked No. 12 in the nation, defeated No. 2 Casey Wittenberg of Memphis, Tenn., 3 and 1, in the quarterfinals. Earlier in the day, he defeated Phillip Telliard of Riverside, 3 and 2.

Puntawong defeated Kyle Metzler of Rancho Murieta, 4 and 2, to advance to the semifinals. Andrew Dresser of Carrollton, Texas, will face Richard Scott of Canada in the other semifinal.

The winners will meet in the final at 1:30 p.m. today.

* Nicole Perrot of Chile and Whitney Welch of Las Vegas won semifinal matches in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at Indian Hills Country Club in Mission Hills, Kan., and will meet today in the 18-hole tournament final.

Perrot defeated 13-year-old Morgan Pressel of Bradenton, Fla., 6 and 5. Pressel earlier this year qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open.

Welch needed extra holes to advance, defeating Elizabeth Janangelo of West Hartford, Conn., in 22 holes.