McMurray – The senior led the field by two strokes when Orches’ Jonah Shorath stepped into the first tee box in the final round of the 2025 WPIAL Class 2A Boys Golf Championship at Valley Brook Country Club on September 30th.
Despite filming three overs in the final round, the senior competed in the fourth consecutive PIAA Championship, winning his first WPIAL Class 2A title and earning a card for 75.
“This is amazing,” Sholer said. “I’ve been hoping to win WPIALS for a while, but I’ve come very close throughout high school. I’m happy to finally be able to hold my grip on it once and achieve my goal.”
The senior golfer is not a stranger to golfing big games throughout his high school career, but became a freshman in Quaker Valley, finishing 13th and finishing in OLSH (3rd & T-4th) over the past two years.
However, golfers have never come to the final round leading the pack to this day.
But instead of feeling the pressure to hold the lead, Schollaert remained composed and didn’t try much.
“I’m sure there was an extra pressure, but when I was playing golf in these types of games, I felt like normal,” Shorath said. “As everyone else feels, there was definitely some extra pressure on the first teebox, but I was so nervous and didn’t surprise myself.”
For seniors, it was a round of up and down.
He may not have played the best round, but Sholer continued to focus on his goal of winning the WPIAL Championship, cutting off his previous holes in the round and moving forward.
“It wasn’t my best golf today,” Sholer said. “There was nothing great, but nothing bad. I scrapped my path and when I hit a good shot that was good enough to outweigh the bad shots, I made enough par to make it.”
When Schollaert concluded his WPIAL personal golf career in qualifying for the 4-Straight PIAA Championship, Sewickley Academy’s Trey Susa began his high school career, finishing +6 with freshmen in third place and finishing the +6 to compete in the state championship.
“Today, I made a lot of clutch pads out there today to put me in this position. It’s great to be able to compete with some of the best golfers at WPIAL,” Susa said.
In the freshman’s first round match, the short game was a weak spot for Susa, with four bogeys on the front nine.
However, in the championship match, Susa was locked up after two bogeys in the first three holes.
“Today I was on the green and focused on taking up extra time when the putter gets hot,” Susa said. “I was hitting my spot, playing irons and three wood instead of a driver, playing them all the way from the tee ever since the tee.”
One Beaver Valley golfer competed in the PIAA State Championship at the WPIAL Class 3A Championship held at Butler Country Club on September 29th, along with a pair of Class 2A PIAA State Qualifiers.
West Allegheny sophomore Nico Ward finished his championship shooting with a score of 142 in the second round before finishing with Wpial Bronze.
This is Ward’s second high school career that he finished 9th in 2024.
While Ward headed back to State College, Umbridge’s Colt Hililo golfed the historic round and became the first golfer in the history of the program to qualify for the WPIAL Championship.
“Qualification and playing at the WPIAL Championship gives us the pride that they (Ambridge) can put it on paper, saying that this student represented us as a community at the WPIAL Golf Championships,” says Hisiro.
Hisiro entered the final round, tied to 16th place and came second from the state championship qualifiers.
The final round may have been his path after 86 (+16) carding and 34th overall, but his experience playing in the championship is something he always remembers.
“This course was really pure and one of the best I’ve ever played,” Hisiro said. “You have to resort to your short game, but it was my iron that made me fail. When I often filmed the previous two rounds, I was hitting the green.
The PIAA State Championship will tee off at Pennsylvania Golf Course on October 20th.
