Oakwood High School senior Amay Poria has verbally and formally accepted to play NCAA Division I golf for the University of Pennsylvania, one of the top Ivy League Schools under the mentorship of Bob Heintz, a former PGA Touring Professional.
Poria will be Oakwood’s first NCAA Division I athlete and its first Ivy League student.
Poria had an incredible summer not only on the golf circuit but also in the college recruiting process where he was scouted by a number of schools throughout the summer.
Playing various tournaments, Poria placed sixth at the Northern California Amateur Stroke Play Championship competing against the state’s top amateur, NCAA Div I, and college coaches.
This finish gives him automatic exemption into next year’s California State Amateur Championships.
He then tied for first in Southern California at the California State Junior Amateur Championship. A few weeks later, he went to qualify for the US Junior Championship by making the cut on the first playoff hole after two rounds of golf on the same day. At the US Junior itself, he played solid golf and at one point had more than 18 coaches observing and following him.
Poria went to qualify for the PGA Frys Open and made the initial pre-qualifier out of 120 players, but then failed in the “Monday qualifier” to secure one of the four spots out of 120 players.
Poria is ranked in the top 200 internationally on the junior golfing circuits and is also has a World Amateur Golf Ranking as well. He looks to continue playing for Oakwood through his high school senior year and will keep competing at all levels of play.Â
In the college recruiting process, Poria was seen by top golf and academic schools such as UC Davis, USD, Fresno State, Loyola Marymount, Saint Mary’s, UC Irvine, Arizona State, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Kansas, UTEP, George Washington, Northwestern, Columbia, Rutgers, UPenn, Vanderbilt, Colorado State, Bethany among others.
He also received offers to play at many of these schools, visited some, talked to many of the coaches and finally settled on University of Pennsylvania as the best choice for him.
Poria has been taught by Don Leone, the Director of Golf at Coyote Creek, since taking up the game some six years ago.
