 A chilly start gave way to a warm southerly breeze during the 1st round on the Oak Marsh Course at Amelia Island, FL. Winds were steady at 10 miles per hour making the temperature feel like the mid 50's. Joe Monte is out to the early lead at the Amelia Island Junior Golf Classic. Monte, a junior from Chantilly, VA, fired the only sub-par round on Wednesday to take the first round lead. Joe's 2 under par round included 14 pars (tied with Slabe for the the most in this division) and gives him a 2 stroke lead over Tyler.jpg) Burton of Highland Park, IL (2007) going into round two. Burton, who led the division in birdies with 5, carded a round of even par on Wednesday. Currently in third place at +1 is Brian Whittle of Golden City, MO (2006). Brian finished the day strong with a birdie on #18 and hopes to carry that into Thursday's round. One stroke back of Whittle is Sean Dale of Jacksonville, FL (2008). Dale has been hanging around the top of the leaderboard consistently this month with a T2 at Grand Cypress and a T3 at Naples. Watch for him in the coming rounds. Another local player, senior Jacob Davidson of Jacksonville is in 5th place at +3. Davidson, who finished 2nd here last year, carded 4 birdies on the day as did Kento Mizumaki of Windermere, FL. The winner of the Golfweek/FCWT Holiday Invitational is in 6th place: Gregor Slabe of SLOVENIA (2007). Bryan Eger of Hopkinton, MA (2007) and Marc Hensel of Tampa, FL (2006) are tied for 7th place at 77 (+5). Six players are tied for 9th place at 78 (+6): Andrew Nottenkamper of Boynton Beach, FL (2006), Jake Daly of Cincinnati, OH (2007), Ryan Dorner of Glenview, IL (2007), Jonathan Guess of Kingsland, GA (2006), Tyler Lamar of Jacksonville, FL (2006), who carded the only eagle on the day, and Ben Bellville of Granger, IN (2007). In the boys 13-15 division, Mark McCumber of Ponte Vedra, FL (2009), Hojin Kang of Longwood, FL (2010), who led this division in birdies for round one and Richard Werenski of South Hadley, MA (2010) are tied for the lead at 75 (+3) after round one. McCumber won the ChampionsGate event by 2 shots over Kang. Werenksi's best finish so far this season is 3rd at Duke. In fourth place and one stroke back is Mike Smith of Ponte Vedra, FL. Smith is two shots ahead of David Hutchinson of Beaver, PA (2009) and Brant DeLongy of Winter Park, FL (2009). Eleven year old Joshua Lee of Orange Park, FL (2013), leads the 11-12 division after an opening round of 79. Lee has a 7 stroke advantage over Michael Werenski of South Hadley, MA (2012) heading into round two. Werenksi is 6 strokes ahead of third place Joshua Mourao of Ponte Vedra Beach, FL (2011). Gia Fanelli of West Palm Beach, FL (2007) carded an 81 on Wednesday to take the first round lead at the Amelia Island Junior Golf Classic. Miss Fanelli led the division with 10 pars on the day. The opening round got off to a chilly start then warmed with a southerly breeze that made the temperatures feel like the mid-50s. Thirteen year old Christine Meier of Rochester Hills, MI (2010), who finished 3rd at Duke, is in 2nd place at +11 after leading this division in birdies with 3. Two local players are tied for third. Meghan Green of Jacksonville, FL and Catherine O'Donnell of Ponte Vedra, FL, both carded rounds of +12 (3 back of Fanelli). In a tie for 5th are Amy Meier (sister of Christine) and Cassie Boles of Lakeland, FL (2009). |
