| Seventeen year old Joon Kim of Treviso, ITALY (2007) is out to the early lead at the Golfweek/FCWT Holiday Invitational. Kim, who carded a round of one under par on the GOLD course on Wednesday, has significant international experience playing in Europe, but is new to the American circuit. Kim teed it up at 8:20 am off #10 and made par 3 holes in a row. A bogey on 13 was quickly followed by birdie on 14. A repeat of this sequence occurred on #15 and 16. After making par on 17 and 18, Kim made the turn and eagled #1. The rest of his round was par golf except for a bogey on #4 to finish at one under par on this par 72 6801 yard course. Right behind Kim at even par is Donnie Shin of Columbia, MD (2007). Shin carded a round of even par on Wednesday with 3 bogeys, a birdie and an eagle on #1. Shin already has 2 wins at FCWT events this season: Back Creek and Pine Needles, and is currently ranked 68th in the Golfweek/Titleist rankings. Rarely does a player earn 3 or more wins during a season, but Shin is going to give it his best effort. He leads Gregor Slabe of Ljubljana, SLOVENIA, 2007 and Alexander Popov of Naples, FL (2007) by 1.Slabe is currently ranked 48th in the Golfweek/Titleist rankings. Seventeen year old Popov, like many of the other players at the top of the leaderboard, has some international experience. He and Gregor are playing in their first FCWT events of the season. The third player to card an eagle today is in 5th place. Sixteen year old Tyler Burton of Highland Park, IL, made eagle on #13 and finished the day at +2 to be all alone in 5th place. Chad Fleming of Seminole, FL (2008), who led the field in birdies on the day with 4 is tied with Chris Kennedy of Sarasota, FL (2006) for 6th place. Five players are T8: Kyle English of Bloomington, IL (2009), David Jeh of Busan (2006), Dennis Kwon of Rockville, MD (2005), Jay Vandeventer of Bristol, VA (2009), and Carson Weinand of Naples, FL (2008). Thirty-five players are within 10 strokes of the leader with 2 rounds to play. Tomorrow the players will play the Black Course. |
