Defending Champion Sam Saunders forces a playoff with overnight leader Joon Kim;
Kim holds on to earn his first win!One under par was the round to shoot on Sunday. On Saturday only 2 players posted sub-par rounds: Joon Kim of Treviso, ITALY (2007), the first round leader at 2 under par and Bud Cauley of Jacksonville, FL (2008) with a 1 under par. On Sunday, four players carded a one under par including defending TPC Sawgrass Champion Samuel Saunders of Windermere, FL (2006). Saunders who won this event last year with rounds of 74-72, opened on Saturday with a round of 75, and thus started the final round in a T9, but his 1 under par 71 put him tied with Joon Kim, who finished T3 at the FCWT/Golfweek Holiday Invitational at Tiburon in December. After 36 holes Kim and Saunders were tied at 146 (+2). The players went to #16 to play it off and Kim, who is Korean by birth, won with a par. Kim's father, an accomplished volleyball player, might consider this an "ace" or even a "kill." In any case, the Kim family was happy with their experience with junior golf here in the United States. Bud Cauley of Jacksonville, FL (2008), began the day one stroke back of overnight leader Kim, and finished in 3rd place after a final round of 76. Cauley, who won the University of Florida event last month, is currently ranked #35 by the Golfweek/Titleist rankings. Cauley finished one stroke ahead of Conrad Shindler of Coppell, TX (2007). Shindler, an FCWT 04-05 1st Team All-American, carded a solid round of even par on Saturday and tied Sam Saunders and Shaun O'Meara for most birdies in round one with 5. Saunders finished atop that list with 9 for the event. Joe Monte of Chantilly, VA (2007), who won the Amelia Island event last week, moved up to 5th place with his final round of 1 under par 71 (one of 4 players to shoot 71 today). Finishing tied for 6th were: Kyle Thomas of Fishers, IN; Neil Horsley of Cooper City, FL; and Tommy Mou of Bradenton, FL (2009). Raj Nahal of Longwood, FL (2006) finished in 9th place after finishing in a T18 last year. Special congratulations go to Lorenzo Scotto of ITALY (2007) who improved his second round by 10 strokes by carding a final round of 71. Scotto finished T10 with 5 other players: Gregor Slabe of Ljubljana, SLOVENIA, 2007, who won at Tiburon and finished 2nd at Amelia; Chris Mullhaupt of Bradenton (2007), who finished 2nd at Naples a few weeks ago; James Byrd of Windermere, FL (2007), who finished T2 at the University of Florida; Kevin Kring of Springfield, MO (2008), a 2004-05 FCWT All-American and Jacob Davidson of Jacksonville, FL (2006), who finished T18 last season at this event. Sean Dale of Jacksonville, FL (2008) carded two eagles for this event. On Saturday he made eagle on the par 5 2nd hole and on Sunday he made eagle on the par 5 16th hole. Major Forbess of Jacksonville, FL (2007) also made eagle on Sunday on the par 5 16th hole. Both young men finished T20. |
