THREE FOR THREE and THIRD times a charm for UihleinSophomore Peter Uihlein of Bradenton, FL, was able to hold off hard-charging Jed Dirksen of Coral Gables, FL (2007) and earn his 3rd win of the season in as many events. Uihlein who was tied with senior Craig Tallent of Haverford, PA, after round one of play, moved into sole possession of the lead on Sunday with a second round score of one under par and a gave himself a one stroke advantage over Tallent and Tommy Mou of Bradenton, FL (2009). Mou moved from tied for third to T2 with a round of one under par 70 on Sunday. Unlike his first two round, Uihlein did not card an eagle on Monday, but did match his first round birdie total of 3 to give him 7 for the event. After getting off to a rocky start on Sunday with a bogey and then a double bogey on numbers 1 and 2, Uihlein quickly showed why he is the # 2 ranked Golfweek/Titleist player in the country, by making par on holes 3-9. Peter then played his back nine at 3 under par to finish at 71 - the same as his two playing partners Tallent and Mou. However, Jed Dirksen who teed off in the next to last group of the day, had already arrived at the scorer's table with a round of 2 under par 69 to finish at 210 and tied with Peter. They headed to #17 for a playoff - a hole where Peter made birdie-birdie-par during the 54 holes of competition and Jed made birdie-par-par. Peter made his 3rd birdie in as many days and won his first FCWT playoff. They say the "third times a charm" and for Peter in playoffs this seemed to be the case. Twice last season Uihlein went to a playoff: once at the University of Oklahoma and once at Bermuda Run. In both cases he came up short - but not today. Today the day belonged to Uihlein. For Dirksen, it was his second 2nd place finish of the season after coming up one stroke short at the ASU event in December to Michael Garden of Scottsdale, AZ. He also finished T5 at Grand Cypress in December. Dirksen is one of those players you want on your team - case in point when he represented the FCWT in the US versus CANADA match at ASU. He's consistent and you can count on him, as further evidenced by his 39 pars this weekend. Tallent (69-71-71) and Mou (70-70-71) were also models of consistency. They stayed at the top of the leaderboard and battled with the best and finished T3. Finishing in a tie for 5th were Low Round recipient , Jordan Lewis of Frankfurt, IL (2008) and Diego Tamayo of Venezuela (2007). Lewis, overcame an opening round of 76 which put him in a tie for 9th, with rounds of 69-68 to finish at 213 (even par) for the event and tied with Tamayo who won here last season in the 13-15 division. Gene Yang of East Brunswick, NJ (2007) fired a final round of one under par and finished in 7th place. Chris Mullhaupt of Bradenton, FL (2007), who opened with a 70 rebounded from a second round of 75 to finish in 8th, earning his 4th Top 10 of the season. William Miller of McMurray, PA (2007) carded the only eagle of the day on his way to a final round 69 that put him T9 with Johnny Widmer of Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands (2008), who carded the Low Round of 68 on Sunday. Junior Gia Fanelli of West Palm Beach, FL, captured her first FCWT win with very consistent play at the Doral Junior Golf Classic. Miss Fanelli posted rounds of 75-74-74-223 to finish 2 strokes ahead of twelve year old Kyle Roig of Pembroke Pines, FL (2011) and Zahra Shah of Bradenton, FL (2007), who made a last round charge with a Low Round of one over par, but it was not enough to surpass Miss Fanelli. On Saturday, twelve year old Kyle Roig of Pembroke Pines, FL (2011) took the first round lead on Saturday with an opening round of 74 (+3). Miss Fanelli was one stroke back in a tie for 2nd. Then on Sunday, Miss Fanelli carded a round of 74 (+3) and moved from tied for 2nd to tied for 1st heading into Monday's final round. Her final round of 74 on Monday included 4 birdies which tied her with Kate Scarpetta for the most in this division while also giving her a 2 stroke advantage and her first win! For Miss Roig and Miss Shah, their tie for 2nd place was a personal best for each of them on the FCWT. Miss Shah also shared Low Round Honors with Monica Miller of Davie, FL, (2008) for their final round scores of 72. Kate Scarpetta of Moosic, PA (2007), who carded the Low Round of the day on Sunday, finished in 4th place matching her previous best finish at Sawgrass. Monica Miller finished in 5th, showing a lot of maturity while battling back from a tough 2nd round of 85. KOPSICK!In the Boys 13-15 division, Kyle Kopsick of Lake Bluff, IL (2008), the winner of the University of Florida event, put an exclamation point on the Doral Silver Jr. Golf Classic. Kopsick, who was co-leading with Bo Andrews of Raleigh, NC (2009) at the end of round two, fired a second consecutive round of 69 to pull away and win his second FCWT event of the season. Andrews and Kopsick were tied after round one on Saturday at71 then on Sunday both young men "went low" and fired rounds of 69 to stay neck-and-neck, but distance themselves from the rest of the field by 5 strokes. On Monday, Kopsick repeated his pull-away performance and finished 5 strokes ahead of Andrews. Andrews, playing in his first FCWT event, finished 4 strokes ahead of 3rd place and showed he is ready for this level of national competition. Finishing in third place was Peter Meeks of Sarasota, FL (2009), the winner at Innisbrook. Meeks finished 3 shots ahead of 4th place finisher James Tallent of Haverford, PA (2010), who moved up the leaderboard each day with rounds of 78-72-71. Two-time winner Michael Cromie of Cary, NC, finished in 5th place, and is second only to Kopsick in the 13-15 division points race. |
