Saunders and Aoki lead wire-to-wire to win!
Samuel Saunders of Windermere, FL (2006) earned his first FCWT victory of the 2005-06 season by carding three consecutive rounds of sub-par golf. Saunders, who has signed a National Letter of Intent to play for the Clemson Tigers next year, is a former FCWT 13-15 National Champion (2002). He is also the reigning Champion of the FCWT Sawgrass Jr. Golf Invitational. Sam's rounds of 70-69-69-208 allowed him to finish three strokes ahead of a hard-charging Tommy Mou of Bradenton, FL (2009), who earned the Low Round honors on Sunday for his 4 under par round of 68. Mou's final round highlights included making the turn at 3 under par and an eagle on the par 5 12th hole. Saunders led the division in birdies for the event with 16.
Finishing in a tie for 3rd place at 218 were sixteen year old Ian Gilley of Howey-in-the-Hills, FL, who fired the low round of 4 under par 68 on Saturday and 16 year old Shaun O'Meara of Windermere, FL (2007) who began the day in a tie for fourth with Justin Kim of Orlando, FL (2006). Chris Mullhaupt of Bradenton, FL (2007) finished in 6th place 1 stroke ahead of Gavin Cambre of Orlando, FL (2006), Jan Prokop of Prague, CZ (2006) and Nuno Henriques (winner of the FCWT World Woods event earlier this month), who all finished T7. Finishing in a T10 in this field of 50 boys were: Randall Allen of Atlanta, GA (2006), who carded 73 on each of his final two rounds; Max Griel of Rome, ITALY (2007), and Bayhaan Lakdawala of Dubai, UAE (2006).
Day Three of the Champions Gate Jr. Golf Classic saw Mark (Tyler) McCumber win the 13-15 division of his first FCWT event. The 14 year old from Ponte Vedra, FL, played consistently all weekend with rounds of 72-72-71-215 to finish at 1 under par for the event. McCumber didn't lead in most eagles (Mike Smith did), he didn't lead in most birdies (Hojin Kang did), he didn't even lead in most pars (Kyle Kopsick did). What he did was put together the 3 best consecutive rounds of the event to finish on top. IN an age where statistics are "everything," there is something to be said for playing "YOUR GAME." Thirteen year old Hojin Kang of Longwood, FL, made a valiant effort at winning this event with a 2nd round of 70 and a third round score of 71, but despite leading the division in birdies with 10, he came up 2 strokes short of McCumber. Kang did tie Johnny Hayes for the Low Round on Sunday and will now be invited to the TPC Sawgrass event in January. Finishing in third place was the overnight co-leader (with McCumber) Mike Smith of Ponte Vedra Beach, FL (2008). Smith's final round of 74 had 4 birdies, but lacked the eagle he had in both round one and round two. Finishing in a three-way tie for fourth were: Kyle Kopsick of Lake Bluff, IL (2008), Cyril Suk of Hewlett, NY (2011), who won at World Woods in a playoff, and Ed Waller of Ponte Vedra Beach, FL (2010). Johnny Hayes of Cape Elizabeth, ME (2008) tied for Low Round honors with Kang after posting a final round of 1 under par 71and finished in 9th place.
Twelve year old Sean Kelly of Staten Island, NY (2011) won his first event of the season in the 11-12 division at Champions Gate. Sean finished 11 strokes ahead of the rest of the field! Jason Hak of Bejing, CHINA (2012) finished in 2nd at 253, followed by Bailey Truesdell of Grand Blanc, MI (2012).
First round co- leader 14 year old Elisa Aoki of JAPAN distanced herself from the pack on Saturday by posting a second round score of 1 under par 71. Aoki who began the day tied with Ines Chandra of INDONESIA after posting an opening round of 73, carded only one bogey on Saturday on #2 (her 11th hole) to go with her 2 birdies on #4 and #13. On Sunday, 13 year old Sherlyn Popelka of Zuerich, SWITZERLAND (2009) [pictured right], who began the final round 5 strokes back of Aoki almost caught her as Popelka carded a final round of 76, while Aoki finished with an 80. But Aoki's first two rounds gave her enough of a lead to win by one shot over Popelka. Expect to see a lot of these two young stars going forward.
Finishing in a tie for third were: Jaclyn Sweeney of Bradenton, FL (2008) and Innapha Tantanavivat of Bangkok, THAILAND (2007). Sweeney also earned the Low Round honors with her final round of 74. Thirteen year old Hannah Yun of Bradenton, FL (2010), finished in 5th place. |
