Round 2 Recap

Day Two:  Less Wind, Lower Scores

After a grueling day in the wind on Saturday, the players in the Innisbrook Jr. Golf Classic found the conditions more favorable on Sunday.  The winds had calmed to the 10mph range instead of 35+ and the temperatures were in the mid-60s when the round was completed. 

Jhared Hack of Heathrow, FL (2007) who began the second round in a tie for 5th after an opening round of 78 (+5), fired a 2 under par 69 on Sunday to take the outright lead going into Monday's final round.  Hack, who is currently ranked 35th in the Golfweek/Titleist rankings, started the day with a bogey, but immediately came back with a birdie and never looked back.  He put together a string of 7 pars to make the turn at even then made birdie on #10 and #17 to finish at 2 under.  He will have a 3 stroke lead over FCWT newcomer Eric Shaw of Longwood, FL (2007), who began the second round tied for 9th but carded a round of even par 71 to move into 2nd place.  Shaw has a one stroke advantage over James Field Jr. of Pinecrest, FL (2007) and Jonathan Randolph of Brandon, MS (2007).  Both Field and Randolph started the day in a tie for the lead after opening with rounds of 77.  On Sunday, both Randolph and Field carded rounds of 74 and will enter the final round with a 2 stroke advantage over 5th place.  Field currently leads this division in birdies for the event with 7.  Mike Harman of Windermere, FL (2006) and Andrew Nottenkamper of Boynton Beach, FL (2006) will start the final round tied for 5th at 153.  Brad Schneider of Valrico, FL (2007) and Colin Van Es of Granger, IN (2007), will begin the final round in a tie for 7th at 154 and Kazuki Imura of Windermere, FL (2006), Danny Weisenberg of Sarasota, FL (2006) and Diego Tamayo of Venezuela (2007) round out the Top 10 at 155.

In the boys 13-15 division, Peter Meeks of Sarasota, FL (2009) took the first round lead with a 75 and has not looked back.  On Sunday, Peter carded a second round score of 73 and will enter the final round with a 9 stroke advantage over second place.  Meeks will be going for his first FCWT win on Monday.  Last season his best FCWT finish was T9.

Fourteen year old Richard Werenski of South Hadley, MA (2010) started the second round in 4th place after an opening round of 83.  On Sunday, Richard carded a solid 74.  While overcoming Meeks will be a long shot, Werenski would like to pull away from his tie with Jordan Rizzo of Sarasota, FL (2009).  Rizzo began Sunday's round tied with Hugh Lindstrom of Wesley Chapel, FL (2008) for second and maintained that position with a second round score of 77.  Lindstrom, who has already won at the FCWT Naples event, will begin the final round in 4th place.  Jace Striplin of Centerville, OH (2008) will start in 5th place at 162, 4 strokes back of Lindstrom.

In the boys 11-12 division, eleven year old Michael Werenski of South Hadley, MA (2012) opened the Innisbrook event with a two strokes over Joshua Lee of Orange Park, FL (2013).  On Sunday, Werenski expanded that lead to 8 strokes.  Werenski is looking for his 4th win of the season, having previously won at Newport National, Duke, and Amelia.  Thomas Nettles of McMurray, PA (2013) will start the final round in 3rd place.

  On Saturday the ladies at the Innisbrook Jr. Golf Classic played in 35 mph+ winds that would challenge even a seasoned LPGA player.  Kristina Wong of Vestal, NY (2009), held her own.  Miss Wong managed 3 birdies and the lowest round score of any of the 90 competitors on Saturday:  72 (+1).  While she did not repeat the Low Round of the field honors, she did card another 72, the Low Round of the girls division to increase her lead to 19 strokes going into Monday's final round.  Miss Wong, who is currently ranked # 32 in the Golfweek/Titleist rankings, won last season at both the Back Creek event and the Penn State event and finished 2nd in the 2005 Sawgrass event.

So you are out on the Innisbrook golf course and you see a ball and a bag, but no players.  Oh wait, there they are - there are girls over there on the other side of those golf bags!  Welcome to the 13 and under division where 9 year old Yueer Tang of Shenzhen, China (2014) took the opening round lead with a round of 83 on a day when many players struggled to break 80.  Then on Sunday, just to remove any remaining doubt that she can play, Miss Tang carded a round of 75 on the par 72 course.  Miss Tang is not a rookie; she has already won the 2004 Callaway Junior World Championship at her age level and the 2004 US Kids Golf World Championship.  She leads 10 year old Simin Feng of Beijing, CHINA by 19 strokes.  Miss Feng who has been playing golf for less than 2 years also comes with a resume of experience:  Aug 2004 3rd China Junior Golf Championship; Jan 2005 3rd China Open Junior Golf;  July 2005 Callaway Junior World Golf Championship; July 2005 13th U.S. KIDS Junior Golf World Championship.  The highlight of her second round was a birdie on the par 3 4th hole.  In third place is Heather Proctor of Silver Springs, FL (2012) who carded 11 pars so far for the event, and improved her round score by 4 strokes.