Round 1 Recap

Twenty-four girls teed it up for the first round of the Orange Lake Jr. Golf Classic, two have taken the lead.  Ji Young Oh of Kyumggito, SOUTH KOREA, 2007 and Victoria Tomko of Lontzen, BELGIUM, 2006 both fired opening rounds of even par to co-lead heading into Sunday's final round.  Miss Oh, who recently won the FCWT USF event, played a very consistent round of pars with one birdie and one bogey along the way.  Miss Tomko, playing in her first event of the season, led this field in birdies with 5 and carded an equal number of bogeys.  Junior Emily Kwak of Silver Springs, MD will begin the final round in 3rd place after opening with a +4 (75).  She will have a one stroke advantage over Alexandra Gibson of Henderson, NV (2007) and Sherlyn Popelka of Zuerich, SWITZERLAND (2009).  FCWT Newcomer Brooke Pancake of Chattanooga, TN (2008) will begin the final round tied for 6th at +6 with Ines Chandra of Kuta-Baci, INDONESIA, 2007.  Gia Fanelli of West Palm Beach, FL (2007) will start in 8th place at +7 and senior Molly Aronsson of Shelburne, VT, will begin the final round in 9th place after opening with a round of 80 (+9).  Christie Tallent of Haverford, PA (2008) rounds out the Top 10.

Sean's song, second verse

Eighteen year old senior Sean Frost of Dallas, TX, is picking up where he left off around this same time last month.  On February 26th, Frost won the Bear Creek East Junior Golf Classic, in what turned out to be a "shootout."  Due to weather issues, the Bear Creek event was shortened to 18 holes and on Sunday of that event Frost fired a round of 70 to win his first FCWT title.  On Saturday, at The Reserve at Orange Lake, Frost opened with a round of 74 (+3)  to lead by one stroke over 4 other players.  As he pursues his second title in as many months he will be pursued by several capable players.  In a tie for second at 75 (+4) and just one stroke back are Andres Echavarria of Medellion, COLOMBIA (2006);  Justin Kim of Orlando, FL (2006), Chris Mullhaupt of Bradenton, FL (2007), and Matthew Stauch of Dublin, OH (2006).  The same weekend that Frost won at Bear Creek last weekend, the Golfweek-Titleist 17th ranked boys player, Echavarria won the FCWT Plantation event.  Justin Kim finished 5th at ChampionsGate while Chris Mullhaupt finished 6th and has had 3 other Top 10 finishes since that time.  Matthew Stauch tied Kim for birdies as well as overall score and finds himself pursuing his first Top 5 of the season.  Four players are tied for 6th and round out the Top 10:  Esteban Calisto Albornoz of Quito, ECUADOR (2007), Evan Wood of Dublin, OH (2007), Michael Boutin of Bradenton, FL (2007), who carded the only eagle on the day, and John Murphy of Wilton, CT (2006), "Mr. Consistency" as he has spent much of the last 3 months near the top of the FCWT leaderboards.

In the boys 13-15 division, Ed Waller of Ponte Vedra Beach, FL (2010), opened with a 74 to have a two stroke lead over 4 players heading into the final round.  The 14 year old, who plays the Titleist Pro V1 and hits his driver about 250 has been steadily improving all season.  [To learn more about Waller's game click on his name on the leaderboard and then click on his Profile].  He is looking for his first win but will need to hold off 3 FCWT veterans to do it.  Hojin Kang of Longwood, FL (2010), who won at Wedgefield, William Sjaichudin of Queensland, AUSTRALIA (2010), who won at Saddlebrook, Jeremy Wells of Prince George, VA (2008), who like Waller is looking for his first win of the season and Tom Xue of Bradenton, FL (2009), who won at Mission Inn in February will all start the final round tied for 2nd place.