The QUINNtessence of golf
A few hours north of here in a place called Augusta, there are some gentlemen teeing it up for a green jacket. While there are no green jackets being offered at the IMGA/DLGA Championship, there is a tradition of golf here, much like there is at Augusta. IMG Academies and David Leadbetter are established icons in the golf community.
As the scores for the first round were being posted, +1 seemed to be the place to be. Players like four-time FCWT winner this season Jhared Hack of Heathrow, FL (2007) came in at +1; several top 150 Golfweek/Titleist ranked players were in at +1 including William Miller of Venetia, PA (2007), Alexander Sitompul of Bradenton, FL (2008), Craig Tallent of Haverford, PA (2006), Sean Dale of Jacksonville, FL (2008) and Bryan Harris of Rancho Mirage, CA (2007). But on this day when there are multiple players on every score from +1 to +11, one player stood out all by himself. Junior Ramsay Quinn of Wilmington, NC, carded the only round of even par and will enter the final round with a one stroke advantage. Quinn teed off # 10 at 9:30am with Sean Frost and Grant Gaugler III. After a bit of a bumpy start (par-bogey-par-bogey), Quinn made two consecutive birdies on the 14th and 15th holes before finishing out that nine with pars. Six pars in a row on the front nine kept things going steady and then a birdie on # 7 put him at one under. Unfortunately, he gave one back to the course on # 9, but still finished ahead of a highly talented field of junior golfers.
Three players carded eagles on the par 5 10th hole in the 16-18 division: Dong Kim (T12 at +3), Chris Kennedy (T18 at +4) and Stanislav Matus (T18 at +4). Four players each carded 4 birdies: Sebastien Heisele (T23 at +5), Sean Dale (T2 at +1), Mike Amato (T12 at +3) and William Miller (T2 at +1). The Top 23 and ties are within 5 strokes of the lead, so there could be some major movement on the leaderboard following Sunday's round.
In the Boys 13-15 division, fifteen year old Abdul Sihag of Mombasa, Kenya (2008) is out to the first round lead. Abdul who was in the first group of the day off # 10 got off to a great start playing the back nine at even par with one bogey and one birdie along the way. He finished his round at +4 and will begin the final round 1 stroke ahead of Luke Benford of Hampshire, ENGLAND (2008), William Sjaichudin of Queensland, AUSTRALIA (2010) and Tanapol Vattanapisit of Rayong, THAILAND (2012), who are tied for second at +5. Jake Lebowitz of Huntingdon Valley, PA (2008) and Benjamin Palanski of Budapest, HUNGARY (2009) will begin the final round tied for fifth.
In the Girls Division, Ji Young Oh of Kyumggito, SOUTH KOREA (2007), is out to the first round lead. Miss Oh carded a round of 2 over par on Saturday to lead Jessica Korda of Bradenton, FL (2011) by one stroke heading into Sunday's final round. Miss Oh is looking for her 4th win of the FCWT season in her 4th event. Miss Korda's round of 75 puts her one shot ahead of Christina Miller of Bradenton, FL (2010) and Victoria Tomko of Lontzen, BELGIUM (2006). Miss Tomko's best finish this season is 2nd at Orange Lake; Miss Miller won at Naples; and Miss Korda finished T2 at Feather Sound last weekend. Elisa Aoki, who also finished T2 at Feather Sound, will begin Sunday's round tied for 5th with Terry Grandis of E. Patchogue, NY (2007). Two Bradenton juniors Kendra Little, who carded the most birdies in this division (3), is tied with So-Hyun Park for 7th place at +6. Ines Chandra of Kuta-Baci, INDONESIA (2007) is all alone in 9th place at +7 and Stephanie Kim of Bayside, NY (2009), Rhea Nair of Dubai, UAE (2006) and Jaclyn Sweeney of Bradenton, FL (2008) are currently tied for 10th. |
