Round 1 Recap

Palm Beach Garden, FL: The 2008 FCWT Boys 16-18 National Championship field teed off one hundred and seventy-four boys representing 32 states and 12 foreign countries on Saturday morning beginning at 7:15am local time.

The very first group of the morning wave brought the first sub-par round to the scorer's table Mike Miller of Brewster, NY (2010). Miller set the pace with a one under par 71 that included 3 birdies. The 16 year old Miller had two top 10 finishes during the regular season, one at each of the PA events. Shortly after Miller arrived in the scoring area, another player who started off # 10 arrived at 2 under par (70).

Andrew Cho of Howey-in-the-Hills, FL (2010) carded four birdies on Saturday and played the back at 2 under par. Cho's best finish of the season was 3rd at Innisbrook. He also had two other Top 15 finishes.

The next player to join the sub-par group was

Stanislav Matus of CZECH REPUBLIC (2008) who carded a one under par 71, with the help of an eagle on the par 5, 6th hole. Matus won the World Woods event this season and had 5 Top 3 finishes and 8 Top 10s during the regular season.

Sixteen year old Cory McElyea of Santa Cruz, CA (2010), like Matus, teed off # 1. His round of 2 under par tied him with Cho at the top of the leaderboard. Cory was the winner of the San Ramon Open this season. The 3rd year FCWT player carded 5 birdies for his opening round. Now he will wait to see where he will stand at the end of the day - right now it is looking promising.

Two more players posted rounds of 1 under par 71:

Bryan Lichimo of North Vancouver, BC (2010) and

Andrew Kim of Old Tappan, NJ (2010). Lichimo, who won the Mission Hills Open in December, had 4 birdies on Saturday. Kim, who also had 4 birdies on the day, had three Top 10 finishes during the regular season.

Despite carding a 6 on the par 4 11th hole shortly after beginning his opening round on # 10,

Marcel Puyat of PHILIPPINES (2011) battled back and fired a 3 under par round of 69. Puyat made birdie on # 12 and # 13 to return to even par. After making the turn he added 3 more birdies on 1, 3 and 6 and finished his last three holes with straight pars.

Players sitting on par after the Morning Wave were:

Eduardo Chavez of Hillsborough, CA (2009), Brandon Park of Weston, FL (2009),

Ben Warnquist of Rockville, MD (2011),

Richard Lamb of South Bend, IN (2009) and

Zachary Balit of Montreal, CANADA (2010).

The Afternoon Wave had to evacuate the course due to strong thunderstorms. When the earliest afternoon groups did finish Round One,

Daniel Walker of Earlysville, VA (2009) joined the group at even par (72).