A couple of Pennsylvania’s top returning scholastic golfers,
Franklin Regional senior Palmer Jackson and Central Bucks East senior Patrick
Sheehan, both made the cut and played all four rounds at last week’s Boys
Junior PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky.
Jackson, who plays out of Hannastown Golf Club in
Greensburg, finished up with a solid 2-under 70 in Friday’s final round to end
up in the group tied for 23rd at 2-over 290 in one of the major
national junior events each summer.
Jackson, who finished tied for second in last year’s PIAA
Class AAA Championship, was coming off a nice showing at the U.S. Junior
Amateur at Baltusrol Golf Club, where he qualified for the match-play bracket
before falling in the first round.
Jackson opened with a 74, got it to 1-over through two
rounds with a 1-under 71 and was 4-over heading into the final round after a
3-over 75 in the third round.
It was a pretty good week for the junior program at
Hannastown as Latrobe senior Brady Pevarnik, a Penn State recruit, led the
Pennsylvania Amateur at Sunnehanna Country Club in Johnstown for two rounds
before ending up tied for third.
Sheehan, who plays out of Talamore Country Club, earned his
ticket to Valhalla, site of three PGA Championships and a Ryder Cup in its
relatively brief 32-year existence, as the medalist in the Philadelphia Boys
Junior PGA Championship last month at The Springhaven Club.
Sheehan, the District One Class AAA runnerup last fall,
opened with his best round of the tournament, a 1-under 71. A pair of 75s in
the middle two rounds left him at 5-over heading into the final round and he
finished up with a 1-over 73 to end up in the group tied for 41st at
6-over 244.
The Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour’s other representative
at Valhalla, Central Bucks West senior Luca Jezzeny, failed to make the cut
with rounds of 83 and 77 for a 150 total.
Still, it’s been a strong summer for Jezzeny, who plays out
of The Bucks Club and Doylestown Country Club. He also qualified for the U.S.
Junior Amateur at Baltusrol. He didn’t make match play at Baltusrol, but he
teed it up at two of America’s great golf courses in championship conditions.
Sheehan and Jezzeny will be two of District One’s top
players when the scholastic season tees off in a few weeks.
At the top of the leaderboard, Akshay Bhatia, the
16-year-old from Wake Forest, N.C., added another chapter to his burgeoning
junior golf legacy.
Trailing by a shot going to the last hole, Bhatia faced a
tricky chip from behind the green, 35 feet away, for his third shot on the
par-5 18th at Valhalla. He was hoping to get it up and down for
birdie to force a playoff.
He did better than that. He bumped the ball from deep rough
just on the green and watched it trickle the rest of the way right into the
hole for a remarkable eagle and the win. If you’re a golf person, you have
probably seen the video. It is as good a golf shot as you’ve ever seen to win a
tournament.
Bhatia opened with a 4-under 68, stumbled a little with a
4-over 76 in the second round and then surged in front with a dazzling 7-under
65 in the third round. The stunning eagle chip-in completed a 4-under 68 in the
final round that gave him an 11-under 277 total.
Bhatia was the runaway winner of last year’s Boys Junior PGA
Championship at the Country Club of St. Albans’ Lewis & Clark Course in St.
Albans, Mo. and won the prestigious Junior Invitational at Sage Valley this
spring.
He reached the final of the U.S. Junior Amateur at
Baltusrol, taking the match to the 36th hole before falling to
Michael Thorbjornsen of Wellesely, Mass.
Tommy Stephenson, a Fresno State recruit from Carlsbad,
Calif., forced Bhatia to be great on the 72nd hole with a sizzling
6-under 66 in the final round that left him alone in second place at 10-under
278.
Canon Claycomb, an Alabama recruit from Bowling Green, Ky.,
and another SoCal phenom from Carlsbad, Alexander Yang, finished tied for third
at 8-under 280. Claycomb finished strong with a 5-under 67. Yang, who trailed
Bhatia by a shot going into the final round, finished up with a solid 2-under
70.
Travis Vick, a Texas recruit from Houston, or more
specifically Hunters Creek Village, Texas, and Luke Klover, a Nebraska recruit
from Norfolk, Neb., finished tied for fifth at 7-under 281.
Vick, who made the first double eagle in the history of the
U.S. Junior Amateur in qualifying at Baltusrol, and Klover both carded a solid
2-under 70 in the final round.
Thorbjornsen, the U.S. Junior Amateur champion, finished in
the group tied for 35th at 4-over 292 after a final round of 1-over
73.
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