Magcalayo surges to top of leaderboard at Boys Junior PGA Championship with 62 at Keney Park

   Jolo Timothy Magcalayo has come to the United States from the Philippines each of the last two years in search of some top-notch junior competition against which to test his game.

   He’s launched those bids by teeing it up in Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour events. He captured a Junior Tour victory at Back Creek Golf Club in May.

   In the opening round of the 44^th Boys Junior PGA Championship at the Keney Park Golf Course in Windsor, Conn. Tuesday, Magcalayo matched the course record with a sizzling 8-under-par 62 over the 6,446-yard, par-70 Keney Park layout that gave him a share of the lead with Canon Claycomb of Bowling Green, Ky.

   Magcalayo was actually briefly over par as he made a bogey on the 11^th hole, his second of the day. But he ripped off four straight birdies at the 13^th, 14^th, 15^th and 16^th holes to get it 3-under. He had another three-hole birdie burst on the first three holes of the outgoing nine. He added a birdie at the fifth hole and nearly made an ace at the par-3 sixth hole for his ninth birdie of the day.

   “When I am playing my game, every shot should be good,” Magcalayo, coming off a victory in the AJGA Junior at Chicopee, presented by John D. Mineck Foundation in Chicopee, Mass., told the PGA of America website.

   Claycomb, who plans to join the Alabama program in January, was just as hot as Magcalayo as he had eight birdies with nary a bogey on his card.

   Magcalayo and Claycomb held a two-shot lead over the pair of Andy Mao of Johns Creek, Ga. and Peyton Snoeberger of Lafayette, Ind., both of whom carded a 6-under 64. Mao plans to join the powerhouse Georgia Tech program and Snoeberger will join the Purdue program later this summer.

   Two of Pennsylvania’s top high school players last fall, Palmer Jackson, the winner of the PIAA Class AAA Championship as a senior at Franklin Regional, and Central York senior Carson Bacha, the Class AAA East Regional champion, got off to strong starts at Keney Park.

   Jackson, who will join the Notre Dame program later this month, fired a 4-under 66 and is in the group tied for 11^th place.

   Jackson is coming off a strong showing in the U.S. Junior Amateur at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, where he reached the third round of match play with a stunning 1-up upset of defending champion Michael Thorbjornsen of Wellesley, Mass. in the second round.

   Bacha, who plans to join the Auburn program in the summer of 2020, blitzed the front nine at Keney Park with five birdies for a 5-under 30. He cooled off on the back nine, but joined the group tied for 24^th place with a 2-under 68.

   Bacha made birdies at the second, fourth, sixth, seventh and ninth holes in a scintillating outgoing nine. He opened the back nine with a double bogey at the 10^th hole and had three more bogeys against two birdies on the incoming nine.

   Austin Barbin of Elkton, Md., winner of the Philadelphia Boys Junior PGA Championship at The Springhaven Club during a sizzling stretch of golf that included a victory in the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s 105^th Junior Boys’ Championship at Coatesville Country Club, matched par at Keney Park with a 70 and was among the group tied for 52^nd.

   Barbin, who will join the Maryland program later this summer, and Magcalayo were also at the Inverness Club for the U.S. Junior Amateur and both came up a shot short of an 8-for-7 playoff for the final spot in match play as they checked in at 151.

   Jaden Weisman, a recent Westtown School graduate, was the other player, along with Barbin, to emerge from the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour qualifier for Keney Park. Weisman landed among the group tied for 87^th with a 2-over 72.

   The field will be cut after Wednesday’s second round. The 72-hole tournament, one of the biggest events on the national junior calendar, will conclude Friday.