Zachary Freed of Linwood, N.J. handled the wild winds that created some difficult conditions Saturday better than any of the other Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour competitors as he carded a solid 13-over-par 83 at Greate Bay Country Club in Somers Point, N.J. to sit atop the leaderboard in the 13-to-15 division.
It doesn’t sound like the driving rain that accompanied the passage of the cold front in the Philadelphia area quite it make it to the Jersey Shore, but wind gusts in the neighborhood of 40 mph made club selection a bit of a guessing game.
The Philly Junior Tour is all about developing the games of junior players and the youngsters at Greate Bay got a clinic in how to survive when the conditions start to deteriorate.
That’s what Freed did, making seven pars and avoiding as many big numbers as possible in the gusty winds as he posted the best score of the day among the guys at the par-70 Greate Bay layout for his first Philly Junior Tour victory of the 2020-2021 season.
Luke Tappeiner of Medford, N.J. birdied the 15th hole and had six pars on his scorecard as he claimed runnerup honors with an 84, a shot behind Freed.
Brent Glah of Ambler and a couple of Williamstown, N.J. entries, Matthew Daughtry and Andrew Michalski, finished in a tie for third place, each signing for an 85.
Glah and Michalski each had six pars on their cards and Daughtry made birdies at the third and ninth holes, the two par-3s on Greate Bay’s front nine, and had four pars.
P.J. Foley of Northfield, N.J. and Keller Tannehill of Margate, N.J. shared sixth place, each registering an 89. Brandan Tyharic of Little Egg Harbor, N.J. took eighth place with a 90, Alex Henbest of Manahawkin, N.J., was ninth with a 96 and Sebastian Furfaro of Mickleton, N.J. rounded out the top 10 in the 13-to-15 division field as he finished 10th with a 98.
Joshua Murphy of Newtown Square birdied the 16th hole and had five pars on his scorecard as he claimed a victory in the 16-to-18 division. Murphy was really steady on Greate Bay’s back nine as four of his five pars came in succession from the 12th through the 15th holes.
A couple of Reading guys, Andrew Bauer and Owen Wisner, shared second place as each carded an 87. Bauer and Wisner both had five pars on their scorecards.
Joseph Fargnoli of Mickleton, N.J. took fourth place with an 89, Jack Blackmon of Philadelphia was fifth with a 91, Evan Goldberg of Linwood, N.J. was sixth with a 92 and David Birmingham of Reading and Joe Ritchie of Medford, N.J. finished in a tie for seventh, each landing on 95.
Michael Felty of Selinsgrove took ninth place with a 96, Anthony Loria of Doylestown was 10th with a 98 and Luke Weller of Reading rounded out the 16-to-18 division field as he finished 11th with a 102.
The two best scores among the girls at Greate Bay also came out of the younger 13-to-15 division as Sophia DeSantis of Glen Mills and Kristen Bodge of West Chester shared the top spot, each posting a 91. DeSantis had four pars on her scorecard while Bodge had four pars, all on the incoming nine as she bounced back from a front-nine 50 with a 41 on her way back to the clubhouse.
Jillian Burks of Paoli had four of her five pars on Greate Bay’s back nine as she claimed third place with a 94. Burks jump-started her 2021 season with a fifth-place in the Girls 10-11 division in the Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals at Augusta National Golf Club the Sunday of Masters week in April.
Katherine Liu of Moorestown, N.J. took fourth place with a 95, Sabrina Swope of Levittown was fifth with a 98, Isabella Magno of Delran, N.J. was sixth with a 99 and Mina Benedetto of West Chester rounded out the 13-to-15 division field as she was seventh with a 100.
Sophia Chesner of Moorestown, N.J. was the lone entry in the 16-to-18 division and she had two pars, one on each nine, on her way to a 98.
Onyu Park of Blue Bell made birdies at the first and third holes to best the field on nine-holers with a 6-over 41. Tyler Whitney of Cherry Hill, N.J. made a birdie at the sixth hole and finished up with a par at the ninth to earn runnerup honors with a 42, a shot behind Park.
Ben Meixell of Wilmington, Del. made a birdie at the third hole on his way to a 46 that left him alone in third place with a 46.
A couple of Delco entries, Alaina Carson of Broomall and Declan Conner of Swarthmore, shared fourth place, each signing for a 48.
K.J. DeSantis, another member of Glen Mills’ Team DeSantis, took sixth place with a 49, Walker Mannon of Phoenixville was seventh with a 51 and Nicholas Fargnoli, a member of Team Fargnoli out of Mickleton, N.J., and Vyom Shukla of Berwyn, shared eighth, each carding a 52.
David Padgett of Barnegat, N.J. rounded out the top 10 in the coed 12-and-under division as he finished alone in 10th place with a 54.
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