Dawson Anders returned from his quick vacation to Jamaica, a
celebration of his graduation from Souderton that included his family and some
of his classmates and their families, Tuesday and then spent Wednesday at the
practice facility hoping his game would be ready for the final of the Golf
Association of Philadelphia’s 103rd Junior Boys’ Amateur, presented by PURE
Insurance.
It was. The power game that carried Anders, who plays out of
Indian Valley Country Club, past Nikita Romanov in the quarterfinals and Wills
Montgomery in the semifinals last Thursday at Spring-Ford Country Club was
still there Thursday as he won the last five holes of the match to inscribe his
name on the Peg Burnett Trophy with a 6 and 4 victory over Huntingdon Valley
Country Club’s Brian Isztwan.
“This is my biggest win to date,” Anders, who will join
Brian Quinn’s Temple program later this year, told the GAP website. “It feels
great to have my name on that trophy with all the other talent that has come
through the GAP.”
The schedule for the Junior Boys’ was thrown off by a
thunderstorm on qualifying day June 19, which meant the final had to be
rescheduled for a mutually agreed upon day, which turned out to be Thursday.
Anders got the early jump when Isztwan, the top player in
the Inter-Ac League’s regular-season points standings as a junior at Penn
Charter last fall, lost the third hole with a bogey and the fourth with a
double bogey.
Then Anders unleashed his power, taking driver out of the
bag on the 315-yard, par-4 sixth hole and blasting it on the green, leaving
himself with six feet for eagle. He missed the putt, but his two-putt birdie
gave him the hole and a 3-up advantage.
To his credit, Isztwan battled back, taking the seventh hole
by holing out for birdie from 44 yards away and making birdie on the eighth to
cut Anders’ advantage to 1-up. But Isztwan couldn’t make Anders pay for a poor
drive on the ninth hole, Anders escaping with a halve.
Isztwan made double bogey at the 10th to fall
back to 2-down and Anders birdied the 11th to restore his 3-up
advantage.
Back-to-back bogeys by Isztwan at 12 and 13 led to losses
and suddenly he was 5-down. Anders finished it in style, knocking a 9-iron to
10 feet at the 170-yard, par-3 14th and making the birdie putt to
close out the match.
“I played the back nine really well last week,” said Isztwan,
who finished tied for 40th in the Pennsylvania Junior Boys’
Championship, presented by LECOM and hosted by PinnacleHealth, with rounds of
77 and 78 and a 155 total at Hershey Country Club’s East Course, earlier this
week. “The first shot I hit left all day went out of bounds and in match play
it’s all about momentum.
“It was Dawson’s turn to win the tournament and he was
2-under on the back nine, so it was tough to beat him.”
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