Vital goes on a birdie binge to claim a Junior Tour victory at Out Door

    Liberty sophomore Matt Vital made the last of his five birdies on the 18^th hole as he fired a 1-under-par 71 to land atop the leaderboard in the 16-to-18 division in a Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour stop Sunday at the Out Door Country Club in York.

   Matt Vital made a big splash when he won the Boys 12-13 division in the Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals at Augusta National Golf Club in 2019. He was a PIAA Class AAA qualifier as a freshman later that year.

   Pretty sure he could still play against the younger 13-to-15 guys, but Matt Vital is playing up in the 16-to-18 division. Michael Vital is also a Class of 2023 competitor and was the runnerup in the 13-to-15 division. Pretty sure they are  brothers and they might be twins.

   Matt Vital, likely gearing up for a big summer of junior golf, made birdies on the fourth, seventh, eighth and 12^th holes before adding a fifth birdie at Out Door’s finishing hole.

   Looks like it might have been a good week for the Philly Junior Tour to be out in York County because Sunday morning’s rain held on stubbornly into the early afternoon closer to Philadelphia.

   Sean Kelly of Lewisburg and Noah Keener of Spring Grove shared second place, each signing for a solid 1-over 73 that left them two shots behind Matt Vital. Kelly made birdies on the second and 13^th holes while Keener had three birdies on his scorecard, getting one at nine and then going back-to-back at 13 and 14.

   Nathan Myers of Breinigsville took fourth place with a 78 and Adam Chen of Wayne was a shot behind Myers in fifth with a 79. Patrick Doran of York and Ethan Cho of Ambler shared sixth place, each signing for an 80.

   Peyton Mussina of Muncy and Alexander McCauley of Maple Glen were another shot behind Doran and Cho in a tie for eighth place, each registering an 81. Rounding out the top 10 in the 16-to-18 division was William Gronlund of Lewisburg as he finished alone in 10^th place with an 83.

   Caden Blanchette, making his Philly Junior Tour debut, had a birdie at the third hole and then went back-to-back at the 13^th and 14^th holes on his way to a 3-over 75 that gave him the victory in the 13-to-15 division.

   Michael Vital of Bethlehem’s Team Vital also had three birdies on his scorecard, getting off to a good start with a birdie at the first and adding two more at 13 and 16 as he earned runnerup honors with a 76, a shot behind Blanchette.

   A couple of York guys, Andrew Ekstrom and Noah Shultz, shared third place, each signing for a 78. Ekstrom recorded back-to-back birdies at the second and third holes while Shultz birdied the 17^th hole and had 11 pars, including seven in a row from the second through the eighth holes.

   Nathan Eldridge of Owings Mills, Md. finished in fifth place with an 80, Brady Gallagher of Quakertown was sixth with an 85 ad Jacob Gabbard of Lewes, Del. rounded out the 13-to-15 field as he ended up in seventh place with a 102.

   The best score of the day among the girls emerged from the younger 13-to-15 division as Piper Smith of Lancaster had 12 pars on her scorecard, including nine straight from the fifth through the 13^th holes on her way to an 80 that earned her the win, her first on the Philly Junior Tour.

   Alison Adams of Phoenixville made birdies on the 13^th and 18^th holes in a 5-over 41 tour of Out Door’s incoming nine as she earned runnerup honors with an 88. Olivia Kury of York birdied the fourth hole and had six pars as she finished in third place with a 91.

   Geneva Merino of York took fourth place with a 114 and Hannah Kopac of State College rounded out the 13-to-15 field as she finished fifth with a 119.

   Lillian McNally of York was the lone competitor in the 16-to-18 division and turned in a solid 86. She got off to a nice start with a par at the par-4 first hole, one of six pars on her scorecard.

   Lawson Leeper was playing close to his home in York, but he goes nearly everywhere the Philly Junior Tour goes and contends at nearly every stop along the way. Leeper birdied the sixth hole and made four pars as he bested the field of nine-holers with a 3-over 39.

   Another York guy, Callahan Harrell, also birdied the sixth hole and made three pars as he finished two shots behind Leeper in second place with a 5-over 41. It was a road trip for Quin Zuegner of New Hope, but he made four pars, including a par-par start on the first two holes, on his way to a 44 that earned him a third-place finish.

   Bryn Krosse of York finished two shots behind Zuegner in fourth place with a 46 and Giula Weisser of Reading and J.D. Sivel of Hanover shared fifth place, each posting a 48. Rounding out the coed 12-and-under division field was Tyler Myers, another entry from York who finished alone in seventh place with a 55.