Ekstrom completes a weekend sweep with a Philly Junior Tour victory at Out Door

 

   York Suburban junior Andrew Ekstrom completed a sweep of a Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour weekend in York County when he carded a 1-under-par 71 to finish at the top of the leaderboard at Out Door Country Club May 19^th.

   A day earlier Ekstrom, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier last fall, had delivered a sizzling 5-under 67 at Regents’ Glen Country Club that was 10 shots better than his closest competitor and earned him a Philly Junior Tour victory.

   The stop at Out Door was a Junior Golf Scoreboard (JGS) event for the boys with top finishes earning players points that can give them status on some of the higher profile junior circuits, including the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA).

   The Philly Junior Tour broke out its usual 16-to-18 and 13-to-15 divisions, so I’ll round them up while referencing the overall 13-to-18 scoring that counts toward JGS points.

   After making a birdie early in his round at the third hole, Ekstrom added another birdie at 11, went back-to-back with birdies at 13 and 14 and added a fifth birdie at 16. He had nine pars on his scorecard with seven of them coming on the outgoing nine at Out Door.

   Ekstrom’s 71 gave him a two-shot victory in the 16-to-18 division and in the overall scoring.

   State College junior Chris Warner made birdies at the third, sixth and eighth holes in a 2-under 34 on the front nine at Out Door, added a fourth birdie at 13 and had 10 pars on his card as he earned runnerup honors in the 16-to-18 division and in the overall scoring with a solid 1-over 73.

   Archmere Academy sophomore Michael Liu made birdies at the seventh and 10^th holes and had eight pars on his card as he finished in third place among the older guys and fifth overall with a 6-over 78.

   Boyertown junior Chase Dillman took fourth place in the 16-to-18 division and ended up in a tie for sixth in the overall standings with a 79 and Manheim Central junior Jonathan Breinich was three shots behind Dillman with an 82 that left him in fifth place among the older guys. Breinich rounded out the top 10 in the overall scoring with his 82.

   Brennan Dewitt of York took sixth place with an 84 and Mason Umbrell of Hershey rounded out the field in the 16-to-18 division as he finished seventh with an 86.

   Gus Stoltzfus of Lincoln University made birdies on the fourth and sixth holes in a 1-under 35 tour of the outgoing nine at Out Door, added another birdie at 12 and had eight pars on his scorecard as he finished atop the leaderboard in the 13-to-15 division and was third in the overall scoring with a 4-over76.

   Dover sophomore Lawson Leeper, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier last fall, made a birdie at the first hole and had 12 pars on his card in a steady 5-over 77 that left him a shot behind Stoltzfus in second place in the 13-to-15 division and fourth in the overall scoring.

   Souderton freshman Wyatt Underwood made birdies at the fifth and 10^th holes and had 10 pars on his card as he finished in third place among the younger guys and in a tie for sixth with Dillman from the 16-to-18 division in the overall standings with a 7-over 79.

   Anthony Gracey of York and Benjamin Robbins of Holland finished in a tie for fourth place in the 13-to-15 division and were tied for eighth in the overall scoring as each signed for an 80.

   Luke Fallon of Reading took sixth place in the 13-to-15 division with an 83 and Taimoor Naseem of Sinking Spring, one of several standouts in the coed 12-and-under division a year ago, was seventh with an 84.

   William Thorkelson finished in eighth place with an 85, Tyler Myers of York was ninth with an 86 and Chase Baker of Huntingdon Valley rounded out the top 10 in the 13-to-15 division as he finished 10^th with an 87.

   The best score among the girls came out of the 13-to-15 division as Exeter freshman Giulia Weisser, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier last fall, made a birdie at the 13^th hole and had eight pars on her scorecard to claim a Philly Junior Tour victory with an 81.

   Bryn Brandt of Lebanon made a birdie at the 17^th hole and had six pars on her card as she rounded out a short field in the 13-to-15 division by earning runnerup honors with a 91.

   Manheim Township junior Alana Cristino had three pars on her scorecard as she captured a Philly Junior Tour win in the 16-to-18 division with a 92.

   Warwick sophomore Emily Stauffer made a birdie at the 17^th hole and had three pars on her card as she rounded out a short field in the 16-to-18 division by earning runnerup honors with a 97.

   Cole Miller of York made a birdie at the second hole and had two pars on his scorecard as he bested the field of nine-holers with a 6-over 42.

   Zheng Yan of Malvern made a birdie at the sixth hole and added a par at two to claim runnerup honors with a 48. Victor Wang of Hockessin, Del. took third place with a 55.

   Walter Kappeler of Elmer, N.J. rounded out the field in the coed 12-and-under division by finishing in fourth place with a 57.

 

 

 

 

Butler puts the finishing touch on a national championship for Auburn at La Costa

 

   Auburn was nearly there a year ago.

   The Tigers finished in 10^th place, just nine shots out of a playoff for the final spot in the match-play bracket in the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.

   Adding a couple of talented freshmen who immediately brought into an established team dynamic enabled Auburn to take it from almost there to the very top of the heap in Division I college golf.

   Auburn gutted out a 3-2 victory over Atlantic Coast Conference power Florida State Wednesday at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa’s North Course in the NCAA Championship’s Final Match to claim the first national crown in the program’s history.

   It was Auburn’s 10^th tournament victory of the wraparound 2023-2024 season and the seventh straight team crown for the Tigers, including a stunning postseason sweep of the Southeast Conference Championship, the Baton Rouge Regional and the NCAA Championship.

   Nick Clinard, in his 15^th year as the head coach at Auburn, pressed all the right buttons in setting his five-man lineup for the showdown with Florida State.

   He put his fabulous freshman, Jackson Koivun of Chapel Hill, N.C. and No. 4 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), in the third spot in the lineup and Koivun responded by putting the first point on the board for Auburn with a 5 and 4 victory over Brett Roberts, a senior from Coral Springs, Fla. and No. 94 in the WAGR.

   Every point in an NCAA Championship Final Match is important, but there is something about getting that first point up there that seems to give the rest of the team a psychological boost.

   Brendan Valdes, a junior from Orlando, Fla. and No. 23 in the WAGR, came up huge with a 4 and 3 victory over Frederik Kjettrup, a senior from Denmark and No. 13 in the WAGR. It was a couple of heavyweights going at it and Auburn got the point.

   The other freshman in the Auburn lineup, Australian Josiah Gilbert, dropped a 2 and 1 decision to Florida State’s Tyler Weaver, a freshman from England who completed a 3-0 run through the match-play bracket at La Costa.

   Redshirt junior Carson Bacha, the 2019 PIAA Class AAA champion as a senior at Central York and No. 62 in the WAGR, has been right in the middle of Auburn’s rise from a competitive SEC program – and competing in the SEC is no easy feat – to national champion.

   Bacha had a look for birdie inside 10 feet on the 18^th green at the North Course that would have sent his match with Cole Anderson, a redshirt junior from Camden, Maine and No. 79 in the WAGR, to a 19^th hole, but couldn’t get it to fall. Anderson’s 1-up victory tied things up at 2-2.

   Clinard went with J.M. Butler, an accomplished senior from Louisville, Ky. and No. 38 in the WAGR, in the anchor position against Florida State’s Luke Clanton, a formidable sophomore from Hialeah, Fla. and No. 8 in the WAGR.

   Wins at the 12^th and 15^th holes broke open a close match and gave Butler a 2-up lead and suddenly they were the only two players left on the golf course.

   When Butler stuck a 9-iron shot to 10 feet on the 17^th hole, it was all but over. Moments later, Butler completed a 2 and 1 victory and Auburn had won its first national championship.

   You could argue that the addition of Koivun to the lineup was all it took to put Auburn over the top.

   The kid had himself a day Tuesday when he added the Fred Haskins Award to the Ben Hogan Award he had already won and secured the clinching point in Auburn’s quarterfinal victory over Virginia and in its semifinal win over Ohio State.

   But Clinard was just as quick to credit Alex Vogelsong, a fifth-year player from Palm City, Fla. who wasn’t in the lineup for the Final Match, with giving the Tigers the kind of leaderboard that is critically important to any national championship run.

   It wasn’t a huge surprise to see Bacha, a kid from York, in the middle of that run. When he was a sophomore at Central York, Bacha did not compete individually in the state tournament because the state regional, since abandoned, conflicted with an American Junior Golf Association event. He was trying to get noticed at a national level.

   But Bacha did stick with the team and Central York was a runnerup to Unionville in the PIAA Class AAA team race that year. The team mattered more to him than his possible individual accomplishments. Two years later, Bacha, a commitment to Auburn secured, put his name alongside those of Arnold Palmer, Jay Sigel and Jim Furyk, as a PIAA individual champion.

   Pennsylvania is sending another talented kid to the SEC later this summer when Downingtown West’s Nick Gross, the 2021 PIAA Class AAA champion, joins the program at Alabama. Expect his impact to be immediate.

   It was a tremendous run for Florida State, which had reached the semifinals a year ago before falling to cross-state rival and eventual champion Florida.

   A loss in the semifinals, a loss in the Final Match. The next logical step is easy enough to figure out and, assuming Clanton, Anderson and Weaver are returning, there is talent and experience at the highest levels in the lineup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Koivun sends Auburn to NCAA Championship's Final Match against Florida State at La Costa

 

 

   On a day when seeds meant very little, when form seemed to take a back seat, the best player in college golf during the wraparound 2023-2024 season, Auburn freshman Jackson Koivun, finally made it all make a little sense when he dropped a five-foot putt for birdie to send the Southeastern Conference champion Tigers to the NCAA Championship’s Final Match.

   Quarterfinal/semifinal day of the NCAA Championship at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa’s North Course delivered its usual share of drama, particularly in a morning round when the four lower seeds swept past the four higher seeds.

   All of which left Auburn, which came into the NCAA Championship as the No. 1 team in the Scoreboard powered by clippd rankings, as the clear favorite going into its semifinal match with Big Ten upstart Ohio State.

   But the Buckeyes battled right to the finish. With darkness descending on the Southern California coast Tuesday evening, Koivun of Chapel Hill, N.C. and No. 4 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) got it up and down from a greenside bunker at the par-5 18^th hole at the North Course, the 21^st hole of the match, to edge Ohio State’s Adam Wallin, a senior from Sweden, with a birdie, delivering the clinching point for Auburn in a 3-2 victory.

   Auburn will battle Atlantic Coast Conference runnerup Florida State for the national title Wednesday at La Costa after the Seminoles outlasted ACC rival Georgia Tech, 3-2, in the other semifinal.

   Auburn’s victory means redshirt junior Carson Bacha, the 2019 PIAA Class AAA champion as a senior at Central York and No. 62 in the WAGR, will get a chance to play for a national championship.

   Bacha fell to Ohio State’s Maxwell Moldovan, a senior from Uniontown, Ohio and No. 46 in the WAGR, 1-up in the semifinal match. Ohio State’s other full point came Tyler Sabo, a redshirt freshman from Ashland, Ohio who pulled out a 1-up victory over Josiah Gilbert, a freshman from Australia.

   But Brendan Valdes, a junior from Orlando, Fla. and No. 23 in the WAGR, earned a point for Auburn with a 1-up victory over Jackson Chandler, a fifth-year player from Dublin, Ohio, and J.M. Butler, a senior from Louisville, Ky. and No. 38 in the WAGR, slowed the roll of Ohio State graduate student Neal Shipley, a member of Pittsburgh Central Catholic’s 2018 PIAA Class AAA championship team, by claiming a 2 and 1 decision.

   With the teams deadlocked, all eyes turned to Koivun and Wallin. As he had in the morning in a battle with another college golf heavyweight in Vanderbilt’s Gordon Sargent, a junior from Birmingham, Ala. and No. 2 in the WAGR, Wallin erased a 2-down deficit with two holes to play against Koivun to send their match to extra holes.

   Not sure exactly when it was announced that Koivun had become the first Auburn player to win the Fred Haskins Award that goes to the top player in college golf, but it must have been late Monday or earlier in the day Tuesday.

   But there Koivun was trying to validate the award and get Auburn into the Final Match. He ripped his approach to the par-5 18^th hole into the bunker just below the flag and calmly got it up and down for the clinching birdie.

   Have to give Wallin credit. Earlier in the day, he had won the last two holes of regulation to send his match with Sargent in the quarterfinals to extra holes.

   When Sargent powered his five-foot par putt on the 19^th hole of the match through the break, Wallin had sent the seventh-seeded Buckeyes to the semifinals with a 3.5-1.5 victory over the Commodores.

   In the other semifinal, Florida State veteran Frederik Kjetterup, a senior from Denmark and No. 13 in the WAGR, clinched a spot in the Final Match for the Seminoles with a 3 and 1 victory over newly minted NCAA individual champion Hiroshi Tai, a sophomore at Georgia Tech from Singapore and No. 70 in the WAGR. That gave Florida State a 3-2 victory over its ACC rival.

   Luke Clanton, Florida State’s talented sophomore from Hialeah, Fla. and No. 8 in the WAGR, delivered a critical 2 and 1 decision over Christo Lamprecht, a senior from South Africa and the No. 1 player in the WAGR.

   Lamprecht was a big story all along at La Costa as he was sidelined with a bad back following the opening day of stroke play Friday and was still out of the lineup for the Yellow Jackets in their 3-1 victory over top-seeded Illinois, a perennial Big Ten power, in Tuesday morning’s quarterfinals.

   But Lamprecht gutted it out for the semifinals and had a 2-up lead on Clanton when Clanton ripped off wins on four straight holes to close out the top amateur player on the planet.

   Florida State’s third full point came from Luke Weaver, a freshman from England, who pulled out a victory on the 19^th hole over Kale Fontenot, a freshman from Lafayette, La.

   Georgia Tech veteran Bartley Forrester, a senior from Gainesville, Ga. and No. 80 in the WAGR, had put an early point on the board for the Yellow Jackets with a 3 and 2 victory over Cole Anderson, a redshirt junior from Camden, Maine and No. 79 in the WAGR.

   Georgia Tech’s other point came from Carson Kim, a freshman from Yorba Linda, Calif. who claimed a 4 and 2 verdict over Gary Albright, a senior from Ocala, Fla.

   Earlier in day, Weaver had delivered the clinching point for the Seminoles when he earned a 3 and 2 decision over North Carolina’s David Ford, a junior from Peachtree Corners and No. 10 in the WAGR, that gave Florida State a 3-1 victory.

   It was the most fascinating of the four quarterfinal matches Tuesday morning, the rematch of last month’s ACC final between Florida State and North Carolina.

   Florida State got a full point from Brett Roberts, a senior from Coral Springs, Fla. and No. 93 in the WAGR, as he earned a 2 and 1 victory over Tar Heels veteran Peter Fountain, a senior from Raleigh, N.C. and No. 63 in the WAGR.

   Clanton was also a 2 and 1 winner for the Seminoles over another tough customer in Austin Greaser, a graduate student from Vandalia, Ohio and No. 11 in the WAGR.

   North Carolina’s Dylan Menante, a fifth-year player playing close to his Carlsbad, Calif. home and No. 12 in the WAGR, closed out a brilliant college career that included a national championship with Pepperdine in 2021 with a 2 and 1 victory over Florida State’s Anderson.

   Kjetterup was trailing the other of North Carolina’s Ford triplets – the third Ford triplet is a girl, Abigail – Maxwell Ford, who is No. 50 in the WAGR, when Weaver’s win over David Ford clinched the win for the Seminoles.

   Maybe the most surprising result of the day was Ohio State’s victory over a powerful Vanderbilt team with a lineup that featured five players inside the top 21 of the WAGR in Tuesday morning’s quarterfinals.

   Regardless of seedings and rankings, when you get to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship, you have eight teams playing great golf and, hey, it’s match play.

   So, Ohio State’s Chandler knocks off Jackson Van Paris, a junior from Pinehurst, N.C. and No. 18 in the WAGR, 3 and 2. And Shipley, a little more than a month removed from earning low-amateur honors at the Masters Tournament, claims a 4 and 2 decision over Matthew Riedel, a graduate student from Houston, Texas and No. 21 in the WAGR.

   And finally, Sargent, a tremendous talent who went 4-0 for the United States in a victory over Great Britain & Ireland in a Walker Cup Match at the home of golf, the Old Course at St. Andrews, last summer, blows a 2-up lead with two holes to play against Wallin. It’s golf, happens all the time.

   Another Vandy veteran, Cole Sherwood, a senior from Austin, Texas and No. 20 in the WAGR, claimed a 3 and 2 victory over Moldovan and the Commodores’ other Houstonian, William Moll, a graduate student and No. 15 in the WAGR, was headed for extra holes with Sabo when Sargent couldn’t make his par putt on his 19^th hole just in front of Moll.

   It was the bitter end for a tremendous, yet ultimately unsatisfying era for Vanderbilt golf.

   Meanwhile Bacha, a state champion from Pennsylvania playing in the deep South, put a point on the board for Auburn with a 2 and 1 victory over Josh Duangmanee, a freshman from Fairfax, Va., early in its 3-1 victory over Virginia, the fourth ACC team among the eight quarterfinalists.

   Gilbert earned a 2 and 1 victory over Bryan Lee, a sophomore from Fairfax, Va. and No. 45 in the WAGR.

   And Koivun, who would clinch Auburn’s spot in the Final Match many hours later, pulled out a 1-up decision over Deven Patel, a junior from Johns Creek, Ga. and No. 96 in the WAGR, by sinking an eight-foot putt for the clinching point.

   Notice something? There was just a ton of guys in the top 100 in the WAGR and a bunch of guys who are probably headed there going at it all day. Not sure anything matches quarterfinal/semifinal day at the NCAA Championship for high-stakes drama in amateur golf.