Lane beats the heat and Kleinschmidt to capture GAP Junior Boys' crown at Chester Valley

 

   When we last left Riverton Country Club’s Jackson Lane and The Springhaven Club’s Luca Kleinschmidt, they had battled their way to two match victories June 24^th to reach the final of the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s 112^th Junior Boys’ Championship at Chester Valley Golf Club.

   Golf course availability always being a tricky proposition this time of the year, Lane and Kleinschmidt had to put that final on hold for a bit.

   They got back at it Thursday, teeing off at 7 a.m. to try to beat the heat in what would eventually become a 100-degree day.

   And it was the 16-year-old Lane, a junior at Cinnaminson High School, who put his name on the Peg Burnett Trophy with a hard-fought 2 and 1 victory.

   Lane has made steady progress in his junior career, but this was the kind of big win that could prove to be a springboard to bigger and better things.

   “A lot of the pressure is gone,” Lane told the GAP website. “I knew I could play up to this level. I’ve won before on different stages, but if feels like when I get so excited for these events and I hope I go out and thrive, sometimes I’ve got to tone it down and make it seem like a regular round.”

   Lane got the jump in the final, claiming a win at the 376-yard, par-4 first hole with a bogey in a bit of a nervous start for both players.

   Kleinschmidt, a scholastic standout at Strath Haven who will join the program at PSAC power Millersville later this summer, evened the match with a birdie at the 418-yard, par-4 sixth hole, where his approach finished seven feet from the hole and he drained the birdie try.

   But Lane again put a nose in front when his 9-iron approach from 145 yards away at the 405-yard, par-4 eighth hole left him with a 12-footer for birdie that he converted.

   Lane never surrendered the lead.

   It looked like Kleinschmidt might have an opportunity to even the match when he stuck a 9-iron at the 422-yard, par-4 12^th hole to 12 feet. But Kleinschmidt was left with a downhill putt and, even though he got a piece of the hole, the ball lipped out and proceeded to roll right off the green and 30 yards down the fairway.

   Who wouldn’t be shaken up a little by that turn of events? Kleinschmidt’s ensuing chip left him where Lane’s approach had settled, a little short of the green.

   Lane chipped up and two-putted for bogey that would be good enough to give him a 2-up lead. He grinded out halves on the next five holes to maintain that advantage and close out Kleinschmidt on the 17^th hole.

   Give the 18-year-old Kleinschmidt credit. He had earned a share of medalist honors in qualifying for match play over the challenging 6,631-yard, par-70 Chester Valley layout that once played host to a stop on what was known then  as the PGA Senior Tour (PGA Tour Champions nowadays) in its early days, and dominated three match-play opponents on his way to the final.

   But Lane, who had knocked off the defending champion, Merion Golf Club’s Sean Curran, a standout in the Inter-Ac League during his scholastic career at The Haverford School, in the semifinals.

   In the end, Lane got the validation he was seeking, even if he had to wait a couple of weeks to get it.