Creavy and Wu Master Marsh Landing
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - Marsh Landing Country Club played host to the 5th FJT event of the year for the 13-15 Division where chilly mornings turned into beautiful afternoons, ultimately resulting in stellar play all around. In the end, Tyler Creavy and Nicole Wu would maneuver the marshes of Marsh Landing with the greatest success as each player would pick up their first career FJT victories.
Boys (13-15)
Through 18 holes, the top of the leaderboard in the Boys Division was tightly packed with 10 players within four strokes of the lead. Liam Ly, a 2027 graduate from Delray Beach, was the player the field would need to chase down as he recorded five birdies on his way to a first-round score of 2-under par, 70. Only two other players completed the first round under-par and would join Ly in the final grouping on Sunday just one stroke back. Charles Sundermeier, a 2029 graduate from Lake Worth, and Andy Dai, a 2027 graduate from Bradenton, both turned in a score of 1-under par, 71, on Saturday.
In the second round, Ly would struggle to repeat his success from the first round, opening the door for the many players stacked behind him on the leaderboard to go for the win. With nine holes remaining, Ambrose Kinnare, a 2028 graduate from Saint Augustine, took command of a one-stroke lead over the field after completing the front-nine at 1-over par. But, after the 2028 graduate bogeyed the par-4 10th hole, four players would share the lead at 2-over par. Tyler Creavy, a 2028 graduate from Orlando, would be the first to break the tie with a birdie on the par-5 15th hole, lowering his score to 1-over par; however, Dai would quickly supplant him atop the leaderboard after back-to-back birdies on the 15th and 16th holes brought his score to even-par. But then, the Bradenton native recorded a double-bogey on the par-5 17th to push him out of the lead, vaulting Creavy and Kinnare, who birdied the 17th hole, back into a tie for first at 1-over par. Those two would ultimately meet in a playoff, where Creavy would birdie the first playoff hole to secure the win.
Girls (13-15)
At the end of the first round, one player in the field had separated herself from the rest of the pack by an impressive margin. Leonie Tavares, a 2028 graduate from Saint Jerome, Alberta, Canada, recorded just one bogey on her way to a score of 4-under par, 68. The 2028 graduate’s round was highlighted by a stretch of three birdies over her final four holes (#6 through #9). Two players would enter the final round in a tie for second place six strokes behind the leader. Nirvika Koduru, a 2030 graduate from Boca Raton, and Nicole Wu, a 2028 graduate from Davie, completed their rounds with a score of 2-over par, 74.
On Sunday, despite some struggles on her first nine holes, Tavares would maintain a three-stroke lead over the field with nine holes to play. A double bogey from the leader on the par-3 11th hole would shrink the lead to one stroke as Koduru was putting together an impressive round to stay in contention. With each player continuing to make bogeys on their last nine holes, Nicole Uminski, a 2029 graduate from Reunion, made a charge up the leaderboard to challenge for the top spot. The 2029 graduate, who began the round eight strokes off the lead, would ultimately complete the tournament with a score of 4-over par and a tie for the lead when she left the course. While a double bogey late in the round would derail Tavares's chance for victory, Wu put herself in a tie with Uminski after recording back-to-back birdies on the sixth and seventh holes. The Davie native would extend her streak of birdies to four holes to end her round, pushing her to the top of the leaderboard for her first FJT victory.
