BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. -Philip Dunham and Kayla Bryant go low at the FJT Golf Road Junior Open in Boyton Beach at The Club at Quail Ridge.Dunham and Bryant both capture their second FJT win of the year.
Boys Division
While under 7,000 yards on the scorecard, the South Course at The Club at Quail Ridge is not a course to take lightly. In Saturday’s Round 1, many players found this to be true as the winds gradually picked up as the afternoon went on. There was many formidable players in the field this weekend but there was no shock to see Phillip Dunham and Gabriel Holtz at the top of the leaderboard through 18 holes. Holtz, despite an opening bogey, would make the turn at 1 under after starting on the 10 th tee. Dunham, who has already captured a win this year at Bent Creek, went out in even par on the front nine. An eagle at the par-5 3 rd hole would get Holtz to 3-under and the solo lead. With his birdie on the 7 th hole, Holtz would finish at 4-under 68. On the other side of the course, Dunham would card 4 birdies on the back nine to finish in a share of the lead. A consistent top finisher, William Jun would round out the final group Sunday after a 1-under 71 opening round.
Dunham would get off to a good start Sunday with birdies on two of his first six holes. Holtz would start his final rough very rocky as he finished his front nine four over. However, bogeys on six and seven for Dunham to go back to even on the day when he made the turn. Dunham would the fire off back-to-back birdies followed by another bogey on the 12th hole. Holtz would then answer Dunham with two birdies and a bogey to put him five strokes behind through 13 holes. The Ponte Vedra Beach native would then eagle his 13th hole and birdie his 14th hole to put him at 4-under after 15 holes. Bogeying his last two holes, Dunham would then seal his title by shooting two-under. With a total score of 138, six-under, Phillip Dunham would claim his title as Champion for the Boys Division for the FJT Golf Road Junior Open.
Girls Division
The top of the leaderboard after Saturday’s opening round in the Girls Division would be packed with consistency. Layla Pedrique’s 1-under 71 was the result of three birdies against just two bogeys. She would be looking to take home hardware from the Florida Junior Tour for the first time in over a year. However, standing in her way would be her sister, Marley, and McKenna Murphy. Both Marley and McKenna made two birdies and two bogeys on the way to their even-par rounds and would sit one shot behind Layla heading into Sunday.
Layla Pedrique came out swinging on Sunday morning. With birdies on three of her first four holes she saw her lead grow to four shots. Both Marley and McKenna couldn’t get much going to track her down as both players were even through their first seven holes. Bogeys on the 15 th and 1 st holes for Layla would bring her back to the competition. As the group would play their 11th hole of the day, Marley Pedrique would trail her sister by just two shots with eight holes to play. The biggest run of the day was coming from four groups before the final group. Kayla Bryant made the turn in 5-under 31 to vault herself to a tie with Layla Pedrique. Bryant would bogey the 2 nd hole but a bounce back birdie on the 3rd hole would get her back into a tie for the lead. Layla Pedrique found trouble on the par-5 3 rd hole which resulted in a bogey to drop her into second place while Marley Pedrique made birdie to tie her sister in second, just one shot behind.
