North Defeats South at Junior Florida Cup
After the first day of the Junior Florida Cup, the North Team held a solid four point lead securing 10 points to the South’s 6. As defending Champions, the North Team, was not going to let the cup out of sight. After the morning four-ball matches, the North finished two points ahead of the South team with 5 points versus 3 points. The teams of Philip Knowles/Spencer Alexander and Sachin Kumar/Kritsarin Oukosavanna brought the only two wins to the South Team. North Team’s Brandon Mancheno/Manual Girona finished the four-ball matches strong with a 5&3 victory over the South Team of Yuki Fujii/Landon Weber. The afternoon Foursome Matches saw the same domination by the North Team. Despite Philip Knowles gaining his second win with teammate Sydney Shrader, the South Team could not catch the North. On the North Team Foursome victories came from Patrick Mills/Courtney Zeng, Colin Kresl/Kevin Slayden, Logan Membrino/Emily Uhland, Samuel Uhland/Dree Fausnaugh, and Calvin Sierota/Manuel Girona.
Singles matches took place on the final day, where the North Team continued their hot streak earning 9 points for a team total of 19 points. The South Team fought hard but fell to seven points after the singles matches for a team total of 13 points. The South started the day playing hard winning four out of five early matches. The North fired back by earning victories in six of the next seven matches. North Team’s Terese Romeo’s 3&2 win over Brittany Shin was the deciding match pushing the North Team to 16 points. None of the singles matches ended All Square and six matches finished on the 18th hole. The last match of the day ended on the 18th hole with North player, Kevin Slayden defeating David Morgan One Up.
The North Team defended their title with the same final as in 2014. One year ago the North Team regained the Cup from the South Team with a victory of 19-13, which was repeated in 2015. A highlight from the South Team came from Philip Knowles who won all three of his matches in his last Junior Florida Cup. Knowles played in the Junior Florida for four years and ended with a record of 10-1-1. Emily Uhland was the only player from the North Team to win all three of her matches. Both teams were supported by a Team Captain. FSGA staff members, Kyle Walkiewicz led the North Team to victory while Kevin Fullenkamp served as Captain to the South Team.
The North team was represented by: Mimi Chen, Dree Fausnaugh, Manuel Girona, Colin Kresl, Alyssa Lamoureux, Brandon Mancheno, Logan Membrino, Patrick Mills, Terese Romeo, Calvin Sierota, Kevin Slayden, Evan Sun, Emily Uhland, Samuel Uhland, Sully Zagerman, and Courtney Zeng
The South featured: Spencer Alexander, Jonathon Cachon, Victoria Cangero, Yuki Fujii, Hallianne Hobson, Philip Knowles, Sachin Kumar, Amanda Leslie, David Morgan, Kritsarin Oukosavanna, Andrew Potter, Justin Shiao, Brittany Shin, Sydney Shrader, Landon Weber, and Ariel Yu
The Junior Florida Cup matches 16 players from the North against 16 players from the South in a Ryder Cup format. Each team consists of 10 boys and 6 girls selected mostly from the Florida Junior Tour (FJT) points list. The first morning, each boy and girl is paired with a partner to compete in a four-ball match. In the afternoon round, the boys and girls are paired together to play mixed-foursomes matches. The final day each player competes in a singles match against a player from the opposing team. Points are awarded to each match similarly to the Ryder Cup to determine the winning team.