Donovan & Jin Rise Above at Riverwood
PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. - This weekend, the Florida Junior Tour traveled to the par-72 Riverwood Golf Club. This was the first FJT event held at Riverwood since 2008, and this difficult track provided a fantastic challenge to the 16 to 18 year-old golfers looking to score low in its return to the FJT schedule. Two beautiful days resulted in 36 holes of furious competition, but when all play had been completed, Jack Ryan Donovan and Annie Jin took home the victories.
Boys (16-18)
Four players completed the first round under-par, but one of them would sit atop the leaderboard on his own. After bogeying his first hole of the tournament, Ethan Lim, a 2025 graduate from Bradenton, would play the remainder of the front-nine at 4-under par, highlighted by an eagle on the par-5 ninth. Lim would go on to finish the round with a score of 2-under par, 70. Three players would enter the final round one shot behind the leader. Jack Ryan Donovan, a 2026 graduate from Ave Maria, Clark Mason, a 2026 graduate from Saint Petersburg, and Aaron DeWitt, a 2025 graduate from Winter Haven, all completed the first round with scores of 1-under par, 71.
As the second round progressed, the leaderboard continued to be cluttered at the top. While Lim, Mason, and DeWitt would struggle to maintain their success from the first round, Donovan was joined by Arth Sinha, a 2025 graduate from Oviedo, Graham Boone, a 2024 graduate from Naples, and Cody Guetzke, a 2026 graduate from Hartland, Wisconsin. With just four holes to play, all four players were tied at 1-under par. Eventually, Donovan and Sinha would each convert birdies on the 15th and 17th holes, respectively, to force a sudden-death playoff at 2-under par. On the third playoff hole, Donovan sank a six-foot birdie putt to secure his first-ever win on the Florida Junior Tour.
Girls (16-18)
Just two players completed the first round with scores under par and they would share the lead heading into the final round. Annie Jin, a 2026 graduate from Bradenton, bogeyed her first hole of the day, but she would only add one more throughout the remainder of the round. With a birdie on the par-5 third hole and an eagle on the par-5 12th, the only eagle on the 12th hole throughout the weekend, Jin would post a score of 1-under par, 71. Yvette O’Brien, a 2025 graduate from Boynton Beach, jumped out to an early lead after she played the front-nine at 3-under par, highlighted by the only eagle on the par-5 ninth in the Girls division all weekend. However, after adding another birdie on the par-4 10th, O’Brien would encounter some struggles at the end of her round, bringing her first-round total to 1-under par, 71.
Then, on Sunday, Jin would take hold of the lead by herself early in the round after birdies on the par-4 11th and 14th holes. While O’Brien would struggle to repeat her success from the previous day, Jin was not yet in the clear as Sara Vitasek, a 2025 graduate from Naples, would play her first nine holes bogey-free at four-under par, recording three birdies in a row between the 16th and 18th holes. Jin would do just enough down the stretch to secure a one-shot victory over Vitasek with a score of 1-over par. This is Jin’s second win on the FJT in as many starts.
