Plam Beach, Fla. - Colton Swartz and Arth Sinha raised the trophy on Saturday at the 69th Boys’ Junior Championship. The final round brought tough playing conditions for the competitors in the field at the 69th Boys’ Junior Championship. The morning started out with extreme heat and after several long weather delays, play finally restarted. Swartz and Sinha prevailed under not only tough physical conditions but also remained mentally sound to capture a well-deserved win.
(16-18) Division
Colton Swartz fired a five under par 66 at Mayacoo Lakes Country Club to hold the lead after the first round. Swartz fired the low round by five strokes over the competitors playing at Mayacoo Lakes Country Club and held a one stroke lead over the entire field. Jack Quinn sat in second place after firing a four under par 68 at PGA National.
Swartz extended his lead through round two after posting a two under 70 to sit at seven under par as a tournament total. Swartz held a three shot lead over the field with Davis Downing sitting in second place at four under par. Downing fired a four under par 68 at PGA National in the second round to climb the leaderboard twelve spaces and into second place.
Swartz explained that he kept a good mentality throughout the first two rounds. “Just trying to stay in my own bubble and not let things get in my head…the key at Mayacoo Lakes is to keep it in play off the tee.”
The final round proved to be an interesting one. Rain delays made the challenge of Mayacoo Lake even harder, but Swartz prevailed with a wire-to-wire victory. Swartz bogeyed the first two holes while James Earle made an early charge. Earle birdied three out of his first four holes and then collected another birdie on hole number eight to climb move into second place. However, Swartz collected himself and picked up three birdies on the front nine to keep his lead heading into the final stretch.
Meanwhile, Parker Severs made a charge climbing nine spots and into second place. In addition, Lee Poppell also made a back nine charge to share second place with Severs. But resilience was key for Swartz as he kept extending his lead. After a double on the tenth hole, Swartz birdied the twelfth and then picked up two consecutive birdies on holes fifteen and sixteen to capture the win by six strokes. Swartz carded a one under par 70 in his final round to finish the tournament at eight under par.
Swartz could not be happier to be a Boys' Junior Champion. He said, "The Boys' Junior is one of the biggest tournaments with the FSGA, so to be able to win says a lot about my game right now and I just couldn't be happier."
(13-15) Division
Darren Zhou carded seven birdies at Mayacoo Lakes to post a four under 67 in his first round to hold the lead. Giuseppe Puebla was not far behind posting a three under par 68 at Mayacoo only one shot back from Zhou. The leaderboard changed quite a bit in the second round as Lucas Gimenez carded a five under par 67 at PGA National to take the lead by three strokes over the field. After carding a two over par 73 in the first round, Arth Sinha carded a three under par 69 in the second round at PGA National to climb seven spots and into second place heading into the final round. In addition, Giuseppe Puebla carded a two over par 74 to share second place with Sinha.
The leaderboard continued to change frequently throughout the final round. Lucas started out hot by almost making a hole in one on the seventh, par three. He birdied the hole to take a one shot lead over Puebla. However, Puebla made a birdie on the eight hole to take the lead back while Gimenez made a bogey.
Furthermore, Puebla and Gimenez found trouble on the ninth hole while Sinha made a par to take a one shot lead heading into the back nine. The leaderboard for the (13-15) division remained almost as unpredictable as the weather. Arth found the water on the twelfth hole falling one shot out of the lead to Gimenez and Puebla.
The last hole was perhaps the most interesting as Gimenez lips out his chip to make a bogey and Sinha lags a birdie putt to two feet to make par. Gimenez and Sinha both finish the tournament at even par and a two hole play off ensues. Gimenez hit his approach shot on the first hole of the play off to two feet for birdie and Sinha had twenty-five feet for birdie. Each made their putts and headed into a second play off hole. The roles reversed as Sinha hit his approach to one foot and Gimenez was left with twenty feet for birdie. Gimenez made par while Sinha tapped in for birdie to take the victory.
