South Reclaims Cup with 17.5 - 14.5 Win
Even though Golden Ocala Golf & Equestrian Club hosted its second Junior Florida Cup, the results were different in 2017. For the second time in Junior Florida Cup history, the South Team rose to the challenge and regained the Junior Florida Cup title. Led by captain Kevin Fullenkamp, the South Team finished matches with a 17.5 to 14.5 victory over Justin Armstrong's North Team.
The Junior Florida Cup is a Ryder Cup style, invitation-only event that features the top male and female junior golfers from Northern and Southern Florida. Separating the state, junior golfers compete throughout the entire year in hopes of either finishing on top of the points leaderboard or capturing their captain's attention and receiving a captain's pick at the beginning of the summer. Those doing either receive an invitation to play in this prestigious event that includes notable players such as Lexi Thompson and Brooks Koepka, both of which represented the United States at the Solheim Cup and Ryder Cup.
This year's Junior Florida Cup featured most of this year's champions. Highlighting the North Team was 63rd Boys' Junior Champion, Tyler Wilkes. Having already won four previous FJT tournaments before tying the all-time score record in the 13015 division at the Boys' Junior, Wilkes would be the one to watch out for during each match, especially Tuesday's singles. Tyler's biggest competition would be South Team's Brett Roberts who finished in third when Wilkes won the Boys' Junior. Just two weeks after Roberts finished third at the Boys' Junior, Roberts went to the Junior Amateur Match Play Championship and defeated the field en route to a 19-hole victory against Aiden Kramer to win the final match. While the match-ups between the men was going to be a show to watch, on the female side, two young ladies hoped to battle it out on singles day.
Leading the North Team on the female side would be Jenny Kim, of Lake Mary. The reigning Girls' Junior Amateur Champion won two more FJT events this past year including the major at Orange County National. Her long distance and exquisite course management made her the top force of the North Team while the South Team would rely mostly on Taylor Roberts to lead the young women to victory. Taylor Roberts is no stranger to match play as she just returned home from the U.S. Girls' Junior where she fought her way to the semifinals before eventually falling to Jennifer Chang. Her extreme knowledge of match play should help her and her team immensely throughout this Ryder Cup style event.
With the field set and the rivalry in full-force, the 12th Junior Florida Cup began Monday with four-ball matches. Players were paired with one of their teammates as the race to 16.5 points began. Because the North Team won the previous Junior Florida Cup, they would only need to reach 16 points to retain the cup whereas the South Team would need to earn 1.5 points to reclaim the title.The Monday morning matches looked very promising for the South Team as they were able to come out of the gate early and nab five of the first eight points. Putting the first points on the board was South Team's duo of Sarah Noonan and Ariel Yu. Noonan and Yu made a charge early and made the turn 3 up on their opponents, Juliana Camargo and Emily Staples. Even though they got to as much as 4 up on Camargo and Staples, Noonan and Ariel finished their morning match on the 16th hole with a birdie to win 3 & 2. The biggest margin of victory in the morning was 5 & 3 by bot a North and South team. For the North, the dynamic duo of Boys' Junior Champion, Tyler Wilkes and Gray Albright got ahead early and defeated the South Team's Cole Castro and Brett Roberts 5 & 3 to give the last point of the morning matches to the North Team. The second match of the morning that finished on the 15th hole consisted of South Team's Kritsarin Oukosavanna and Leopoldo Herrera and North Team's Alex Lee and Jason Duff. While the match started off with three similar scores, the South Team found their groove and never looked back. After finishing the first nine holes 2 up, Oukosavanna and Herrera found more birdies coming in and finished their match 5 & 3. After the morning four-ball matches concluded, the South Team earned 5 points while the North Team salvaged just 3 points.
Monday afternoon consisted of foursome matches featuring mostly a male and a female team. With the North needing a good outing in the afternoon to make up some lost points in the morning, it was up to North captain, Justin Armstrong, to pump up his team. Doing just that, the North Team proved they weren't out of it by winning the first four matches of the afternoon. The quickest match of the afternoon came from the Tyler Wilkes and Karoline Tuttle team. Using Wilkes's distance and Tuttle's accuracy, the two were unbeatable and defeated South Team's Fletcher Wunderlich and Casey Weidenfeld 6 & 5. With the North Team making a charge, South captain Kevin Fullenkamp had to get his remaining team to fight hard and put points up on the board Finishing stronger than ever, the South Team was able to win the final four matches on the course to keep their two point lead over the North. Leading the South Team for the foursomes match was Cole Castro and Drew Angelo. After getting off to a shaky start and being 1 down after three, Castro ad Angelo rallied to win 6 & 4 over North Team opponents Peyton Billings and Alex Lee.
After day one of the 12th Junior Florida Cup, the South Team earned 9 points and the North sat just behind at 7 points due to an early rally in the foursome matches. With the North needing 9 points to retain the cup and the South needing 7.5 to regain, Tuesday's singles matches were going to be a fight to the finish.
The singles matches had both teams doing the math and patiently waiting. Coming out of the gate strong was Tyler Wilkes. The future Florida Gator chomped away at South Team's Leopoldo Herrera and won 7 & 6 to give the North Team an early point. Besting Tyler's match, however, was North Team's Juliana Camargo who defeated South Team's Ashleigh Angelo 8 & 6. With two guaranteed points already on the board, it was up to the rest of the South Team to put on a great performance to regain the Junior Florida Cup. Cole Castro and Casey Weidenfeld earned the South Team points by defeating their opponents, Brett Schell and Karoline Tuttle, respectively, 6 & 5. Two other South Team members clinched points for their team with impressive 5 & 4 victories. The first of the two came from Jayson Iten who defeated the North's Jason Duff, and the other was by Kritsarin Oukosavanna. Kritsarin took off early and never gave North Team's Brendan Valdes the opportunity o make a comeback. 
However, with the South Team closing in on the 16.5 points number, the North Team needed their All Square matches to fall in their favor. With three matches left on the course, two All Square and one in South's favor, and the South Team only needing a halve to climch the cup, it all came down to Jacob Penny and Luke Gifford's match. After going back and forth all morning, the two stood on the final hole All Square. If North Team's Jacob Penny did not win the hole outright to South's Luke Gifford, the South Team would win their second Junior Florida Cup. With nerves of steel, both Penny and Gifford made birdies to finish their match All Square, ending the 2017 Junior Florida Cup in favor of the South Team.
The North's 8.5 point comeback in the singles match finished them at 14.5 points, 1.5 points shy of retaining the cup. But with 17.5 points overall and 8.5 earned in singles matches, the South Team rose to the challenge and won their second Junior Florida Cup.
Three players finished the 12th Junior Florida Cup with a perfect record; two from the South and one from the North. The South Team was led by Jillian Bourdage and Kritsarin Oukosavanna who assisted in putting up six points between the two of them. The North Team was led by none other than Tyler Wilkes who cruised to three victories and never played past the 15th hole (5&3, 6&5, 7&6).
With the South's victory at the 12th Junior Florida Cup, their record improves to 2-9-1.
