What an amazing weekend of junior golf at the incomparable Mission Inn Resort. Day one and despite the unusual temperature drops and winds that made Las Colinas an even tougher prospect than usual we still managed to see some exceptional golf and some strong sub-80 rounds from the top 5 players shown on the board below. All 5 had chosen to compete in both days events and it therefore made it a certainty that one of those leading players would later today be crowned our Mission Inn 36-hole Challenge Champion….but who would it be?
Joining our 5 day one leaders today were an additional 20 young golfers taking on, what we believe, is one of the very best championship golf courses in Florida, the prospect of taking on El Campeon is never easy but what a great experience it can be for any young player who holds out hope of a future in golf! We also welcomed along on day 2 HJT debut player Tyler Lunsford (Deland,Fl). We hope you enjoyed the experience Tyler !
Thank you to everyone who joined us at Mission Inn. Regardless of whether you played one day or two we are always keen to see you giving it your best and we were certainly shown a great deal of fine golf from so many of you. Daylight saving time doesn’t do us any favors at this time of year and El Campeon is not a short golf course so not surprisingly it was getting very close to darkness as our last groups came in. What are the chances therefore that we’d need a play-off to seperate two players both going for the ultimate prize after 36 holes? We will come back to that but first let’s check out and congratulate our winning low score medalists from each of our player flights in today’s 18-hole (El Campeon) competition.
Thank you to everyone who joined us at Mission Inn. Regardless of whether you played one day or two we are always keen to see you giving it your best and we were certainly shown a great deal of fine golf from so many of you. Our 18-hole winning medalists are as follows:
The Old Tom Morris Flight:
It was Ormond Beach junior Brandon Godfrey that took this one, his first HJT medal win of the season and he did it with two very different nine hole experiences that had a bit of everything in them! Brandon’s 33-45-78 meant he was the only player to put some red on the scoreboard after an awesome nine holes that included no fewer than 3 birdies! Let’s just say that the back nine wasn’t so kind to him HOWEVER that’s how competition golf can be and one thing we know about Brandon is he’s a player of strong character who keeps giving his very best all the way till the final putt drops.
The exceptional early golf he played paid off big time and, despite the back nine disappointment he felt, it was strong enough overall to give Brandon a deserved medal win by 3 strokes from nearest challenger Ethan Weber (Orlando)
The Young Tommy Morris Flight:
It was great to see 15 year old Luke Wood (Inverness) pick up another win and especially pleasing as it happened at such a tough venue. Luke is a fine young player who is developing fast and he is always close to the top of our leaderboards. Luke’s score of 41-40-81 showed lots of consistency including a 5 closing holes level par finish, not an easy feat to achieve on El Campeon’s tough closing stretch.
Congratulations to Luke on this one, his second medal win of the 2021 season so far! Luke took the medal by 2 strokes from Longwood’s Sean Majewski.
The Bobby Jones Flight:
This one proved to be a very convincing debut medal win for a hugely talented young lady golfer playing in her first Highlander Tour event. We certainly hope to see more of this young lady who showed lots of quality and composure over both courses at Mission Inn Resort. Katie Yang (Orlando) is an impressive young lady. Quiet and studious on the golf course with the ability to play a whole range of shots to good effect she very much deserved this medal win.
Katie had played Las Colinas a day earlier and I believe would have been a little disappointed with an 80. Today on the considerably tougher El Campeon she started this one in exceptional form making birdie on both of the opening holes! Another birdie would follow later on number 15 as she made her way home with a 38-41-79 total to take the 18-hole El Campeon medal in her player flight. Katie’s two day total of 159 would place her in joint second place overall in the 36-hole Mission Inn Challenge Tournament too.
Not bad at all Katie for your Highlander Tour debut! Congratulations and we hope to see you playing with us again soon>
The Claret Jug Flight:
For the second day in a row it was Elle Folland (The Villages) who once again triumphed with another 78 exactly mirroring yesterday’s score on Las Colinas. Elle carded a 41-37 -78 and that hugely impressive back nine included no fewer than 3 birdies! That was an exceptional finish Elle.. congratulations from all of us!
The Nearest the pin Winner:
