Chase Cutshall, of West Melbourne, had a wild couple of weeks lately. Chase, who is about to enter his junior year of high school, entered the summer after a less than stellar first half of the year. He played in a few Florida Junior Tour events and never finished better than T18. Then in May, he shot a 73 and earned his way into the 97th Florida Amateur Championship. That's when things started to click.
At the 97th Amateur the young Cutshall put together rounds of 72-71-67 which put in him in the final group on Sunday and only two strokes behind the leader. The pressure got to the young Cutshall and a final round 77 left the youngster in a very respectable 6th place finish.
A week later Cutshall headed to Fort Myers for a Florida Junior Tour event at The Forest Country Club. In the first round he went out in 36 and then made birdies on three of his final five holes to post 69 (-3). Jeremy Walsh, of Tequesta, took the first round lead with a 68 (-4) with birdies on holes 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 14 & 18.
In the final round Walsh extended his lead to 3 shots after Cutshall bogied the 11th. Cutshall then got hot and made birdies on holes 13 & 14 while Walsh made bogies. Another birdie on the 15th gave Cutshall a 3 shot lead. The duo made pars on the remaining holes and Cutshall earned his first FJT title.
Cutshall earns the final exemption into the 60th Florida Boys' Junior Championship being held in a couple weeks at Belleair Country Club in the St. Petersburg area. Cutshall previously tried to qualify for the championship, but failed to earn a spot. This win gives him the last exemption into the field.
