Palm Beach, Fla.—The 69th Boys’ Junior Championship will be held July 6 - 8 in Palm Beach. The championship will take place on two top tier golf courses. The players will play one round each at PGA National Resort and Spa – Fazio Course and Mayacoo Lakes Country Club. After 36 holes, the field will be cut to approximately the low 70 players and ties. The final round after the cut will be played on Mayacoo Lakes Country Club.
Defending the Crown
Shawn Coultoff is back to defend his title, except this year he will be playing in a new age division. Coultoff won the 68th Boys’ Junior in the (13-15) division held at Seminole Legacy Golf Club. He fired rounds of 67-65-72 to capture the victory by seven strokes over Alex Long. Coultoff’s tournament total of 12 under par holds the Florida Junior Tour record of lowest 54 hole score. In addition, Coultoff has had a successful 2023 season capturing a top-10 at a Florida Junior Tour Major and a top-15 at an Exempt-Only event. He also played in the 106th Amateur Championship earlier this summer and made the cut posting rounds of 74-74-69-75. Coultoff hopes to build off this momentum and raise the trophy once again at the 69th Boys’ Junior.
By the Numbers
The 69th Boys’ Junior Championship consists of 168 players. The field is divided into two divisions with 114 boys in the (16-18) age division and 54 boys in the (13-15) age division.
At 12 years old, Bento Assis is the youngest players in the field. Assis has already captured two Florida Junior Tour victories this season including firing a final round score of 66 to raise the trophy at the FJT Harbor Hills Open. In addition to his wins, Assis has also captured a top-3 and a top-10 in his other two Florida Junior Tour events of the season. Other young competitors in the field include Ryan Nana Tanke and Darren Zhou, each turned 13 at the start of the summer.
Moreover, the championship field consists of some sibling rivalry. Three sets of brothers are competing against each other for the championship title: Beni and Alex Long, Jaxon and Jordan Brown, and Carson and Cameron Baez.
Finally, there are twenty boys in the field that have already verbally committed or signed with a college. It is a wide variety of schools including University of Pennsylvania, University of South Florida, University of Kansas, Oglethorpe, Towson University, and University of Central Florida to name a few.
Team Florida Makes an Appearance
There are eleven Team Florida members playing in the 68th Boys Junior Championship. Jaxon Brown, Shawn Coultoff (defending champion), Lucas Gimenez, Matvey Golovanov, Beni Long, Alex Long, Lorenzo Rodriguez, Parker Severs, Pavel Tsar, Tristan Wieland, and Darren Zhou are all competing for the title. Each of these players not only demonstrates exceptional skills on the golf course, but also displays admiral qualities of sportsmanship and etiquette off the golf course.
Major Competitors
The field for this championship is strong which means that the competition to take home the victory will be tough. Entry priority included criteria such as previous Boys’ Junior champions, top-1,000 and ties from 2022 final World Amateur Golf Rankings, top-100 ranked players on Junior Golf Scoreboard, and top-100 from 2022 Boys’ Player of the Year Points List.
Apart from the defending champion, the field also includes the 2022 Boys’ Junior Player of the Year and runner-up finisher from the 68th Boys’ Junior, Alex Long. Long won the 2022 Florida Junior Tour Championship at Lakewood National carding scores of 71-71-75. He never finished outside of the top-10 in 2022. Having fallen short of the Boys’ Junior Championship title last year, he is back again hoping to claim the victory and raise the trophy.
In addition, Lorenzo Rodriguez and Lucas Gimenez both finished in a tie for third place at the 2022 Boys’ Junior Championship. Both players are members of Team Florida and each are having a successful 2023 season littered with top-10 finishes and victories.
Mayacoo Lakes Country Club and PGA National Play Host
Mayacoo Lakes Country Club is the main site for the championship. The players that finish in the top-70 will play Mayacoo Lake Country Club two times, while the players who miss the cut will only play once. Mayacoo Lakes Country Club has a saying, “No hole at Mayacoo will penalize a good shot nor force a layup.” The course designed by Jack Nicklaus and Desmond Muirhead first opened in 1972. It spreads out playing 6,906 yards from the back tees and features water on 13 of the 18 holes. With palm trees and water lining most holes along with bunkers littering the course, shot placement is key to scoring.
In addition, the secondary course for the championship is the Fazio Course at PGA National. This par-72 is 7,050 yards from the back tees and features all natural aspects of Florida golf. It has bunkers, water, and contains no shortage of palm trees lining each hole making for not only favorable views but also a challenging test for each player.
