Ocala, FLA. – Ocala Golf Club showed its teeth with some help from sub 30 degrees’ wind chills and 20 MPH winds, but it proved to be no match for four champions. Benny Minter, Keira Shavitranuruk, Axel Monssoh and Madelyn Dickerson won the Boys 9-12 Division, Girls 11-12 Division, Boys 11-12 Division and Girls 9-10 Division respectively.
Boys (11-12)
Coming off of a win at the Indian Spring Open, Axel Monssoh continued the new year hot with an opening round 69. After a rough start through the first three holes, Monssoh was able to play his next 16 holes in five-under par to secure a two shot lead over Jay Huntley. Huntley started his first round strong, being three-under through four, but a costly bogey on his 13th hole kept him two back of the lead.
Round two came with some blistering winds and temperatures that would make you chill just thinking about them. However, Monssoh stayed hot and finished the second round with an even-par 72. Although his putter was struggling throughout the day, his iron play was spot on, enough to get him a win by 9 shots over Shane Frasure. Frasure fired rounds of 74-76 to finish in second by one shot over Niko Gordic-Ronderos.
Boys (9-10)
Following in the footsteps of Axel Monssoh, Benny Minter also won the Indian Spring Open back in December and started his new year hot as well. A very smooth first round of 72 that consisted of two birdies and two bogeys gave him a two shot lead over Jake Jessop and Tobias Gordic-Ronderos.
Coming from seven shots behind, Rio Buakhum fired the round of the tournament with a four-under 68, that included a double bogey, bogey, and seven birdies. However, it was no match for the level-headed Minter. A second round 74 gave Minter just enough to squeeze past Buakhum.
Girls (11-12)
Similar to the other three divisions, the Girls 11-12 division was won in wire-to-wire fashion. Keira Shavitranuruk opened up with a first round 73 (+1) along with Maren Richards who did the same. Both players were ready to duel it out with each other on Sunday to see who would come out on top.
A name that did not see the top five after day one was attempting to crawl back and overtake Richards and Shavitranuruk. Claire Yang fired rounds of 78-71 to get herself back in the mix, with potential to grab a share of the lead. However, Shavitranuruk’s second round 74 gave her the win by two strokes over Yang and Richards.
Girls (9-10)
Madelyn Dickerson has played in three Florida Junior Tour events and has failed to finish outside of the top two. With that being said, she was able to secure her first win with scores of 73-76 by four shots over the Chen twins. Her first round gave her a four shot lead and she never looked back.
Although Catherine Chen’s final round of 75 was the best of day two in the division, it was not enough to overcome Dickerson.
“I started off with a few hard holes, but I figured it out on the back nine,” says Dickerson after a final round 76.
