BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – The Florida Junior Tour’s 13 to 15 year-old division traveled to the par-71 Indian Spring Country Club for a 36-hole, stroke-play event. Competitors were met with warm and windy conditions throughout the weekend, but despite the wind there were multiple golfers able to go low. At the end of the competition, Cooper Franklin and Alexandra Snyder sat atop their respective leaderboards to claim their second FJT victories of the year.
Boys (13-15)
On Saturday morning, the Boys’ field took advantage of the scoring opportunities presented to them with 110 birdies in the first round alone. Shayaan Kim, a 2027 graduate from Rockledge, was responsible for six of those birdies, playing his last fourteen holes at five-under par. The Rockledge native’s round of 4-under par gave him a one-shot lead over Shane Russell, a 2028 graduate from Lakewood Ranch, and Jake Mason, a 2027 graduate from Ponte Vedra Beach. Four players sat at 1-under par heading into the final round, well within striking distance of the final pairing.
Throughout the final round the leaderboard remained tightly contested. As the lead groups made the turn onto the back-nine, five players were either tied for the lead or within two shots. Kim and Jeremy Castellanos, who began the final round at 1-under par, would birdie two of their first three holes on the back-nine to take a two-stroke lead over the field. However, over the final six holes, three bogeys from Kim and a triple-bogey from Castellanos on the par-4 16th paved the way for Cooper Franklin, who also began the final round at 1-under par, to shoot up the leaderboard. Franklin would play his final seven holes bogey-free to force a playoff with Castellanos at 3-under par. In the playoff, Franklin would convert a par to take home the victory, his second on the Florida Junior Tour.
Girls (13-15)
Birdies were a little harder to come by for the Girls’ Division Saturday morning, but three players were able to record under-par rounds with scores of 2-under, 69. Reilly Kirwin, a 2028 graduate from Naples, played a steady round, carding four birdies and only two bogeys. Meyher Khokhar, a 2026 graduate from Longwood, played her back-nine bogey-free at 2-under to get herself into the final pairing for Sunday. Catherine Andino, a 2027 graduate from Boca Raton, had her lone bogey of the day on Hole 15 to bring her back into a tie for the lead. Sitting at even-par in a two-way tie was Natalie Angelo and Alexandra Snyder. Angelo came out firing with five birdies and no bogeys in her first eleven holes; meanwhile, Snyder played a back and forth round of four birdies and four bogeys.
When the second round began, six players either held a share of the lead or were within just three shots of it. However, as the round progressed, the three round-one leaders and Synder separated themselves from the pack. In fact, thanks to some early bogeys from Kirwin, Andino, and Khokhar, Snyder was able to push up the leaderboard into a tie for the lead with Kirwin at 2-under par with just nine holes remaining. After recording three birdies through the first nine holes, Snyder was able to carry over her strong play, playing the final nine holes bogey-free at 2-under par to secure a four-shot victory. The 2028 graduate’s final round of 67 is the lowest score recorded in the Girls (13-15) Division this year and ties for the second-lowest 36-hole score in the Division’s history. Kirwin would ultimately take second with a cumulative score of even-par while Andino took third at 2-over par.
