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AJGA alumni Inbee Park won her first LPGA tournament of the season over the weekend. |
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AJGA alumni had strong showings the final weekend of July. On the major professional Tours, Scott Piercy,
Inbee Park and Ben Kohles won tournaments.
Scott Piercy
earned his first PGA TOUR win of the 2012 season at the RBC Canadian Open in
Ancaster, Ontario. After setting a course-record with his first-round,
8-under-par 62, Piercy posted three straight 67s to finish 17-under-par 263. Based
on his performance, the two-time PGA TOUR champion was guaranteed a spot at the
WCG-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone, Aug. 2-5.
Piercy played in 19 AJGA events from 1992-1997, placing in
the top-10 six times, before playing collegiate golf at BYU and San Diego
State.
At the Evian Masters presented by Société
Générale, Inbee Park won her first
LPGA tournament of the season and second of her career. Finishing 17-under-par
271, Park prevailed over fellow AJGA alum Stacy Lewis who was one of the
co-leaders at the start of the fourth round.
Before turning professional in 2007, Park recorded eight career AJGA
wins from 2001-2005, including the 2003 Rolex Tournament of Champions. The
five-time Rolex Junior All-American and 2002 Rolex Junior Player of the Year won
the U.S. Women’s Open in 2008, making her one of five women in history to win
both the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship and U.S. Women’s Open.
In his first professional appearance, rookie Ben Kohles won the Web.com Tour's Nationwide Children's
Hospital Invitational on Sunday after beating Luke Guthrie on the first hole of a playoff. By sinking a 22-foot
birdie putt, Kohles became the first player to win a Web.com Tour event in his first
start.
The 2008 honorable mention Rolex Junior All-American competed
in six AJGA events before playing college golf at Virginia. The former Cavalier
was named ACC Player of the Year as both a sophomore and a junior and holds the
record at Virginia for most individual career wins.
University of Alabama rising junior Trey Mullinax carded a course-record, 9-under-par 63 during the
final round of the 27th Northern Amateur at Sand Creek Country Club
in Chesterton, Ind., to capture the title. Mullinax, who began the round tied
for 25th, finished one stroke ahead of Brian Campbell, a rising sophomore at the University of Illinois.
During his junior career, Mullinax posted two top-10
finishes in three AJGA starts. As a freshman at Alabama, Mullinax played in
eight events, highlighted by a tie for 25th at the SEC Championship.
Tyler Klava, a
rising sophomore at South Alabama, won the W.E. Cole Cotton States Amateur
Invitational by defeating Jade Scott,
1-up, in the 18-hole championship match at Bayou DeSiard Country Club in
Monroe, La. Klava won Nos. 7-11 for a 4-up lead, and clinched the title by
halving No. 18 with a 10-foot par putt.
Klava played in AJGA events from 2008-2010. He posted two
top-10 finishes in national junior tournaments, including a third-place finish
in his first AJGA start. As a high school sophomore, he helped the golf team
qualify for the state tournament for the first time in school history, and went
on to finish tied for 12th individually at the 2A state
championships.
As a freshman at South Alabama, Klava was second on the team
with a 72.70 scoring average. He posted two top-20 finishes and led his team
during the David Toms Intercollegiate, tying for 17th place overall.
Oregon State rising junior David Fink prevailed in a five-player sudden-death playoff to win
the 46th Pacific Coast Amateur Championship at Bandon Dunes Golf
Resort in Bandon, Ore. Fink birdied the fourth playoff hole to capture the
victory over Taeksoo Kim (Boise
State), Michael Anderson (Washington
State), Anton Arboleda (UCLA) and
Oregon State teammate Matt Rawitzer.
Fink previously won medalist honors during stroke play
completion at the 2011 Pacific Northewst Men’s Amateur Championship and he
captured his best collegiate finish, tied for 10th at the Bandon
Dunes Championship during his freshman season. The Hawaii native captured
back-to-back wins at the Manoa Cup in 2010 and 2011, and was named to the
Pac-12 All-Academic Honorable Mention team twice.
In his lone AJGA appearance, Fink tied for second at the
2008 Old Second Bank Junior Championship at Aurora.
Ariya Jutanugarn of Bangkok, Thailand, led wire-to-wire to
win the 99th Royal Cup Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship by five
shots at the Lethbridge Country Club in Lethbridge, Alberta. Jutanugarn turned
in a final-round, 1-over-par 73 for a tournament 14-under-par 274.
No. 1 in the Polo Golf Rankings, Jutanugarn has recorded 10
top-10 finishes out of 12 AJGA starts. The 2011 Rolex Junior Player of the Year
captured back-to-back victories at the Rolex Girls Junior Championship in 2011
and 2012, and a win at the 2012 Thunderbird International Junior. Jutanugarn is
currently No. 2 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings.
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