It Paid to Play Early in the First Round of Kenny Novak Junior Tour Championship

AURORA: The luck of the draw can be cruel and brutal or compassionate and merciful.

Just ask the young players who had the misfortune of having a late tee time for the first round of the 41st Kenny Novak Junior Tour Championship on Tuesday.

Or, feel free to reach out to the fortunates who played early and finished their 18 holes before Club Walden was peppered with three afternoon rain showers that made things, well, uncomfortable. And certainly challenging.

The weather was not the main reason why players excelled or struggled. There were just as many good scores turned in post-rain as there were pre-rain and vice-versa.

But you always wonder.

As expected, the best rounds of the day were turned in by the older players, those competing in the 16-19 age groups. Those rounds belonged to Clinton’s Silas Kirkpatrick and Aurora’s Graycn Vidovic, who were the only players in the field of 128 to break 70. Both turned in bogey-free rounds and will have comfortable leads heading into Wednesday’s final round.

Kirkpatrick, who will be a junior at Green High, came within one shot of tying the tournament record with a tidy 5-under 67 that gave him a 4-shot lead over Lorain’s Prince Tran (34-37=71) and a 5-shot bulge over Canal Fulton’s Zachary Huscusson (36-36=72).

Vidovic, who will be a senior at Aurora High, went 34-25=69 and also has a 4-shot lead over Broadview Heights’ Gianna Reginelli (33-40=73) and a 6-shot edge over Eastlake’s Lauren Ianetta (36-39=75).

Kirkpatrick, Tran and Huscusson played in the first wave, teeing off a little after 9 a.m. Vidovic, Reginelli and Ianetta teed off after 1 p.m.

“It was pretty stress-free, I was able to keep it simple,” said Kirkpatrick, whose nines of 34-33 left him one shot short of equaling the tournament record set in the final round last year by champion David Swab. “I drove the ball well, pretty automatic. Everything else was pretty good. I am really happy.”

Three of Kirkpatrick’s five birdies came because he got the ball close to the hole, making a 4-foot putt on the 491-yard third, a 3-footer on the 400-yard 12th and a 4-footer on the 512-yard 15th.

His other two came when he sank putts of 12 feet on the 394-yard seventh and a monster 20-footer on the 546-yard 14th.

“The birdies on 14 and 15 really got me going,” he said. “It was great, coming late (in the round).”

Kirkpatrick said he likes the challenge of playing with the lead.

“It puts pressure on me, and I think that’s a great experience,” he said. “It teaches you how to close out tournaments.”

He’ll get his chance on Wednesday with Tran, a senior at Marion L. Steele in Amherst, ready to challenge. Tran, the MVP of the Southwestern Conference last fall, had four birdies in his first look at Walden. He also was able to get the ball close, having a tap-in birdie on the 491-yard third hole, a 3-footer on the 406-yard fifth, a 10-footer on the ninth and a short one after he was able to get up-and-down from left of the green on the par-5 14th.

“I was able to stay pretty calm all day,” he said, agreeing stress was at a minimum.

Unlike Kirkpatrick, Tran said he prefers playing from behind.

“I like being the underdog,” he said.

Vidovic, who won the Ohio Junior Girls Championship by five shots earlier this month at Marion Country Club with rounds of 71-66=137 (7-under), is no stranger to Walden. Club professional Collin McEndree is her high school coach.

“This is the first time I have played well in this event,” she said. “The first three years I wasn’t very good.”
That wasn’t the case on Tuesday. She kept the ball in play all day and made birdie putts of 12 feet, six feet and a whopping 25-footer from the fringe on the 415-yard ninth when it was pouring rain. Her lone “scare” came on the long 14th with her driver being the culprit. But a pure 5-wood got her close and a nifty wedge to six feet saved the day.
Competition was held in five age groups, three for the boys and two for the girls. Here is how things unfolded in the other flights:

BOYS 14-15: Hudson’s Dexter James (37-35=72) has a one-shot lead over Akron’s Tommy Kinder (35-38=73) and Independence’s Kaden Schuette (37-36=73).

BOYS 11-13: Newark’s Mason Beatty (37-39=76) will take a 4-shot lead into the final round with Mansfield’s Jacob Snay (37-43=80) and Rocky River’s Coleson Paez (38-43=81) the closest pursuers.

GIRLS 11-15: Stow’s Sarah Vojtko (36-37=72) and Fairview Park’s Kayla Knaze (38-35=73) are on top, followed by Hudson’s Elena Varga (40-36=76) and Yumi Kohara (38-38=76) of Cuyahoga Falls.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
TIM ROGERS
Tim is a Contributing Writer for the Northern Ohio PGA. Award-winning golf writer and sports reporter for the Plain Dealer, now retired. Contributor to the Akron Beacon Journal, Canton Repository, AP, other national publications.