Northern California won the boys Junior America’s Cup team title for the ninth time, but the crowd reaction at the closing ceremonies at Hiwan Golf Club made it clear that the “home team” representing the CGA had done something extraordinary.
Colorado teams have been competing in the boys JAC annually since 1975, but before Friday their best recorded finish was fourth place. That changed in the third JAC ever held in Colorado as the CGA squad (pictured) earned a medal for placing third, behind only perennial powers Northern and Southern California.
“It’s weird thinking we got third because Colorado is not known for doing real well in this event, so it’s pretty cool,” said Cameron Harrell of Colorado Springs, who placed 10th individually, joining Cole Nygren of Longmont (sixth) in the top 10.
In all, 17 four-man teams from the western U.S., western Canada and Mexico compete in the JAC, which normally only is held in Colorado once every 17 years.
Fifteen-year-old Jonah Texeira, competing for San Diego, beat a field of mostly older players to win the Sally Pini Memorial Medalist trophy, given to the individual champion. But even he didn’t break or match par for the week as his 2-over-par 72 in Friday’s final round left him at 1-over 211 overall. That gave him a two-stroke victory over Northern Californians Jonathon De Los Reyes and Andrew Bonner.
In the team competition, Northern California shot an impressive 3-over-par 213 in the final round to post a 640 total, good for a 12-stroke margin over Southern California. Colorado was next best at 657.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the last team win by Northern California came the last time Colorado hosted the JAC, in 1999. The Northern Californians also prevailed the only other time the event was held in Colorado, in 1982.
The CGA’s previous best showing in the boys JAC was a fourth in 1985, the year a Phil Mickelson-led team from San Diego was a co-champion.
This time around, Nygren (pictured at left) led the way for Colorado by carding rounds of 74-71-71 for a 216 total despite a four-putt double bogey on the final hole. Nygren, the 2011 AJGA Aspen Junior Golf Classic champion, was 4 under par through 10 holes Friday before dropping back.
“I honestly didn’t know about the Junior America’s Cup until Dustin (Jensen, the CGA’s director of youth programs, and the tournament director for the 2011 JAC) told me about it,” Nygren said. “For me it was between (playing) this or an AJGA event in San Diego, and I chose this because it’s something you don’t get to do every day. I’m very happy I came here even if I hadn’t played well. It’s very fun.”
Rounding out Colorado’s scores were Harrell (70-74-74–218), Jimmy Makloski of Pueblo (80-72-76–228, 35th place) and Ben Moore of Cherry Hills Village (75-80-81–236, 49th place).
Harrell, who will play college golf at Colorado State University beginning in the fall, wrapped up his junior golf career with a birdie on the final hole in front of roughly 100 spectators.
“It’s kind of cool this year that we got a little home crowd to follow us,” said Harrell, who also competed in the JAC last year. “And at least we played well for them. They’re not here to watch us finish in last place. We did good.”
As for Texeira (pictured at left), the JAC marks his second major junior championship. Last year, he won the Future Collegians World Tour national title. On Friday, he rode a 15-foot eagle on the second hole to the title.
“It’s a big win for me because there’s a lot of great players here,” said the Los Angeles-area resident. “It feels really good to beat a lot of great, great players. It’s very cool.”
All in all, Jensen called the tournament “perfect”, especially considering it was pulled together in roughly 4 1/2 months after JAC officials decided to move the 2011 event from Mazatlan, Mexico due to safety concerns.
“Everybody loved it,” Jensen said of the venue. “It was everything you could dream of in Colorado. You bring the kids up to the mountains, and we had a herd of probably 200 elk come up (near the clubhouse on Monday) and you had almost every team standing around watching and going, ‘Wow.’ It had that feel of Colorado. It couldn’t have gone any better. And throw in that our team does the best it’s ever done, and you couldn’t ask for a better week.”
Helping make things run smoothly at Hiwan were roughly 175 volunteers, including 31 families who hosted the contestants for the week. As with other aspects of the tournament, the volunteer efforts had to be organized with only about 4 1/2 months’ notice.
“Fortunately, we’ve had the AJGA here in the past and the club enjoyed it so much, so it was easy to put together because of the history we’ve had with those events,” said Rich Triberti, the volunteer chairman for the JAC. “I think everything went fantastic, and I think everyone is happy. The members are happy and the kids are happy.”
Boys Junior America’s Cup
At Par-70 Hiwan GC in Evergreen
TEAM SCORES
Northern California — 210-217-213–640
Southern California — 210-224-218–652
Colorado — 219-217-221–657
Oregon — 213-220-230–663
Washington — 224-219-221–664
Hawaii — 223-224-218–665
Sun Country — 219-230-219–668
Alberta — 227-220-222–669
Arizona — 220-230-220–670
San Diego — 227-219-226–672
Mexico — 223-228-222–673
Utah — 230-224-222–676
British Columbia — 221-230-226–677
Idaho — 224-232-231–687
Nevada — 233-237-229–699
Montana — 231-242-238–711
Wyoming — 235-240-239–714
INDIVIDUAL SCORES
Jonah Texeira, San Diego, 70-69-72–211
Jonathon De Los Reyes, Northern California, 67-74-72–213
Andrew Bonner, Northern California, 71-70-72–213
Bryson DeChambeau, Northern California, 72-73-69–214
Dominick Francks, Washington, 76-67-72–215
Jake Knapp, Southern California, 72-72-72–216
Cole Nygren, Colorado, 74-71-71–216
Kevin Kwon, British Columbia, 69-77-71–217
Max Carter, Oregon, 69-74-74–217
Cameron Harrell, Colorado, 70-74-74–218
Seung Jae Maeng, Hawaii, 73-73-72–218
Austin Banz, Utah, 73-70-76–219
Aaron Terrazas, Mexico, 73-75-71–219
Logan France, Arizona, 73-77-70–220
Kenneth Fadke, Sun Country, 71-75-74–220
KK Limbhasut, Southern California, 68-77-76–221
Will Higham, Idaho, 75-72-74–221
Tyler Saunders, Alberta, 78-70-74–222
Emilio Maurer, Mexico, 73-77-72–222
Kevin Murphy, Oregon, 70-76-78–224
Dylan Kornberg, Arizona, 73-74-77–224
Andrew Whalen, Washington, 75-75-74–224
Curtis Chan, British Columbia, 74-75-76–225
Alex Chiarella, Hawaii, 77-74-74–225
Alex Angard, Southern California, 70-75-81–226
Matt Williams, Alberta, 74-79-73–226
Brett Hogan, Alberta, 75-76-75–226
Nicholas Smart, Utah, 78-77-71–226
Nick Mandell, Washington, 73-78-75–226
James Lee, Sun Country, 75-79-72–226
Rico Hoey, Southern California, 78-79-70–227
Blake Toolan, Arizona, 74-80-73–227
Richard Hattori, Hawaii, 75-80-72–227
Kamrin Allen, Wyoming, 74-80-73–227
Jimmy Makloski, Colorado, 80-72-76–228
Scott Riley, Nevada, 78-76-74–228
Bobby Gojuangco, San Diego, 79-74-76–229
Cody Neal, Northern California, 77-76-76–229
Kalena Preus, Hawaii, 75-77-77–229
Marty Sanchez, Sun Country, 73-85-73–231
Sulman Raza, Oregon, 76-78-78–232
Patrick Sanchez, Mexico, 77-76-79–232
Danny Ochoa, San Diego, 79-76-78–233
Nathan Wunderli, Utah, 81-77-75–233
Colton Dallimore, Utah, 79-77-78–234
Kade Crossland, Idaho, 77-80-77–234
Henry Cunningham, San Diego, 78-79-78–235
Brandon McIver, Montana, 80-78-77–235
Cameron Davison, British Columbia, 79-78-79–236
Ben Moore, Colorado, 75-80-81–236
Jordan Wright, Nevada, 76-79-81–236
Derek Rucki, Alberta, 80-74-83–237
David Faraudo, Mexico, 78-79-80–237
Eli Rogers, Montana, 76-79-82–237
Kyle Miley, Idaho, 75-83-80–238
Nikolas Gonnella, Nevada, 79-82-78–239
Isaac Merry, Sun Country, 90-76-74–240
David Elliott, Idaho, 74-80-86–240
Chris Crisologo, British Columbia, 78-82-81–241
Brady Calkins, Washington, 79-77-85–241
Ryan Porch, Montana, 76-85-81–242
Chris Cremer, Wyoming, 78-81-84–243
Jamie Waltmire, Arizona, 84-79-81–244
Bradley Keyer, Nevada, 83-86-77–246
Reed Platke, Montana, 79-87-80–246
Danny Davis, Wyoming, 83-79-89–251
Quintin Pope, Wyoming, 91-84-82–257
Alistair Docherty, Oregon, 74-70-WD
