GENOA -- As a 15-year old, to shoot 6-under par in a two-day tournament is a major accomplishment. Until now.
"Without looking at the course, if somebody would've asked me 'I'll give you a 138 after two days, will you take it?' I would say 'yeah,'" said Erik Flores, of Grass Valley, Calif. "But after coming out here and seeing the course, I could shoot much lower. I'm pretty disappointed."
Daniel Lim never allowed Flores to get into contention, shooting a final round 3-under 69 to win the Boys 13-15 Division at the PGA Junior Series on Thursday at The Golf Club at Genoa Lakes. Flores, who shot a 68 in the first round on Wednesday, finished in second, one stroke ahead of Bryan Vencill. Lim finished the tournament with an 8-under 136.
"I left a lot of shots short today," said Lim, of Cupertino, Calif. "I wasn't as long off the tee as the other guys (Vencill and Flores), but I made good use of the par 5s. I know they play a totally different game than I do, so I tried not to worry about the other guys."
Flores started the Thursday's round one shot back of Lim. He, too, wasn't worried about playing against Lim, although he knew going into the final round what it would take to beat him.
"Going into something like this, I always have a pretty good idea of what number will win it," Flores said. "It was a 66. A 67 would've won it. I could've shot that but I missed four or five putts I should've made, at least. When Daniel was birdying them today, I was not. I just kept hitting them close, but he kept making them."
In the Girls 16-17 Division, after finishing in second in the first three events of the summer, Sara Brown finally ended up on top. Brown finished at even par for the two-day tournament after shooting a final-round 73. Brown, though, had only four players to hold off to get her first place finish, the closest being Alexis Edwards, who finished six shots back of Brown.
"I just decided to play it smart," said Brown, of Tucson, Ariz. "I won--finally."
In the Boys 16-17 Division, Christopher Whalen made a five-foot par putt to beat Tyler Aldridge on the first hole of their playoff. Whalen and Aldridge both finished at 2-under for the tournament. Casey Caldwell was the only other player under par, finishing in third place at 1-under. Aldridge was in 12th place going into the final round, but shot a 3-under 69 on Thursday to force the playoff.
In the Girls 13-15 Division, Cristina Corpus won with a 9-over 153. Reno's Ellyse Siu shot a 195. In the Boys 13-15 Division, Fernley's Matt Leestma finished in 10th place, following his opening-round 72 with a 1-over 73. Both Carson golfers in that division improved on their first-round scores. Kevin Goles shot an 89 on Wednesday but had an 84 yesterday. Jonathon Cockerill bested his first-round 91 by seven strokes, shooting an 84.
In the seven-year existence of the PGA Junior Series, this was the first time it held an event in Nevada.