FCWT Mystic Dunes: Murray in playoff
FCWT photo
At the end of Sunday's round at the Mystic Dunes Golf Club in Celebration, Florida, Peter Ganser and Ben Murray found themselves tied at 147 for the event. Both finished with cards of 74-73, at the Future Collegians World Tour Mystic Dunes Challenge.
The pair headed back to the 18th for the first hole of the playoff where Murray had made par on each round and Ganser, however, had made bogey minutes earlier to close his Sunday round.
Murray made his third par in two days on the playoff hole, and Ganser couldn't match.
Rocky Khara and Josef Janik finished tied for 3rd, while four players finished tied for 5th at 150, three strokes back of the lead: Case Gard of Lakeland, FL (2009), who carded a final round of 72 to move up the leaderboard; J.D. Tremmel of Columbus, OH (2010), which was his first Top 5 of the season, Seiji Liu of Beverly Hills, CA (2010), playing in his first event of the season and Jisoo Park of Dixon Hills, NY (2009).
Parker Wingfield of Newport News, VA, carded a final round of even par to finish at 151, and tied for 9th with Michael Wallace of Murfreesboro, TN (2010).
Janik from the Czech Republic held a two stroke lead over Khara heading into the final day after carding a 1-under 70. Khara, a third year FCWT player, was one of three players to make an eagle on Saturday and had two top 10 finishes entering this event, and was one of the favorites heading into Sunday's round. Two strokes back of Khara was a foursome of players tied for 3rd: Alex Osborne of Bermuda (2010), Jisoo Park of Dixon Hills, NY (2009),
Peter Ganser of Germany (2010), and Benjamin Murray of CANADA (2009).
Fifteen-year-old Jonathan Ortiz of Winter Garden, FL (2011) fired the Low Round on Sunday (a 69) to finish tied for 11th with four other players.
In the Boys 13-15 division, Hank Lebioda of Winter Springs, FL (2012) began the final round with a five-stroke advantage over Ben Balter of Wayland, MA (2013).
Lebioda, a 2nd year FCWT player, had a 2nd place finish at Eagle Creek in October, but had yet earn a victory. That changed on Sunday, when he fired a 2-under 69 to win by a whopping 13 strokes. He finished was atop all the statistical categories with an eagle (matched only by Jordi Torrent of Spain (2011), six birdies on the weekend (matched only by Hao Yuan Lu of China (2012) and 24 pars for the event (the next best was 19 by Lu).
Hao Yuan Lu of China (2012) finished in 2nd place in his first FCWT event. Jordi Torrent of Spain (2011) finished in 3rd place.