America’s No. 1 ranked junior boy, Koivun entered Sunday with a three-shot lead and extended his cushion to as many as five before making bogey on the par-3 17th hole and double bogey on No. 18. Even with the late stumble, Koivun finished the tournament at 5-under par and was never seriously threatened down the stretch.
He shot an opening round 67 and led wire-to-wire.
Knaub entered the final round with a three-stroke lead and shot 73, finishing the 54-hole event at 3-under par, two clear of Alice Ziyi Zhao (Irvine, Calif.). Knaub birdied two of the first four holes, pushing her margin to five, before encountering turbulence on holes five through eight, where she made three bogies to trim her lead.
She settled down to shoot even par 36 on the back and never allowed Zhao to get closer than two strokes over the closing holes.
Zhao, the only girl in the field that never shot a round over par, finished at 1-under and was three strokes ahead of third-place finishers Chloe Kovelesky (Boca Raton, Fla.) and Madison Messimer (Myrtle Beach, S.C.). Anna Davis (Spring Valley, Calif.), the reigning Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion, finished fifth at 3-over.
Forty of the tournament’s 54 boys were ranked among America’s top 100 juniors by either Golfweek or Junior Golf Scoreboard (JGS), while 28 of the 36 girls were top 100 players.
Courtesy of Chris King, King Fish Communications
