Quentin Debove (Terra Cotta Invitational)
After a challenging final round that saw a few players make a run at the top of the leaderboard,
Quentin Debove (Paris, France) ended up one shot better than three golfers to claim his first victory on American soil.
The day started with Welshman
Jonathan Bale on top by four shots after rounds of 65 and 72. The Welshman tallied nine birdies over his opening 29 holes. However, the birdie well ran dry in the last 25 holes of the event and Bale slowly gave shots back, falling from 7-under par at the start of the third round to 2-under par when all was said and done.
Bale's performance opened the door for a few players to vie for the Terra Cotta championship.
Two of those players are high school seniors,
Nicholas Prieto and
PJ Maybank.
Prieto (Miami, Fla.) made a lot of noise early in his round. He opened with four straight birdies and added another birdie on the seventh hole en route to a 32 on the front nine. However, after reaching five-under for the tournament with a birdie on the tenth hole, Prieto, an Arizona State commit, finished with scores of five on the five closing holes. That sent Prieto back down to 1-over par. This was Prieto's second straight year in the top five of the Terra Cotta.
Maybank (Cheboygan, Mich.), fresh off his
record-setting victory at the Azalea last month, looked like he was about to catch fire again in the final round when he eagled the 15th hole to get to 4-under par. However, a double bogey on the very next hole and then two pars left Maybank one shot off the winning score.
Bale, even with his 77, was still very much in the running in the closing holes. He was four-under par standing on the 16th tee box. But back-to-back bogeys left Bale needing a birdie on the final hole to match his playing partner Debove. He couldn't summon one last birdie for the week.
Bryan Kim climbed into a tie for second with a solid 70 in the final round. He made two birdies and no bogeys, but one more birdie would have helped him tie Debove, too.
On what was a challenging scoring day,
Niall Shiels Donegan recorded the low round with an impressive 69, rocketing 30 spots up the leaderboard. He followed up a birdie on the third hole with an eagle on the fourth hole for an opening nine 33. Birdies on hole Nos. 15 and 18 capped off the splendid day for the Northwestern commit and back-to-back Hawaii Amateur champion.
The champion Debove's final round was a tale of the bounce-back birdie. His shot an even-par 72 on the final day. He made bogeys on hole Nos. 4,8, 16. In each instance, Debove made birdie on the next hole to steady the ship. The birdie on the 17th hole was the deciding score for Debove, as he finished the tournament one shot ahead of three players at 3-under par.
Debove is a junior at Florida. He has one top ten for the Gators in his college career when he finished in tenth place in the Gator Invitational. He has had a few close calls in amateur events. He shot 5-under at 2021 Orlando Amateur for T10. In addition, he finished in tied for second at 2021 Dixie Amateur and tied for second at the 2021 Sunshine State Amateur. He also finished in a tie for seventh in the 104th Florida Amateur. In his home country, Debove won the 2017 Grand Prix de Saint- Germain Champion and the 2017 Grand Prix d'Ozoir la Ferriere Champion.
With the victory, Debove earns an invite into the Northeast Amateur in June.
ABOUT THE Terra Cotta Invitational
54-hole stroke play tournament with no cut.
Caddies are required. A Sponsor/Contestant
tournament is held before the event.
The Terra Cotta is an invitational. However,
they do
encourage applications and players can submit
their
golf resume for consideration.
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