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Defending champion Moldovan takes lead in AJGA
By Charles grove
BORADMAN
Mill Creek’s South Course proved to be a worthy adversary for many of the competitors during second-round play Wednesday at the American Junior Golf Association’s Mill Creek Foundation Junior All-Star.
After an opening round of 79 on Tuesday, Brookfield’s Conner Stevens shot an 82 on day two, dropping to 21 over for the tournament and falling from tied for 56th to now a tie for 63rd place.
Youngstown’s Jayne Bernard remains in 23rd place. She improved upon her opening round of 101 with a round of 98 on Wednesday.
Maxwell Moldovan of Uniontown took the lead after two rounds, sitting 5-under for the tournament, leading Matthew Yamin of New York by two strokes.
On the girls side, Taylor Kehoe of Strathroy, Ontario maintained her first-round lead and is 2-under for the tournament, leading Sophie Zhang-Murphy of Beijing, China by three strokes.
Moldovan, who won this tournament a year ago, said his approach shots were what helped him to his round of 66 on Wednesday.
“I think for me I hit a lot of greens,” Moldovan said. “I hit 15 out of 18 greens and that’s what gave me the opportunity to make five birdies.”
Moldovan was tied for the lead going into the final round of last year’s event and said he’s comfortable leading going into the final day.
“I enjoy [leading] because you’re in control,” Moldovan said. “I know a lot of people when they have the lead try to protect it but I want to act like I have to catch up build on my lead.”
After a disappointing opening round on Tuesday, Bernard was sitting 17 strokes behind 22nd place. Bernard is still chasing the competition, but was happier with her play on day two.
“I got better,” Bernard said. “My score was a lot better than my score was yesterday. My chipping and putting [were issues on Monday] so my short game wasn’t that good.”
Bernard wasn’t going to take the first-round result sitting down. She went right back to practice Tuesday after her opening round.
“I had a lesson yesterday,” Bernard said. “I called my golf coach and made him schedule me a lesson for an hour. I came out here today and I took his notes and I did better.
“He told me just to take my time, not listen to anyone and play my own game. I tired to do that as much as possible today.”
After Tuesday’s round, Stevens said the biggest challenge was adapting to a dry course that was playing short. Bernard said there was a mixture of that Tuesday with the hot sun mixing with showers early in the morning.
“I think [the course] was a lot drier than it was [Tuesday],” Bernard said. “I think the green were a little bit slower than yesterday with the rain though.”
Stevens was unable to be reached for comment after Wednesday’s round.
Second-day moves
David Sun, an Irvine, Calif., native of South Korean citizenship was one of the biggest movers on the boys side. Sun shot an opening round 74 which left him tied for 21st but shot 66 on Wednesday to move to par for the tournament, a tie for fourth place and just five shots back of the leader.
Today’s tee times
Stevens will tee off at No. 10 in today’s final round at 8 a.m. partnering with Joe Wilson of West Chester, Prayaag Oruganti of Austin, Texas and Colton Levey of Twinsburg.
Bernard will tee off at No. 10 at 8:40 a.m. partnering with Lara Yeung of Moorpark, Calif., and Lyvia Li of Granger, Ind.