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Moldovan, Kehoe take AJGA titles
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Moldovan, Kehoe take AJGA titles
By Brian Dzenis
BOARDMAN
Maxwell Moldovan had a crowd to please and he delivered.
On the final day of the American Junior Golf Association’s Mill Creek Foundation Junior All-Star, the Green High School sophomore had a bigger crowd following him than other golfers. Eight coaches from Division I schools made the trip to Mill Creek Park to watch the Uniontown native hold onto the boys title for the second straight year.
“The first time I had that kind of audience was here last year,” Moldovan said. “I enjoy it. It adds pressure and I like that. If you do well and you make a good showing, you obviously impress those coaches.”
Ohio State, Kent State, Pitt, Iowa, Wisconsin, Purdue, Tennessee and Florida State representatives witnessed Moldovan win his second career AJGA tournament. Both came at Mill Creek Golf Course. Across both years, he has always shot under par in Boardman.
Photo Gallery: AJGA Final Round
“It just sets up well for me,” Moldovan said. “You have to hit it straight off the tee and that’s one of my main strengths.”
Moldovan bested China’s Aaron Du by three strokes. He shot a 68 on Wednesday after shooting 66 and 69 the last two days. After three birdies and one bogey on the front nine, Moldovan was seven under with a five-stroke lead.
His playing partners Du and New Yorker Matthew Yamin made a charge on the back nine as Moldovan cooled a bit. The two-time winner was even on holes 10 through 12 and bogeyed on 13 to have Du come within two strokes of him. Moldovan birdied No. 16 as the other two partners bogeyed to get the lead back to three strokes, which stood the rest of the contest.
“I missed some fairways, but they were just in the rough,” Moldovan said of his last round. “I hit my irons well, I hit 16 greens and that was big.”
Moldovan has played at Mill Creek since he was 10 and 11 years old in a few kids tournaments. His father brought him here a few times in the spring for practice rounds as he views the venue as one of the better places to showcase his skills.
“I’m basically a local since I’m just an hour away,” Moldovan said. “It’s nice to have the home-field advantage.”
Nobody had the home-field advantage in the girls side as the top four competitors heading into Wednesday weren’t from the United States.
Canadian Taylor Kehoe led the field from start to finish across all three rounds, holding fellow Canadian Sarah Beqaj and Chinese golfers Sophie Zhang-Murphy and Manhua Chen at bay by six strokes.
Her best round was on Wednesday as she had no bogeys and three birdies through 18 holes. She had just three bogeys for the duration of the tournament.
“I didn’t really think about it, I just kind of played,” Kehoe said. “I almost got through the first day with no bogeys and then my dad on 18 said if I bogeyed (it would be the first). I then got a bogey.”
Kehoe shot 67 after shooting a 70 and a 68 on the previous two days. She took 15th at Mill Creek last year. He title comes during her last week of school in Strathroy, Ontario.
“It’s not that hard. Our teacher doesn’t give out that much homework,” Kehoe said of doing her schoolwork on the road. “She knows I’m away so she purposely doesn’t give me homework.”
The two area golfers in the tournament, Brookfield’s Connor Stevens and Cardinal Mooney’s Jayne Bernard, had their best rounds on the final day. Stevens rebounded from shooting 82 on Tuesday with a 77, finishing the tournament tied for 61st place. Bernard shot a 97 to finish in 23rd place.