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Youth Served Early in the 63rd Jacksonville Amateur Championship

VaselineJuly 18, 2024

0 3 minutes read

Youth Served Early in the 63rd Jacksonville Amateur Championship

High school seniors shoot 68 on a balmy, windless day at Jacksonville Golf and Country Club

Luke Balaskiewicz and Emmett Kuhlenkamp have something in common, except they’re both high school seniors with long last names (for Scrabble fans: Balaskiewicz beats Kuhlenkamp 29-24, if proper names were allowed).

They are also making their first appearance in the Jacksonville Amateur Championship and at no point did they look like nervous novices in Thursday’s first round at Jacksonville Golf and Country Club.

Jacksonville Amateur Standings

Jacksonville Amateur Second Round Start Times

Balaskiewicz and Kuhlenkamp both started fast, recovering from crucial mistakes on the same short par-4 hole and holding on until the end of the match. In the first round, they shared the lead by one stroke at 4-under-par 68.

Balaskiewcz, who plays for Bolles, birdied the first and third holes, bided his time until he birdied the 11th and 14th holes, then hit a 9-iron inside 5 feet on the par-4 18^e hole, which gave him a closing birdie to tie with Kuhlenkamp, who had just finished on the ninth hole.

Kuhlenkamp, a member of Fleming Island’s Class 3A state championship team, started on the back nine and birdied holes 11 and 16, then turned around and birdied holes 1 and 4, the latter on a 40-foot putt.

He then made an eagle on the par-5 eighth hole with a six-foot putt after hitting a hybrid ball onto the green from 214 yards.

Former JAGA champion Jason Duff lurks behind

Their slender lead comes against a proven winner in JAGA events: Jason Duff, a rising senior at the University of North Florida and the 2022 JAGA champion in Deerwood. Duff birdied three of his first six holes and shot a 69. Also at 3 under are Landon Durham, a junior at Elon College who lives in Ponte Vedra, and Patrick Hamlin of St. Augustine, who cooled off after starting his round with an eagle birdie.

Danny Erickson (71), a member of four state championship teams at Ponte Vedra High and a redshirt freshman at UNF, is alone in sixth place; and four players are tied for par: Alexandre Vandermoten, a former Jacksonville University player, Adam Waller, who played at Nease and is a rising sophomore at Valdosta State, former Bolles player Cade Black and former Nease player Cooper Diaz.

The high heat and humidity and relatively windless day still made for tough conditions for the field. Duff, who followed up his 2022 victory with a runner-up finish to Will Davis last year in San Jose, said finding the right spot on the winding fairways was crucial to connecting shots onto the slick greens.

“You have to be precise,” he said. “It’s very tight. There’s not much room for error and when you make mistakes, you have to miss badly.”

Duff didn’t make many mistakes. His only bogey came when he missed his tee shot on the tough 200-yard par-3 17^e hole in the left bunker. He hit over the green on the other side and two putts from the fringe.

Damage control at #13

Balaskiewicz and Kuhlenkamp both had brilliant recovery shots on the par-4 13^e hole in a representation of what Duff meant by minimizing damage.

Balaskiewicz hit a tree with his tee shot on the 411-yard hole and the net result was a 125-yard drive. He had 286 yards to the green and hit a 3-wood to the right of the green and got up-and-down on a 10-foot putt.

Kuhlenkamp was on the fairway with his tee shot, but he hit his second shot into the pond to the right of the green. Undaunted, he hit his next shot and made a 10-foot putt for bogey.

“The greens are fast and perfect,” Kuhlenkamp said. “You have to pick your spots off the tee.”

Luke Balaskiewicz is on a roll

Balaskiewicz comes into the tournament on the back of a long run of solid golf. He won district and regional tournaments and finished fifth in the state tournament for the Bulldogs last fall and has four straight top-three finishes in Florida Junior Tour events, making the cut in the Florida Junior Boys and the Florida Amateur.

When asked what was so special, he didn’t hesitate for a moment.

“Putting,” he said. “It makes everything easier.”

Kuhlenkamp said being part of a state championship team and being motivated to chase down his teammate and individual state champion Tyler Mawhinney has improved his game and confidence.

“The confidence comes from playing with such a good group of guys,” he said of the Golden Eagles golf team. “When you have those guys around you, you want to play better.”

The second round takes place on Friday. The final round on Saturday is played by the bottom half of the field.

VaselineJuly 18, 2024

0 3 minutes read