INTERNATIONAL
TOURNAMENTS
USA Tour July 2005
This
page will be updated after each event.
CALLAWAY
WORLD JUNIOR GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP - SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, USA
12-14 July 2005 www.juniorworldgolf.com
Bryce
left the cold of South Africa and arrived in Washington DC for
a brief stopover before a 5 hour flight to the searing heat of
San Diego. Bryce was entered in the Boys 7-8 Division with over
88 qualifiers from all over the world. Over 1000 children traveled
to the event, the largest of it's kind in the world. The three
practice days prior to the event we battled to work out the yardages
and Bryce's scores were 6 over par which was not good. On Monday
evening though we played a second practice round and he recorded
TWO holes in one, the first on the Par 3 102 yards ( used his
7 iron) and the second on the 12th, par 3 ( 92 yards) using a
8 iron.
This was of course incredible to witness espicially two in one
round and this definitely put Bryce on a high.
The first day of the championship Bryce teed off at 10:48 and
held steady over the first nine scoring even par and followed
up on the second nine with even par to finish the first day on
58 for even two shots behind the leader and in 2nd place on his
own. The second was a little more tense and he teed off a little
earlier at 08:48 and the course played slightly longer because
of the dew and early morning humidity. He played another solid
round and recorded 3 bogeys, a birdie and the rest pars to finish
2 over for the day and 118 total for the first two days and still
alone in second place behind the current world champion, Joshua
Martin of the USA. Bryce was at this stage 6 & 7 shots ahead
of last years world champion Allenby Ramos and number two Bernardo
Curbelo. Going into the 3rd and final day the 20 players who made
the cut teed off from 08:00 and Bryce was in the final fourball
as he was lying second some 3 shots off Joshua. Bryce parred the
first 3 holes and then birdied and after Joshua record a double
bogey Bryce was within one shot.
However the players all played steady golf and Bryce started to
feel the pressure at the end and he bogeyed the last two holes
but this was still good enough to finish in 2nd
place on a score of 179 which was 5 over. Bryce really played
well and thank you to his coach, Dave Usendorff who helped prepare
Bryce for this event. We are extremely proud to have Bryce as
the second best player in the world having beaten the likes of
Ramos, Curbelo as well as Tyler Moore, Gabriel Lench and Matthew
Plunkett, all ranked in the top 10. Bryce
also tied for the putting competition whereby he won a brand new
putter. We will leaving for the U.S.Kids World Championship
which is been held in Williamsburg, Virginia in the next two days"
Score
Card
U.S.Kids
World Junior Golf Championship - Williamsburg, Virginia, USA -
28-30 July 2005 www.uskidsgolf.com
The 6th annual U.S. Kids World Championship was held in Williamsburg
Virginia and over 900 children from all 50 states and some 26
countries took part. Bryce qualified for this prestigious event
by winning the South African Qualifier event earlier this year.
We made the 6 hour trip from San Diego to Williamsburg and arrived
5 days prior to the event and straight into a heat warning zone.
The temperatures reached around 43 deg and humidity around 109
which tied the record for Williamsburg as the hottest day. Bryce
practiced around 7:00 each day to avoid the heat and scored three
to five over on the practice days.
The
Par 5's played long at 325 yards and 310 yards which he could
not reach in two. The Par 4's averaged around 240 yards and he
mostly played his driver and then 8 iron to SW into the greens.
Competition Day 1 was a horrid day with neither his drivers, irons
or putting working and he finished on 40, four over and in 33rd
position. Over 46 children were within 6 shots of the leader's
score of 34, Joshua Martin from North Carolina. On Day two Bryce
played a lot more consistently and bogeyed only one hole, birdied
one and pared the rest to finish level par 36 and climbed back
to eighth position.Day three started like day one except in the
rain which made the rough treacherous. Bryce bogeyed the first,
pared the second and the bogeyed the 3,4 and 5th with, we must
say, some shots unlucky not to go down. He then said he was going
to birdie all the holes as he wanted to be positive and not negative.
He
then pared the sixth, placed his 6 iron on the par 3 about 2 feet
away for birdie and on the par 5 drove the middle of the fairway
and hit his 5 wood slightly long into the rough some 57 yards
from the pin. He chose to use his SW which landed on the edge
of the green and rolled in for an eagle leaving him just 1 over.
On the last hole,a Par 3 the tee was placed at the back of the
tee box due to the rain and we were not sure what to use. We played
the 5 iron in some 119 yards but short and on a steep embankment.
Bryce lobbed to within 3 feet and tapped in for par. The last
four holes he played 3 under which managed to bring him back into
the top 10 and indeed finished in 10th place. He was a very determined
child and fought back well on the last day despite a start that
left him 4 over after 5 holes. He
also posted the third best score on day 2 and 8th best score on
Day 3.
With
his 2nd place at the Callaway World Championship and his
10th place finish in this event has proved he can hold his
own and his parents are very proud of his performance. We will
have a few weeks off before putting a program together for the
next year. Well done to Joshua Martin who won the U.S.Kids Championship
as well as the Callaway. A very talented player and pleasure to
have met and played with as was Tyler Moore, Gabriel Lench and
Bernardo Curbelo."
