The 70th International Junior Masters is now in the books and what a week it was!
First we had rain, then smoke. The sun finally prevailed for us on Thursday and Friday and we were treated to some excellent junior golf all week long.
Medal play on day 1 was played through a fairly steady rain but we managed to stay on schedule while only bringing the squeegee out once. At the end of the day on Tuesday, Matt Carpentier from Rochester was our first day medalist with a 68.
Day 2 of Medal play was much drier although the sun was blocked much of the day by smoke from the forest fires in Canada. This did not cool down our players as we had several rounds under par on Tuesday, led by Canadian Caleb Davies’ 67. For the tournament we had eight scores in the 60s with a total of ten rounds under par. Carpentier and Australian Harry Takis were the co-medalists at 4 under par. Alexa Phung was the medalist on the girl’s side with a score of +6. Alexa is from New York City and is only 12 years old.
After a wonderful evening at the Champion’s Dinner, match play began on Thursday morning in typical unpredictable fashion. Carpentier was eliminated in his first match on the 21st hole by Stewart Walker from British Columbia, Canada. Many other lower seeds prevailed as well, setting us up for a competitive quarterfinals round in the afternoon. At the end of the day, our semifinal matches were set with Takis vs James Bradley of New York City and Michigan’s Remy Stalcup vs Walker. In the Girl’s flight, Phung was matched up with Rochester’s Sophia Cellura and Menglu Zhu was facing Canadian Claire Roberts.
Friday brought us some more excellent and exciting play with Takis and Stalcup prevailing on the boys side and Phung and Zhu on the girls side. Both Finals matches were competitive throughout—with both of them concluding on the 17th hole. Zhu won her match 2 and 1 and Harry Takis became the first Aussie to win the IJM, also with a 2 and 1 victory.
EACC’s Charlie Fischer played in his final IJM and acquitted himself very well. Charlie had a two- day score of 143; including a 69 on Friday. Unfortunately, Charlie was defeated in his opening match on the 18th hole by eventual runner up Remy Stalcup. Charlie was also presented with the Deb Engle award on Wednesday evening at the Champions Dinner. This award is presented for dedication, improvement and conduct that reflects positively on the game through repeated competition in the IJM. Our other EACC boys fared as follows: Brayden Sheehan played in the Platinum flight, Cole Jones and Adam Cichowski played in the Gold Flight, John Giangreco and Connor Jackson played in the Silver Flight and Garrett Senfield in the Bronze Flight.
Other flight winners were as follows:
Platinum—Tyler Berkman, Potsdam, NY
Gold—Mateo Payan, Colombia
Silver—Lundon Hadley, Canada
Bronze—RJ Delisanti, Niagara-Wheatfield, NY
Medalist awards were as follows:
Gary Player Cup—Harry Takis and Matt Carpentier
Joseph Griffin Award (15 and under Medalist)—Jackson Ormond, Rochester, NY
Johnny Ryan Award (First Day Medalist)—Matt Carpentier
Girls Medalist—Alexa Phung
East Aurora Country Club was at its finest all week. The golf course was in superb condition for the competitors, the renovated clubhouse was on display, the grille room was used for scoring on Tuesday and Wednesday and the patio was in constant use after the rain stopped. More importantly, the membership was open and welcoming all week long. Additionally, our professional staff, led by David Jones, Drew Thompson, Eric Kanner and Matt Prochnow answered the call all week long. The leadership of the professional staff and the hospitality of our members were mentioned by the players and their parents throughout the week.
I have thanked everyone individually but I wanted to mention some of the IJM volunteers that put in long hours during the tournament. Paul O’Brien, Frank Ziolkowski, Rudy Ruschmann, Doug Marky, Dave Jablonski, Deb Lyons, Peter Lyons, Mark Kumro, John Hasselback and Mary Kamien—many thanks for all of your efforts. For the dozens more who helped out on many days spotting, scoring, hospitality, etc., thank you for your help as well. It is noted continuously how friendly the members and staff are. Congratulations to all!
As a reminder, we do this again next year—June 24-28, 2024.
Now let’s all have a fabulous summer at EACC!
With Deep Appreciation,
Jeff Kamien
Tournament Director