Wednesday, July 4, 2001
[HAWAII GOLF]
Mason’s both If not for a metal pipe, Nick Mason's opening round yesterday at the World Junior Masters Golf Championship might have gone down the tubes.
lucky and good
The incoming Hawaii-Hilo
frosh is a shot behind
Colorado's O'Neill, due
to a fortunate bounceBy Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@starbulletin.comOn Mililani Golf Club's 465-yard, No. 7 hole -- the 16th hole of Mason's round as he started on the back nine -- the Leilehua graduate drove his tee shot straight for a canal cutting across the fairway. But the ball struck the drainage pipe bridging the stream and landed safely on the other side.
"That was probably the turnaround of my round right there," Mason said of his fortuitous bounce. "You need a little bit of luck to shoot good."
Mason went on to par the hole, then birdied the last two to finish with a 1-under-par 71, good for second place in the boys 16-18 division.
"I haven't been hitting the ball real well," he said. "But my short game's been coming around and I made some really big putts for par today. ... I played kind of shaky there in the middle, but to finish up like I did, I was real happy."
Mason, who will play his collegiate golf at the University of Hawaii-Hilo, enters today's second round one shot behind leader Derek O'Neill of Littleton, Colo. O'Neill, a senior at Highland Ranch High School, carded three pars and two birdies on the final five holes to take the lead into the clubhouse.
O'Neill had the players ahead of him looking over their shoulders after reaching the green with his drives on two par-4 holes. He bounced his drive on the 319-yard second hole onto the green while the previous group was still putting. He settled for birdie after his eagle putt lipped out of the hole.
"My swing finally started clicking," O'Neill said. "In the beginning my swing kind of felt weird, I was spraying the ball a lot."
O'Neill and Christo Greyling of Orlando, Fla., the nation's top-ranked junior player, regularly drove their tee shots past Mason and Lahaina's Kevin Shimomura. But the Hawaii duo kept pace with solid play around the greens.
"I'm not used to being outdriven by 40 yards, it's kind of embarrassing," Mason said. "But you stay in there and make some putts and it all evens out in the end. ... They hit it way further than I do. You try not to watch what they're doing."Shimomura finished at even-par 72 and was tied for third with Wahiawa's Kellan Anderson. Earl Medeiros of Waianae was four strokes behind O'Neill after shooting a 74 yesterday. Greyling struggled to keep his drives in the fairway and finished at 3-over 75, tied with Brenton Glassell (Tennessee), Hyun Jim Jun (Guam) and B.K. Suhr (Florida).
Greyling, who is headed for the University of Georgia in the fall, recorded a triple-bogey on the final hole to fall behind the leaders.
"I'm sure he'll come back tomorrow with a low number," O'Neill said.
The low score of the first round belonged to 12-year-old Philip Francis of Scottsdale, Ariz. Francis carded a 5-under 67 and was five strokes ahead of second-place David Hahn in the boys 10-12 division.
"I was kind of in a zone since the fifth hole," said Francis. "I was just playing basically my A game. I was putting good, hitting the ball good. I only missed one green and the result is a good round."
Francis won the Texas-Oklahoma Junior Championship by four strokes last week, and is poised to add another trophy to his collection.
"It sets me up real good," he said of his opening round performance. "I'm just excited to get out there tomorrow and hopefully do the same thing."
Moanalua High's Ayumi Hori recorded an opening-round 74 and leads Joan Shimozaki of Maui by one shot in the girls 13-18 division. Punahou's Ashley Yamaguchi, the division's defending champion, was seven strokes behind after shooting an 81.
Casey Caldwell of Albuquerque, N.M., shot a 70 to lead the boys 13-15 division. Erik Flores of Grass Valley, Calif., is one stroke back.
Ashley Augustiro of Waianae was the first-round leader in the girls 10-12 division after carding 80. Pearl City's Natalie Nakamine was two strokes behind. Bradley Shigezawa of Honolulu led the boys 7-9 division with a nine-hole score of 39.