Southern California Shoots 10-under par in Round 2, to hold four stroke lead over Mexico Red with one round to go at Red Hawk
The second round of the 51st Annual Junior America’s Cup, hosted by the Northern Nevada Junior Golf Association, is in the books with Southern California maintaining their first round lead. Shooting 10-under par as team, Southern Cal was lead by Baron Nguyen with a 5-under par 66, Jeffrey Kwak with a 4-under par 67 and Kai Hirayama with a 1-under par 70.
In solo 2nd place as a team, Mexico Red team soared up the leaderboard with a 13-under par 2nd round team score, which was the low team score of the day. They were lead by Gerado Gomez and Nicolas Dominguez who both fired 5-und par 66’s. Their third counting was Alejandro Fierro who fired a 3-under par 68.
Individually, Gerado Gomez of Mexico Red with rounds 67-66= 133 (9-under par) has a one stroke lead over Parker Paxton of Wyoming, who shot a tournament low 64 (7-under par) in round 2 (70-64=134, 8-under par). Tied for 3rd individually at 7-under par is Baron Nguyen of Southern California (69-66=135) and Clark Van Gaalen of Northern California (68-67=135).
Like a collegiate event, the Junior America’s Cup features 18 teams of four boys representing their state, province or country. The competition takes place over 3 days with 18-holes played each day for a total of 54-holes played to determine the winning team. Each team counts its best three scores each round with the low scoring team after 54-holes being crowned the 2021 champions and presented with the champions medals & trophy.
The 2023 competition marks the 51st anniversary of the Junior America’s Cup championship and the fourth time it will be held in Wyoming. The previous time the event was hosted in Nevada was 2003 which also at Rio Secca Golf Club, in Henderson, Nevada. The team from Oregon won the championship that year. JAC Alumni from the 2003 Championship include Kevin Chappell (team Northern Cal), Joel Dahmen and Kyle Stanley.
Past Junior America’s Cup participants who have gone on to successful professional careers include Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Fred Couples, Corey Pavin, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Cantlay, Rickie Fowler, Ryan Moore, Kyle Stanley and Tony Finau.
