Lecroy saves best for last

By EASportsToday.com
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Updated: July 23, 2015

Shoots 4-under on final nine of West Coast trip for second straight 73, stretch includes three straight birdies

Jacob Lecroy pars the final hole of his two-week West Coast tournament tour. Below, the Donoho ninth-grader is all smiles heading to 18 after making three birdies in a row. (Photos by Lewis Lecroy).

By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today

IRVINE, Cal. – Jacob Lecroy saved his best stretch of golf for last.

The Donoho ninth-grader rebounded from a rough start Thursday to make four birdies on the back nine and save a 1-over-par 73 in the final round of the Veritas Junior World Championship at Tustin Ranch Golf Course.

The round, his second straight 73, left him at 5-over 221 for the championship – eighth in the 42-player boys 14-15 division — and with a whole lot of confidence as he heads back home. Gun-il Moon of Encintias, Cal., won it at 13-under 203 with all three rounds in the 60s.

“It proved to me I can come back if I’m playing bad,” Lecroy said of his comeback. “It shows I can always come back if I’m ever down.

“Another guy I was playing with kind of gave up after the front. He tied me and after that he basically gave up. I was trying to impress people back home and everyone. I stayed in there with it and tried to grind it out.”

At one point on the back he made three birdies in a row. He made 11 in the tournament, nine over the final 36 holes. He played the par-5s in 2-under for the week.

Lecroy turned in 5-over 41, but played his last 10 holes in 4-under par thanks in large part to sharp wedge and iron play. He hit a wedge from 50 yards on 10 to three feet, a 62-degree wedge from 65 yards on 15 to three feet, a three-quarters 50-degree wedge from 98 yards on 16 to 10 feet, and 4-iron on 17 to five feet.

He lipped out a 30-foot birdie putt on 9 and missed another birdie chance on 13 after hitting a 50-degree wedge to seven feet. He went the entire trip having never shot higher than the previous round.

“On the range this morning I was hitting it awful; it was going everywhere,” he said. “The big part of that back nine was probably my wedges.”

The end of the trip doesn’t mean the end of the line. Lecroy flies back Friday in time to play in this weekend’s Pine Hill Invitational and then it’s off to Mobile for the State Junior Boys Championship.

VERITAS WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP
Boys 14-15 Division
Top 10

Gun-il Moon, Encinitas, Cal. 68-66-69—203
Eldrick Juzga, Colombia 72-66-72—210
Jonathan Wijono, Indonesia 70-67-74—211
Christipher Chomyn, Irvine, Cal. 67-71-76—214
Tseng Fu Tung, Taiwan 73-72-72—217
Pablo Valencia, Colombia 77-69-73—219
Harrison Kingsley, Murrieta, Cal. 78-69-73—220
Jacob Lecroy, Anniston 75-73-73—221
Nikhil Gopal, S. Africa 70-79-73—222
Devin Ferguson, Temecula, Cal. 75-71-79—225
Jeremy Choi, Fremont, Cal. 72-76-77—225