Junior Orange Bowl tees off in Florida

FLORENTYNA PARKER (72) SHARES
FIFTH PLACE AFTER FIRST DAY
IN JUNIOR ORANGE BOWL


Ladies Golf Union Elite Squad member Florentyna Parker ended the first day of the prestigious Junior Orange Bowl girls' championship in joint fifth place with a two-over-par 72 over the 6,089yd Biltmore course at Coral Gables, Florida today.
Former Irish girls champion Stephanie Meadow, a student at the International Junior Golf Academy in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, figured in the list of entries but obviously did not make it to the first tee - for whatever reason - because no score appeared opposite her name on the tournament website.
Florentyna (picture above by courtesy of Tom Ward), a Royal Birkdale Golf Club member but based in Germany where her father is a club professional, birdied the first and fifth but bogeyed the third, fourth, 11th and 16th for her 72.
South Korean Jung-Eun Han led the girls' field by one shot with a one-under-par 69.
Andrew Johnston from North Middlesex shot a one-over-par 71 in the first round of the Junior Orange Bowl boys' championship, also over the Biltmore course.
Johnston birdied the first, third and seventh but bogeyed the fifth and eighth in an outward one-under-par 34.
A double-bogey 6 at the 11th and a bogey at the 15th knocked back the English teenager but he showed the right spirit to finish with a birdie for 37 home and a 71 for joint 12th position overnight.
Another English teenager, Darren Renwick (Worthing), winner in 2005 of the Scottish boys' open Under-16 title, was back in joint 35th place after a 74 which included a disastrous 9 at the par-4 10th. He also bogeyed the third and 17th but had birdies at the first, seventh and 12th in halves of 34 and 40.
First-round leader in the boys' championship was Germany's top prospect Sean Einhaus with a five-under-par 65.
He led by two strokes from Mathieu Rivard from Canada.

REPORT FROM THE COURSE BY DAVID MACKINTOSH:

CORAL GABLES, FLORIDA, 27th Dec, 2007: In the first round of the 44th Junior Orange Bowl International, Germany’s Sean Einhaus set the pace with a sparkling five-under par 65 for a two-shot lead over Canada’s Mathieu Rivard.
In the girls' division Korea’s Jung-Eun Han also opened strongly with a one-under par 69 for a single stroke advantage over Argentina’s exciting 13-year old, Victoria Tanco.
Einhaus, a 17-year old for the past three years based in Destin, Florida, birdied his opening hole and kept the pressure on all day. His flawless round contained three birdie 2s at the par-threes and a meagre total of 23 putts.
“I didn’t really hit my irons all that well in the round,” the top-ranked amateur in his home country said, “but my driving was good and my chipping and putting was on top form. I didn’t hole anything very long but I never missed from six feet in, and that will always help produce a good score.”
The beautifully remodeled Biltmore GC, a classic Donald Ross design from the 1920s, is a fresh test for all players. The greens have been considerably enlarged with carefully repositioned bunkers that now put an extra premium on accuracy.
“When I practised I thought that maybe the course was easier than last year,” Einhaus said, “but the faster speed of the greens for the tournament makes some of holes very dangerous. In order to score well you have to fire to the safe parts of some greens. This is strategy golf and the course will get tougher as the week goes on.”
Rivard, 18, a plus-3 handicap player and the Quebec junior champion, produced a steady round that contained one single bogey slip, holding off France’s Romain Wattel and New Jersey’s Morgan Hoffman by a single stroke margin, with 11 players at level par or better.
In the girls' sector, nine players bunched within three strokes of the lead, including 12-year-old south Florida phenom Alexis Thompson (72) and England's 18-year old Florentyna Parker, runner-up in the 2007 British Ladies stroke-play.
For the complete scoreboard please go to http://www.jrorangebowl.com

LEADING FIRST-ROUND SCORES
GIRLS
Par 70. 6,089yd
69 J-E Han (South Korea).
70 V Tanco (Argentina).
71 C Ellenbogen (US), Y-L Hsieh (Taiwan).
72 F Parker (England), L Beck (Israel), C O'Donnell (US), K Roig (Puerto Rico), A Thompson (US).
73 L Duncan (US), L McCloskey (US), G Molinaro (Italy), A Watts (US).
Selected scores:
74 E Alonso (France), S Hausladen (Germany), A Knight (Italy) (jt 14th).
75 S Hoglund (Finland) (jt 19th).
76 J Korda (Czech Republic) (21st).
77 L Gonzalez-Escallon (Belgium), J Pinto (Portugal), F Vuignier (Switzerland), F Wolte (Austria) (jt 22nd).
78 A Goumard (France) (jt 27th).
83 K Puisite (Latvia) (jt 34th).
84 T Prelog (Slovenia) (36th).
89 V Gevers (Belgium) (38th).
BOYS
Par 70
65 S Einhaus (Germany).
67 M Rivard (Canada).
68 M Hoffman (US), R Wattel (France).
69 P Figueiredo (Portugal), D Fritelli (South Africa), C Terragni (Italy).
Selected scores:
70 M Keiffer (Germany) (jt 8th).
71 J Brun (France), F De Vries (Netherlands), A Johnston (England), B Palanszki (Hungary) (jt 12th).
72 A Friestad (Norway), R Steinberg (Israel) (jt 24th).
73 T Gornik (Slovenia) (jt 28th).
74 D Renwick (England) (jt 35th).
75 K Sorensen (Denmark) (jt 45th).
76 M Gavars (Latvia), C Vigano (Italy) (jt 51st).
77 M Jedrzejczyk (Poland) (jt 57th).
78 P Sterner (Sweden) (jt 63rd).
82 K Hesbois (Belgium) (jt 68th).
86 A-C Orsinger (Switzerland) (jt 70th).