The good news for Bryce Turner and Danbi Kim is that they fared a little better in this week’s Otter Creek Junior Championship than they did last year.
The bad news for the Columbus North golfers is that in a deep and talented field, it still wasn’t good enough to make the cut to today’s final round.
“I’m satisfied with my rounds because it was a big improvement from last year,” Kim said.
Kim, who will be a junior at North, finished in a tie for 28th in the girls division at 162, seven shots off the cut line. The top 19 made the cut.
Following an opening-round 6-over-par 78 on Tuesday, Kim carded an 84 on Wednesday. She birdied her third hole and was only 2-over through seven before playing the final 11 in 10-over.
“I think it was mostly putting,” Kim said. “I don’t know if the weather delay had anything to do with it, but I could have done a lot better.”
The competition was delayed a little more than two hours because of rain after Kim had finished her eighth hole.
Alexis Miestowski of Schererville and Brooke Matthews of Rogers, Arkansas, share the lead at 1-over 145 going into today’s final round. On the boys side, Center Grove’s Noah Gillard leads at 8-under 136.
Turner, who will be a senior at North, followed an opening-round 76 with a 77 on Wednesday.
“I hit the ball a lot better the first day,” Turner said. “I was striking it pretty well. Today wasn’t the same, but I did a pretty good job of scrambling early in my round.”
After bogeying No. 4, Turner birdied the next two holes to get back to even. But then he bogeyed holes 7 through 9 to shoot 39 on the front and followed with a 39 on the back.
Turner finished in a tie for … at 153 … shots off the cut line. The top 54 and ties made the cut.
“Today, putts just didn’t fall,” Turner said. “I missed a bunch of fairways and greens, and that led to bogeys. I would liked to have been a couple over par after two days and going into the third day, that probably would have felt pretty good.”
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Leaders going into today’s final round of the Otter Creek Junior Championship:
BOYS
Noah Gillard, Greenwood;65-71—136
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GIRLS
Alexis Miestowski, Schererville;69-76—145
Brooke Matthews, Rogers, Arkansas;73-72—145
Gabrielle DeSombre, Oak Park, Illinois;73-73—146
Alexandra Swayne, Maineville, Ohio;74-72—146
Yang Liu, Chengdu, China;74-74—148
Katie Lillie, St. Charles, Illinois;76-72—148
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