SC Junior Match Play Championship
Furman GC Greenville, SC
July 13, 2007
Greenville, SC—Austin Ernst
is just carrying on a family tradition.
Ernst, from Seneca, defeated Cayci Ruppe
of Gafney 4&3 to capture the SC Girls’ Match Play
Championship at Furman University Golf Club.
Ernst is the third member of her family to win this annual junior
championship. Her father, Mark won the
boys’ championship in 1981 and her older brother Drew won the boys’ championship
in 2005. Ernst, a 15 year old high
school sophomore displayed her ball striking ability winning her first Carolinas
Golf Association championship. Ruppe, a
17 year old high school senior, played tough and determined golf, but in the
end Ernst’s consistency was just too much to over come. With the win, Ernst will be invited to
represent the Carolinas on the junior girls’ team in the Mid-Atlantic Challenge
on August 4-5 at CC of North Carolina in Pinehurst, NC.
In the boys’ championship,
home town favorite, Crawford
Reeves of Greenville defeated Matthew
Hopper of Gaffney 4&3 in their semifinals match and then captured the
boys’ title with a 2&1 victory over Mitchell Gray
of Florence. Gray defeated his high school teammate, Taylor
Sharber of Florence
3&2 in the semifinals to advance to the championship match. In a display of true team work, Sharber then picked
up Gray’s bag and caddied for him in the championship match even though he had just
knocked him out of the event. In the
championship match, Reeves displayed John Daly like length in reaching each of
the par fives in two stokes. Reeves won
the tenth and eleventh holes to take a 3 up lead, but Gray battled back to by
winning the fourteenth and fifteenth holes to get back to within one hole of
Reeves. On the par 3 sixteenth, Reeves knocked
his tee shot to within 2 feet of the whole to take a 2 up lead and then halved
the seventeenth hole to win is first CGA title.
Both of the boys’ will be invited to represent the Carolinas on the
junior boys’ team in the Carolinas-Virginias junior team matches on August
18-19 at Boonsboro CC in Lynchburg,
VA.
This annual junior championship
is conducted by the Carolinas Golf Association
Girls’ Championship
Finals
Austin Ernst,
Seneca, SC def.
Cayci Ruppe,
Gaffney, SC,
4&3
Boys’ Championship
Semifinals
Mitchell Gray,
Florence, SC
def. Taylor
Sharber, Florence, SC, 3&2
Crawford
Reeves, Greenville, SC
def. Matthew
Hopper, Gaffney, SC, 4&3
Finals
Reeves
def. Gray,
2&1
