Adrian Meronk and Juan Cerda Share Boys Lead - Hyo Joo Kim Ahead by Four
Posted on 29. Dec, 2011 by alex.markel
in Golf Championship
By: David Mackintosh
Polish Junior Open champion Adrian Meronk and Chile’s Junior Champion Juan Cerda are the new Boys Division leaders, tied at five-under par after 54-holes.
Austria’s Marcus Maukner, the second round leader, and Belgian Thomas Detry are one stroke back. Nine players representing nine separate nations are within three strokes of the lead, setting up one of the closest final-day Boys contests in recent years.
South Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim (68, 70, 69) continues her dominance of the Girls Division, four strokes ahead of her closest challenger France’s Celine Boutier, six in front of Canada’s Brooke Henderson.
Meronk surged into the lead with four birdies in his first fourteen holes but bogeys at the 16th and 17th gave Cerda a catch-up opportunity, which he immediately took by holing a spectacular 25ft birdie putt at the closing hole. “It was a nice way to finish and gives me good feelings for tomorrow,” commented the 18-year old from Santiago.
Meronk has played tournaments in eight countries around the world this year and next month takes pre-college exams with a view to studying in the USA. “It has been a great experience and hopefully will help me tomorrow,” he said, adding that he enjoys displaying his skills to spectators. Key to his round was holing a bunker shot for birdie at the 13th and following up with a long birdie putt on the 14th.
“I played very poorly, but despite that I’m only one off the lead,” commented Maukner, who had two early birdies, then dropped four shots over his last eleven holes. “That’s good news and something positive to take into the final round. I still have strong expectations that I can win from this position.”
The disheartening news for 16-year old Kim’s co-competitors is she feels her greens play needs improvement. “I putt bad today, miss too many shot putts,” she said.
