William Mouw and Karl Vilips shot first-round 69s on Monday and are tied for lead after Day 1 at the 2019 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio.
William Moll, Akshay Bhatia, Ricky Castillo, Brett Roberts, Connor McKinney, Bo Jin and George Duangmanee all shot 1-under 70s and sit T-3.
Defending champ Michael Thorbjornsen is two strokes back at even par. He is trying to join the very short list of players to defend their title. Three-time champion Tiger Woods (1991-93) is currently the only player to successfully defend.
““I learned a lot last year playing in these tournaments,” said Mouw, who is No. 26 in the WAGR. “I am much more mature. I like where my game is.”
Those nine golfers were the only ones in the field of 156 to break par on the first day. The 72nd U.S. Amateur is 36 holes of stroke play, followed by six rounds of match play, culminating with a 36-hole final on Saturday.
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About six weeks ago, Mouw won the AJGA Thunderbird International Junior at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale.
Inverness is playing 7,339 yards for the tournament. There were two weather delays on Monday, the first one lasted 1:14 and a second one lasted 35 minutes.
