Some of the best junior golfers from around the world took in the sights and sounds of Mozingo Lake as the AJGA Maryville Junior got underway Tuesday morning with perfect weather and low scores.
The field, which includes four of the top 100 boys golfers in the American Junior Golf Association rankings, saw Aston Lim of Union City, Calif. card an eight-under-par 64 to top the boys leaderboard. Lim collected seven birdies and an eagle on the 12th hole to capture the lowest score of the opening round.
Adeline Swan of Lee's Summit, Missouri had a steady day throughout. Swan shot a six-under-par 66 to climb to the top of the girls leaderboard. Swan opened the front nine with birdies on four of the first five holes.
Decorated local golfers Colin Hoffmann and Alayna Pargas represented Maryville on their home golf course.
Hoffmann's day started slow on the back nine with a double bogey on 10 and two more bogeys at 11 and 12. Then the Maryville High School sophomore found his groove. He played four-under-par golf through the remaining 15 holes to climb back to an even 72 by the end of the first round and into a tie for 16th.
"I was having too many three-putts," Hoffmann said after completing the opening round.
"You can't win it on the first day, but you can definitely lose it. I would have liked to have been under par today, but with how I started I will take this score 100%."
Hoffmann found his groove with birdies on 13, 14 and 18. He was steady on the front nine, only bogeying the tricky par-three eighth, with birdies on the par-five sixth hole and again on the ninth green to finish the round strong.
Pargas came out of the gate firing with a birdie on the par-four first hole at Mozingo, then parred the second. A tough stretch set in with a double bogey on the third hole and three consecutive bogeys on five, six and seven. Pargas finished at 15-over-par 87 in 26th place at the end of day one.
The second round of the AJGA Maryville Junior begins at 7:30am Wednesday. Pargas will open up at 8:30am from the 10th tee box. Hoffmann will tee off on the first at 8:50am.
The full AJGA leaderboard is available here.
