Junior Golf: Braden Duvall and Elizabeth Palmer kick off triumphantly, take home Cook Family Classic

Braden Duvall admittedly would have preferred not to lose a seven-shot lead that he boasted going into the second round of the Cook Family Classic.

But after birdieing the 17th and 18th holes to close out the second day, the 2022 PNJ Boys Golfer of the Year claimed victory on Thursday after defeating Niceville's Braydon Moye in a one-hole playoff at the Tanglewood Golf and Country Club.

“It wasn’t my best stuff (in the second round). … I got into a bad start on the front,” Duvall said. “I just battled back on 17 and 18 … then I went into the playoff and hit an OK wedge shot to get up and down for par. It just shows that I can fight back for it and not give up.”

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The Cook Family Classic marked the beginning of the 34th annual Greater Pensacola Junior Golf Association Summer Tour, which will culminate with the A. Downing Gray Cup in late July.

Duvall and Moye closed out the two-day tournament with a total 145. The former shot a 70 on Wednesday followed by a 75 on Thursday. The latter carded a 77 on Wednesday and bounced back with a four-under-par 68 on Thursday.

Both players initially hit short of the water on the par-five 18th hole to start the playoff hole. Moye, who ended up on the right edge of the fairway, laid up but got blocked out by a pair of trees leading up to his third shot.

Duvall, after his tee shot struck the middle of the fairway, also chose to lay up – but he stayed in the fairway with a clean view of the green.

Moye’s shot forced him to take a long iron and hit a bump-and-run which eventually ran past the green and into a greenside bunker.

“When (Moye) laid up in a pretty bad position, I decided to lay up. I was going to go for it if he didn’t lay up,” Duvall said after the match. “I laid up just to put some pressure on him.”

Duvall’s third shot wound up just a couple yards short of the green before he chipped on just feet from the hole, allowing him to tap in for par. Moye, on the other hand, shot the ball out of the bunker but missed the par putt, and Duvall earned not only the Junior Masters Boys Open Division title (Ages 16-18), but the overall champion of the tournament for the boys side.

Duvall, who’s going into his senior year at Pace, said the victory is good for momentum going into the rest of the summer as well as his last season of high school golf.

“(Duvall) definitely pulled it together there at the end. I think he made back-to-back birdies on 17 and 18 just to get into the playoff,” First Tee Gulf Coast Tournament Director Ty Aulger said. “That jumpstarts his summer season and gives him the confidence that even if you are playing bad, you can turn it around and win a golf tournament.”

West Florida Tech's Bentley Van Pelt (148) was three shots off the pace in third while Pace's Troyce Perkins and Tate's Jack Wallace each put up a 149 to tie for fourth.

Here are three takeaways from the opening tournament of the 2023 Summer Tour:

A different approach

Going into the 17th hole during the second round, Duvall sat five-over-par. He then got a little aggressive on the tee box, driving the green on the long par four, then two-putting for a birdie. In similar fashion, Duvall kept his aggression to close out his second round.

After taking an iron shot just short of the pond on the left side of the fairway, he sent a long iron to the right side of the green with an eagle opportunity. With another two-putt, he sank another birdie to force the playoff with Moye.

While his approach was the same on the 18th hole for the playoff, he opted to lay up for a shot less than 100 yards in.

“It was all about what (Moye) did,” Duvall said. “If he hit a good shot, I would’ve went for it again.”

His wedge shot into the green came up a couple yards short, but he wasn’t phased despite the firm ground conditions. Duvall noted that shots like 50-yarders with a wedge were tough because it “was mostly dirt out there,” and ball-striking had to be perfect to execute the shot.

“I like chipping off the firm ground. So when I missed it short (in the playoff), I was fine,” Duvall said. “I just didn’t want to be in the bunker.”

The course conditions were as expected.

“A lot of courses in the area have had some dry weather,” Aulger said. “We expected that coming in. I think the whole state of Florida is having that problem.”

‘I just held strong’

Elizabeth Palmer hasn’t even walked through Pensacola Catholic’s doors yet, but that didn’t stop the eighth-grader from claiming the overall championship and the 15-and-Under title for the Junior Masters Girls Open Division at the Cook Family Classic.

The future Crusader sat in a three-way tie for the lead after the first round, as she, along with Gulf Breeze's Mia Hobbs and West Florida Tech's Abby Vernier, shared the top of the leaderboard after shooting an eight-over-par 80. Palmer pulled away from the pack in the second round, carding a 77 for a two-round total of 157 and a five-shot victory.

Palmer also noted the tough ground conditions, mentioning the bunkers were hard to chip out of.

“It feels nice. I played great the front nine, but played terrible the back nine. I just held strong,” Palmer said of the victory. “It’s a motivating factor.”

“To see a girl who isn’t even a freshman in high school take it, she hasn’t even stepped in those high school doors yet,” Aulger said. “She’s definitely going to take it far if she keeps playing.”

Following an 82 on Thursday, Vernier placed second with a two-day score of 162. Santa Rosa Beach's Michelle Burt (162), Hobbs (166) and Milton's Gabriela Wright (166) rounded out the top five.

Starting the summer off

The Cook Family Classic is the first of five tournaments that start the summer season off for the Greater Pensacola Junior Golf Association. Aulger said participant numbers were about normal for the girls’ division, but the GPJGA saw more numbers in the boys’ division.

Aulger added that there are a lot more golfers signed up for the rest of the summer tournaments, including the Sugar Sands Showdown at The Course at Hidden Creek in Navarre on Monday and Tuesday.

“I hate to say it, but I think COVID brought everybody to golf – even kids who aren’t really good, they come out and hit the ball,” Aulger said. “It’s something to do outside. It helps get the area involved in golf.”

Aulger said the high competition in the first tournament of the season, between the decent scores and the overall tightness between golfers, brings some excitement for the summer ahead.

“With the divisions being that close, any of those guys in the top seven all can shoot that same score and win that tournament. We had guys that weren’t able to play this week due to being out of town or whatever,” Aulger said. "But (a week like this) brings a lot of excitement to the Greater Pensacola Junior Golf Association.”

Ben Grieco is a sports reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. He can be reached on Twitter (@BenGriecoSports) and via email at BGrieco@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Golf: Pace's Braden Duvall, Pensacola's Elizabeth Palmer win Cook Family Classic