money Beni Long holds off brother, Alex, to win Junior Honda Classic
The boys 15-18 division of The Junior Honda Classic turned into an old-fashioned sibling rivalry Sunday between Beni Long and his younger brother, Alex.
The two brothers from Lakewood Ranch engaged in a duel on PGA National's Champion course just like they might on a day at the course back home. But older brother never let his one-year younger sibling get a taste of the lead.
Beni, the opening round leader after a one-under 71 Saturday, hung in there under tougher conditions Sunday with a three-over 75 to hold off Alex by two strokes. Alex shot a 74 Sunday, but started the day three strokes behind Beni.
With the victory, Beni earned his way onto the 18th green on Honda Classic Sunday February 27 to participate in the winner's trophy ceremony along with the winners of each age group.
Chananyu Chowiwattana of Thailand will be there, too. Chowiwattana and fellow Thai golfer Pariya Sanpanaway continued the match play that they began Saturday in the girls 15-18 division. Like Beni Long, Chowiwattana also never relinquished the lead she earned on Saturday despite also struggling to match her scoring level of the opening round. Chowiwattana shot a three-over 76 and won by two shots on the resort's Palmer Course.
The event attracted 265 youngsters representing eight countries and 20 states who tested their skills over PGA National's Champion, Fazio and Palmer courses.
This is the eighth year that The Junior Honda is part of the IMG Junior Tour, a series of events that allow junior golfers to compete and gain exposure to college golf, professional golf, and national junior rankings. It also is a qualifying event for the IMG Academy Junior World, one of the most prestigious Junior events of the year.
Boys 15-18
Pos. / Player Round 1 Round 2 Total
1 Beni Long 71 75 146
2 Alex Long 74 74 148
T3 Rafe Cochran 75 75 150
T3 Maxmilian Jelinek 74 76 150
T5 Brandon St John 74 77 151
T5 Tristan Rhodenizer 77 74 151
T7 Ryan Zhao 80 72 152
T7 Jules Gentil 74 78 152
9 Jack Quinn 75 78 153
10 Hristo Yanakiev 73 81 154
11 Alexander Weinberg 78 77 155
T12 Steven Shea 76 80 156
T12 Finn Burkholder 77 79 156
T12 Tyler Bruneau 79 77 156
T15 Jack Kantowski 77 80 157
T15 Sam Brown 78 79 157
17 Tyler Foegen 78 80 158
T18 Neil Zhu 78 81 159
T18 Carson Bertagnole 82 77 159
T20 Shaun Cook 75 85 160
T20 Emile Lebrun 81 79 160
22 Tomy Jaunet 80 81 161
T23 Brendan O'Brien 79 83 162
T23 Adam Bencik 82 80 162
T25 Langtai Tyrone Sun 78 85 163
T25 Balthazar Duclos 80 83 163
T25 Hunter Stetson 80 83 163
T25 Aiden Miller 79 84 163
Girls 15-18
Pos. / Player Round 1 Round 2 Total
1 C. Chowiwattana 67 76 143
2 Pariya Sanpanawat 70 75 145
3 Tsamue Wu 77 75 152
T4 N. Khamphueng 77 77 154
T4 Amelie Phung 77 77 154
T4 Madison Moman 76 78 154
7 Sofia Nogalo 73 82 155
T8 Staci Pla 78 78 156
T8 Gabriella Albert 77 79 156
T10 Saia Rampersaud 78 80 158
T10 Junyuan Zhang 81 77 158
T12 Morgan Franklin 82 79 161
T12 Sabrina Kim 80 81 161
T14 Yu Bai 84 78 162
T14 Jonna Hubbs 86 76 162
T14 Annika Kohoutkova 78 84 162
T14 Skye Skenandore 79 83 162
18 Camille Gagnon 80 83 163
T19 Morgan Pichler 84 80 164
T19 Miriam Barcalova 82 82 164
21 Ava Cavataio 81 87 168
22 Zoe Shamy 85 89 174
23 Cecilia Roegner 85 90 175
24 Menglu Zhu 89 88 177
25 Rebecca Luchs 86 92 178
Boys 13-14
Pos. / Player Round 1 Round 2 Total
1 Arjun Somani 72 68 140
T2 Matthew Marigliano 70 75 145
T2 Ryan Nana Tanke 73 72 145
4 Darren Zhou 70 79 149
T5 Grayson Baucom 74 76 150
T5 Nemo Tsai 76 74 150
T5 Davis Petty 73 77 150
8 Jaden Peterson 76 76 152
9 Bento Assis 74 79 153
T10 Tucker Cullinan 77 78 155
T10 Ignacio Hurtado 80 75 155
T10 Nicholas Brown 77 78 155
13 Cooper Foegen 80 76 156
14 Eddie Gu 75 82 157
T15 Jake Williams 78 81 159
T15 Milan Rampersaud 79 80 159
Boys 10-12
Pos. / Player Round 1 Round 2 Total
1 Lucas Gimenez 69 78 147
2 Miles Russell 76 72 148
3 Tristan Wieland 75 74 149
4 Giuseppe Puebla 75 76 151
T5 Luke Gossett 78 78 156
T5 Clark Mason 76 80 156
7 Trevor Challice 80 78 158
T8 Liu Ziao Liu ZIAO 78 81 159
T8 Vlad Bercea 79 80 159
T10 Jeremiah Smith 79 81 160
T10 Luis Cortes 75 85 160
12 Evan Pena 79 83 162
T13 Yordan Yanakiev 80 84 164
T13 Sohan Patel 82 82 164
T15 Samuel Ha 79 86 165
T15 Arya Patel 79 86 165
T15 Dylan Kotes 86 79 165
Girls 13-14
Pos. / Player Round 1 Round 2 Total
1 Gabriella DeGasperis 78 71 149
2 Jordan Levitt 76 74 150
3 Valentina Hurtado 77 74 151
4 Grace Aoting Yao 77 77 154
5 Ann-Sophie Bourgault79 79 158
6 Valentina Guertin 79 80 159
T7 Angela(Yiting) Wang 77 83 160
T7 Georgia Blount 81 79 160
9 Hannah Hall 81 80 161
10 Juliana Hong 83 81 164
11 Madison Hyndman 81 84 165
T12 Abigail Lee 84 85 169
T12 Kate Khvorostiana 83 86 169
14 Margaret Luce 85 85 170
15 Keira Ly 87 84 171
Girls 10-12
Pos. / Player Round 1 Round 2 Total
1 Leonie Tavares 80 71 151
2 Cathrine Andino 76 76 152
3 Aphrodite Deng 74 79 153
T4 Callie Nelson 75 79 154
T4 Alexandra Phung 78 76 154
6 Leah Gram 80 81 161
7 Alexia Iordanov 87 78 165
8 Madison Logan 81 85 166
T9 Sophia Christy 83 84 167
T9 Briel Royce 83 84 167
11 Krisana Fenton 86 82 168
12 Alice Negroni 86 85 171
13 Stephanie Weinberg 99 89 188
14 Boonyanuch Smitasin105 89 194
15 Sarah Scott 97 99 196
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Lakewood Ranch brothers finish 1-2 at Junior Honda Classic at PGA National
