Fox Is Stroke Play Medalist At Michigan Junior State Am

MICHIGAN JUNIOR STATE AMATEUR: Defending Champion Connor Fox Earns Top Seed as Stroke Play Medalist

  EAST LANSING – Lake Orion’s Connor Fox (pictured above) picked up where he left off last year and had the lead through the first day of the 47th Michigan Junior State Amateur Championship presented by Imperial Headwear.

 The defending champion shot rounds of 4-under 67 and 2-under 69 for a two-round 136 total Sunday at Michigan State University’s Forest Akers West Course. It earned him medalist honors for the stroke play competition in the championship, and he will start match play Monday as the No. 1 seed.

 The 16-18 age players in the overall division played 36 holes on Sunday to determine the field for a 32-golfer bracket for match play. The golfers playing in the 15-and-under division will play 18 holes on Monday to fill out an 8-golfer bracket. Match play rounds follow on Tuesday and the semifinal and championship matches for both age divisions are on Wednesday.

  Like the weather, Fox warmed up and built a lead. He said being the medalist wasn’t really on his mind, though.

  “Once you get to match play the seeds don’t really mean anything, so I wasn’t really thinking about being medalist, but it’s still pretty cool to be medalist,” he said.

   He said the weather was anything but cool and made it tough to play.

   “It was really hot,” he said. “It was tough. I think towards the end I was feeling it, but I just tried to keep my hands dry.”

  Cody Rowe of Pleasant Lake shot 68 and 71 for 139, finishing second by three shots.

  Adam Thanaporn of Ann Arbor shot 69 and 73 for 142, Sutton Schroeder of Gowen, who shot rounds of 70 and 72 for 142, and John Cassidy of Grand Rapids, who shot a pair of 71s for 142, tied for third.

   Fox, who will join the Michigan State golf program this fall, played well in last week’s Michigan Amateur Championship at Belvedere Golf Club in Charlevoix. He was among the top 25 in stroke play and won a first-round match before being knocked out in the round of 32.

   “I just had some little things to clean up that I didn’t do well in the Amateur, and I cleaned them up and scored well and played really well today,” he said.

    His plan for match play is simple.

  “I want to keep doing the same things I’m doing,” he said. “I don’t want to go in like I’m trying to control the match and just make par,” he said. “I want to just keep thinking about making as many birdies as I can.”

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