Play got underway this morning at the 8th Stan Trojanowski Northern Junior with an honorary tee shot hit by Mr. Charles Lasher, longtime Assistant Professional at Timberlin Golf Club and over 40 years experience in the PGA of America. After the first round, two players have a dominant lead in their respective divisions.
Par and Yardage- Timberlin Golf Club will play at a par of 36-36 -- 72 for both the Boys and Girls divisions. The Boys will be playing at approximately 6650 yards and the Girls will be playing at approximately 5615 yards.
The field for the 8th Stan Trojanowski Northern Junior is filled with many of the best players from New England. In the Boys Division, Alex DiClemente, who recently won both the Connecticut PGA Junior Championship and the Connecticut Junior, will be playing in the featured pairing at 8:30am. He will be joined by Blake Morris, currently ranked #77 in the Polo Junior Rankings, who is coming off a spectacular finish at the AJGA Rolex Tournament of Champions, where he finished 8th.
<p class="style5">BERLIN - When Ryan Lee teed off just after 10 a.m. Monday morning at the seventh annual Stan Trojanowski Memorial Golf Tournament, he had his sights set on becoming the first ever repeat champion in the tournament's 13-17 age division. After the first five holes though, Lee admitted he was struggling.</p>
<p class="style5">"I started off [and] I was two over after five holes, Lee said. But I stopped playing poorly and played well the last 13 [holes]."</p>
<p class="style5">Well enough, in fact, to match his 69 from last year and edge Nick Taylor, who shot a 73, to win for a second consecutive year. Lee finished the course with a birdie on the 18th hole, a hole that gave him trouble during last year�s tournament.</p>
<p class="style5">"I thought I played pretty well [overall], Lee said. I was definitely glad to end on a birdie."</p>
<p class="style5">Lee, from Berlin, wasn't the only player seeking a repeat in yesterday's competition, as Elizabeth Monty took last year's 13-17 girls title in a playoff. Monty had another solid showing this year, but finished second to 12-year-old Mia Landegren. </p>
<p class="style5">Landegren, who received permission from the PGA to compete in the 13-17 group after her performance last year, shot a 76 to edge Monty, who finished with a 79.</p>
<p class="style5">"It's exciting", Landegren said. "It's my first time shooting a 76 for the tournament, so I'm really happy."</p>
<p class="style5">Lee joined Cody Paladino as the only two-time winner in the event's seven-ear history. Cindy Paladino, Cody's mother and daughter of Stan Trojanowski, said the tournament, which was started to honor her father after he died of cancer, has continued to grow over the years.</p>
<p class="style5">"It's just my favorite day of the year", Cindy said. "We put a lot of energy into it [and] we get a lot of volunteers to help us. It's grown into the biggest and most popular event on this tour. This year we had live scoring. We've never done that before, so we're always trying something new."</p>
<p class="style5">The tournament, which is part of the Sierra Mist JGA Junior Golf Tour, is open to players from Connecticut and Massachusetts. The tour consists of between 13 and 15 events, with the Trojanowski Tournament being the biggest. Paladino said this year's field included roughly 200 kids, all vying for prizes at Berlin's Timberlin Golf Club.</p>
<p class="style5">"We give them a free gift when they come and register here, and that's a free golf towel, which is professional sized, she said. We give out the biggest prizes on the tour. [The top finishers] get a trophy and shop credit."</p>
<p class="style5">Cindy's 21-year-old son Brent served as the tournament director, handling everything from updating scores to setting up signs.</p>
<p class="style5">Brent is in charge, and obviously the PGA comes in too, Cindy said. But Brent runs everything, sets everything up, and if Cody were here he'd be helping out too. Brent takes all the score cards, he came up with this online scoring, he does all the signage, he goes out and marks the course.</p>
<p class="style5">For the first time, Cody was unable to attend the event this year. Along with Chuck Lasher, the assistant pro at Timberlin who also serves as Brent and Cody's instructor, Cody is down at the famed Pinehurst course in North Carolina competing in the 108th North & South Amatuer Championship Qualifying.</p>
<p class="style5">But with the help of extra volunteers the tournament was able to reach new levels of success this year, which could mean expansion for next year's tournament.</p>
<p class="style5">"We're thinking about doing it as a two-day championship [next year]", Cindy said. "We might give that a try."</p>
<p class="style5">Lee, for one, seemed more sure, especially since it would allow the 16-year-old two more years of competition.</p>
<p class="style5">"I can actually play the next two years, Lee said. They're making it a 36-hole event and it's going to be 18 [years old] and under. It's a Connecticut PGA event now [but] next year it's going to be a Challenge Cup event. It's like a step above."</p>
<p class="style5">Kelly Whaley of Farmington and Julia Kemmling of Berlin tied for first place in the girls 9-12 group with a plus-11. Wethersfield's Benjamin Miller finished with a plus-9 in the boys 9-12 bracket, good for a fourth-place tie. </p>
<p class="style5">Elisabeth Beloin of Farmington scored an 85 in the girls 13-17 group, which also tied her for fourth place. In the boys 13-17, Greg Beloin and Josh Edelson (both from Farmington) finished with scores of 74 and 75, putting them in third and fifth place, respectively. Kyle Ustach of New Britain tallied an 84, tying for 41st place.</p>
<p><span class="style5">BERLIN - Timberlin Golf Club professional Jeff Coderre and assistant professional Chuck Lasher have a lot to be proud of after the club hosted the Stan Trojanowski Memorial Tournament. A pair of familiar faces to the course came out on top, making a sunny day that much brighter for those who call the course home.<br>
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Berlin residents Kevin Josephson and Ryan Lee won the 16-17 and 13-15 year old age groups respectively, with Lee shooting his first ever sub-70 score, and the best on the day by any golfer, finishing at 69.<br>
Josephson shot one stroke behind him at 70. Both are very familiar with the course after playing there for Berlin High the past two seasons and being club members.<br>
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"It was great," Josephson said. "We got to play together today. We were just feeding off each other the whole day."<br>
Lee, who claimed his first tournament victory, talked about the advantage of familiarity.<br>
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"You know where to hit it, where the ridges are on the green. You usually get [good approach shots] considering you know which way the green breaks."<br>
Josephson will be a senior at Berlin next year and has been the team's top golfer the past two years, but Lee is quickly catching up in size and talent.<br>
"The length [of his shots] and focus [are much improved]," Josephson said. "He can grind it out. He didn't finish over 40 very much [this season] and that's key."<br>
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Lee says playing alongside Josephson is still sometimes intimidating.<br>
"It's hard to play with him, because you think you hit a good drive and he's sixty yards past you."<br>
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The boys weren't the only ones weaving a great story as the girls 13-15 division needed a sudden-victory playoff between Newington's Kirsten LaPointe and Liz Monty, a Suffield Academy student and North Granby native. The pair each shot 82, the low score on the day among the female competitors.<br>
Monty won on the first playoff hole, shooting par 5 on the first hole. Her second shot, a well-struck five-wood from the short rough, set up a short chip and two-putts.<br>
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"I heard my dad say to me the other day 'never hit a five-wood out of the rough'," Monty said. "But I did it anyways and it worked."<br>
LaPointe, who said she struggled with near misses in her putting game throughout the day, hit her tee shot on the playoff into a right-side fairway bunker, and was unable to escape cleanly before bogeying the hole.<br>
"It wasn't nerves, it was just a bad first shot," LaPointe said. She added that she could not be very disappointed placing second in her first tournament of the summer.<br>
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Monty's older sister Laura placed second in the 16-17 age bracket, shooting 85. The pair play for the Suffield Academy boys' team.<br>
Michelle Winkler shot 84 to win the older division, ironically making the low scorers for boys and girls both in the lower age range.<br>
Berlin's Erica Barnes shot 88, good for third in her age bracket and sixth overall. <br>
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In the 10-12 age bracket, Matthew Naumec (42) and Andra Frappier (49) won for boys and girls respectively, in a nine-hole format.<br>
The event, sponsored by the Connecticut section of the PGA Junior Golf Association, was run by brothers and Kensington natives Cody and Brent Paladino, each of whom won many junior tournaments over the past several years.</span><br>
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<p class="style5">BERLIN - <font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">As Kensington's Cody Paladino rounded through holes 15 and 16 of the 4th Annual Stan Trojanowski Memorial Tournament at Timberlin Golf Course Monday, he heard West Cornwall's Daniel Simons, playing two groups in front of Paladino, remained at 4-under. Paladino, playing at 1-under, figured he was out of contention and just wanted to finish strong. </font></p>
<p class="style5"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">But Paladino did not foresee the events that led to his tying Simons in regulation then birdieing the third playoff hole to win his second Trojanowski overall title. Cody's brother Brent, in his last year of eligibility on the Sierra Mist Junior Golf Tour, won the overall title last year for the tournament named after the brothers' grandfather. </font></p>
<p class="style5"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">"No, I had pretty much given up after the 16th hole," Paladino said. "I wanted to (finish) birdie-birdie to make it close. I heard Dan was 4-under after 16 and I knew he wasn't going to completely fall apart. I was hoping for a birdie-birdie and shoot a 69 somehow. It was completely unexpected. I just wanted to make the putt on the last hole to tie with Kevin (Josephson, 13-15 age group winner). I was trying real hard to make birdie."</font></p>
<p class="style5"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">But Simons sliced his drive into the trees on 18 and finished with a two-putt for double bogey. On the other hand, Paladino chipped his second shot on the par-4, 393-yard 18th to the middle of the green. Facing an uphill, 20-foot putt for birdie, Paladino's firm shot landed in the middle of the cup, setting up a three-way playoff for the overall champion, marking the third straight year a playoff was needed to crown a champion.</font></p>
<p class="style5"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Paladino shot a 36-34-70 and Simons a 35-35-70 in the 16-17 age division. Josephson posted an early score of 34-36-70 to win the 13-15 age division title, also qualifying for the playoff for the overall title.</font></p>
<p class="style5"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">"I was excited to be in the playoff. It was a good experience for me," said Josephson, who plays on the boys golf team at Berlin High. "I was hitting the ball well. I hit a lot of greens, made a few putts."</font></p>
<p class="style5"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In the playoff, all three parred the par-5, 550-yard first hole, which served as the first playoff hole. Josephson bowed out after the second hole, when he encountered trouble off his drive that skimmed into the treeline on the right side of the second hole. Josephson's out shot stayed low to avoid the overhanging trees and landed 10 yards from the green. His chip shot rang long and he two-putted for a bogey and the other two finished up with pars.</font></p>
<p class="style5"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">"The (high school golf) season finished up a while ago and I haven't played much since," Josephson said. "This is my first tournament since then. I wasn't disappointed at all."</font></p>
<p class="style5"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Paladino, who just finished his sophomore year at Kingswood-Oxford in West Hartford, smashed a 350-yard drive on the straight par-4, 360-yard third hole. His strategy was not to go so long off the tee, but since he started playing with a new set of clubs a week ago, he has noticed a difference in his shots.</font></p>
<p class="style5"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">"The driver I have now is new," Paladino said. "It's from Titleist. The ball's just going so far with it. You don't have to swing real hard to make it go far."</font></p>
<p class="style5"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">His drive landed significantly past Simons, who needed a long iron to reach the green. Simons' second shot rolled past the cup and he was left with a 50-foot, downhill putt for birdie, which he ran to within 4 inches. Paladino chipped up on to the green and sank his 7-foot, uphill putt for birdie and his second overall title.</font></p>
<p class="style5"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">"Out of the local tournaments, it's probably one of the few I'm doing. It's really important," said Paladino winning the tournament named for his grandfather. "Being in my grandfather's name, it obviously means a lot more to me than some other regular tournaments. I wanted to come out here and play well."</font></p>
<p class="style5"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Paladino now focuses his attention to Tuesday's U.S. Junior Amateur qualifier at Tallwood Country Club in Hebron. He will compete with 22 other golfers for one spot in the U.S. Junior Amateur to be played at Longmeadow Country Club in Longmeadow, Mass. July 18-23.</font></p>
<p class="style5"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Josephson is also playing in the qualifier Tuesday, with Brent Paladino as his caddie.</font><br>