East Wyndham Cup team maintains lead after day two at American Junior Golf Association event at Old Town Club, in Winston-Salem N.C.

Wyndham Cup:American Junior Golf Association event at Old Town Club, in Winston-Salem N.C.

The second day of the 30th Wyndham Cup began with the East leading 9 to 6.

In the seventh match of the day, Bo Jin of Encinitas, California, and Taehoon Song of Buena Park, California, were 3 up through 10 holes on Karl Vilips of Wesley Chapel, Florida, and Michael Thorbjornsen of Wellesley, Massachusetts. Thorbjornsen and Vilips fought back to take the match to No. 18. Jin would seal the match for the West however with a 25-foot putt to win 1 up. The East’s Amanda Sambach of Davidson, North Carolina, and Jensen Castle of West Columbia, South Carolina, were neck and neck with the West’s Ty Akabane of Danville, California, and Briana Chacon of Whittier, California, all morning. On No. 18 with the match tied, Castle chipped in to put pressure on Akabane who had a six-foot putt remaining to halve the match. Akabane made the putt and the match ended tied to give each side a half point. Both sides would split the morning matches with each earning five points to bring the total to 14 – 11 in favor of the East.

“I think we have a really good chance,” said Jin. “We’re only behind five points and with singles matches tomorrow, we have a lot of matches going on. I think we are good to go tomorrow, we are ready to take it on.”

The afternoon consisted of several close matches along with a strong showing by the East’s Erica Shepherd of Greenwood, Indiana, and Canon Claycomb of Bowling Green, Kentucky. The pair defeated the West’s Trey Bosco of Austin, Texas, and Sadie Englemann of Austin, Texas 5 & 4.

Phoebe Brinker of Wilmington, Delaware, and Connor Creasy of Abingdon, Virginia, defeated the West’s Luke Potter of Encinitas, California, and Irene Kim of La Palma, California, 3 & 2 after leading 4 up through five holes.

“We got off to a really great start,” said Brinker. “My partner was great and throughout the match we just kept the pressure on the whole time and ended up winning. We’re feeling great (about the lead). We’ve got to keep doing what we’ve been doing and working as a team.”

After day two finished, the East Team extended its lead to 17.5 – 12.5, controlling the board entering the final day of competition. Wednesday will feature 20 singles matches with a total of 20 points on the line to determine which side will hoist the Wyndham Cup.

While five points is a large lead, history has shown that no lead is safe. Most recently, in 2014 the East held a five point lead heading into the final day of singles matches and the West came back to tie and retain the Wyndham Cup.

For more information, please contact Tim Jackman (tjackman@ajga).