Bai, Deng hold leads heading into final round of Junior Invitational
Mar. 22—GRANITEVILLE — One title chase felt like a runaway, and the other felt very much like it was up for grabs late Friday afternoon at the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley.
How quickly 45 minutes can change a golf tournament.
Joshua Bai's four-shot lead over Jackson Byrd in the boys' division quickly dropped back to two, and Aphrodite Deng boosted her lead in the girls' division from one to four shots during the final three holes.
Still, if the Junior Invitational has proven anything in its history is that anything can happen during the final round.
Big leads have been squandered. Wide-open races have turned into runaways, and vice versa. Playoffs have happened — the first and only one in the boys' tournament happened with Caleb Surratt's win in 2022, only minutes after Amalie Leth-Nissen won in the same fashion in the inaugural girls' championship.
Needless to say, the leaders and chasers know what it's going to take in Saturday's final round.
"My opponents were making a lot of birdies so I wanted to keep up with them," said Deng, who withstood a front-nine birdie binge from Scarlett Schremmer (69) and overcame a lead held from the opening round by Pimpisa Rubrong (73).
"I just played each shot trying not to make any errors," said Deng, a Canadian who made seven birdies and only one bogey in a round of 66 to reach 8 under for the championship. "I just have to play my own game."
Bai has a similar mindset. The New Zealander learned from last year, when he led after a first-round 65 before finishing three back of champion Giovanni Binaghi, and now he's looking to go wire-to-wire after holding at least a share of the lead after each of the first three rounds.
"I felt like I was on autopilot, which is what I strive to feel like when I am playing my best golf," said Bai, who shot 67 on Friday and briefly reached 13 under before a double bogey on 17 dropped him back to 11. "I'm excited to have another round tomorrow, and the game plan doesn't change — just have fun and have a crack at it."
Several others will have a crack at it not far behind him. Byrd went from in the mix to facing a steep climb to right back into the picture over the course of a 5-under 67, with the only blemish being a bogey on the 18th hole that was his first in 23 holes.
"It was pretty much a picture-perfect round," Byrd said. "Made a lot of good par saves early and throughout the day. Hit it great. I've hit it great all week. Missed a short one on 18, but I'm not going to dwell on that. I hit too many good shots to let it affect me. If my speed is a little bit better on the greens I feel like I'll have a good chance to win tomorrow, so just going to try to keep doing what I'm doing and have fun."
Bai and Byrd will be joined in the final boys' pairing by No. 1-ranked Miles Russell (70), who once again kept a relatively clean scorecard at Sage Valley and is within striking distance at 7 under.
The final girls' pairing will be a repeat from Friday — Deng, Schremmer and Rubrong. The trio quickly gained separation from the rest of the field during the third round, only for Deng to find that same daylight at the end of it.
Still, there's trouble lurking. Rubrong had only made two bogeys through the first 36 holes before making four Friday, and Schremmer caught fire on the front nine with a stretch of five consecutive birdies to take sole possession of the lead before relinquishing it with a frustrating double bogey on 18.
"Honestly, I would say my putt on 2 kind of made me feel good about my putter for the day. I'm probably one of the best putters I know, I would say. I roll the rock pretty good. I made a good par putt on 2, and I just kind of saw everything going in. I did on the back nine, too, but just as the day goes on and being in the last group of the day the greens get a little bumpy out there, especially when they're so fast, but tomorrow I'm excited just to keep doing what I'm doing and the putter will probably get hot again."
