After dumping two shots in Governors Club’s centerpiece lake and making an “8” on the par-3 ninth hole, then tacking on a double-bogey “7” later in Thursday’s third round, B.J. Boyce’s chances to win the 112th Carolinas Amateur seemed to have gone down the drink.
Instead, the UNC Greensboro golfer from Spring Lake responded with a course-record, 9-under-par 63 in Friday’s final round to rally from five strokes off the lead, pass 10 players on the leaderboard, and claim victory at 14-under 274, two strokes ahead of Henry Holland of Charlotte.
Boyce made nine birdies and no bogeys while shooting 32 on the front nine and 31 on the back side of the 7,062-yard course.
“I woke up this morning and told myself I had to look past (Thursday),” Boyce said. “Today is a new day and anything can happen. It’s golf — it’s a crazy game. I stayed in the process all day. You play your best when you’re staying in the present.”
Boyce credited an improved “mental game” aided by work with Raleigh sports psychiatrist Haley Hughes.
“I didn’t go out there trying to have a bogey-avoidance round,” Boyce said. “I was trying to make as many birdies as I could. I tried to give myself as many looks as I could. I never gave myself a real stresser (for par). It really came down to the mental game.”
When Boyce came to No. 9, playing perhaps 185 yards, his approach with an “iffy” swing stopped on the front of the green, about 70 feet from the pin. But he lagged up to within a few feet for par.
“I felt like I could take a deep breath after that,” Boyce said. “I didn’t really look at the scoreboard. I decided to play the back like I was one stroke behind, and I did that.”
Greensboro golfers Ben Jordan and Jack Boyer joined James Rico of Cary and Aston Lee of Charlotte in a tie for third at 277.
The 6-foot-4 Boyce, whose drives typically carry 315 yards or so, bombed his way around the course while many of the players tumbled down the leaderboard on a final-round setup more difficult than in the previous three rounds.
Yet Boyce and Greensboro’s Ben Jordan, who also began the day far down the leaderboard, broke the former course record.
Boyce finished about 45 minutes later then waited for several more groups for a potential challenge that never materialized.
With the victory, Boyce, who will return to UNCG this fall for a fifth year, earned an exemption into next month’s U.S. Amateur at historic Merion Golf Club.
Jordan, who recently wrapped up his college career at Wofford College, was first to post the new record score, making 10 birdies and a lone bogey. Consistently hitting fairways off the tee, he said he made several putts of 6 to 10 feet after wedge approaches.
“I thought I stayed really true to my game plan, and really committed to every shot,” Jordan said. “I got off to a great start and kept riding that momentum,”
Eight strokes behind through 54 holes, Jordan birdied his first three holes Friday on his way to 31 on the front nine.
“It was kind of low stress out there,” he said. “Honestly, being so far back probably helped me out a little bit. I could play free because I was about out of it.”
Rico, who the Colonial Athletic Association’s individual championship this spring as a senior, had the final chance to reel in Boyce, pulling to within two strokes of the lead with a birdie at 16. But after a mediocre drive, he parred the par-5 17th before finishing with a bogey.
“I played solid,” said Rico, who finished with 70. “I was under a lot of pressure. The conditions and pins were pretty tough. This would be a cool tournament to win.”
Boyer, who recently finished his college career at Gardner-Webb, shot 68 Friday with birdies on the final two holes.
Greensboro’s Tanner Cadieux, who posted consecutive 67s in the first two rounds and shared the third-round lead, made four bogeys and a double-bogey — sandwiched around a birdie at 17 – and on his final six holes to shoot 76 and finish at 206.
Holland, who graduated from Charlotte Latin with Lee in the spring, shot 65 with three birdies on the last four holes. Lee will play at N.C. State this fall, Holland at James Madison.
Lee was only two behind Boyce before bogeying 16 and finishing with two pars.
C.J. Peterson of Wake Forest, who plays at Radford, shot 71 to tie for seventh at 280.
