JP Lynch inspired by Phil Mickelson's 2007 shot to win Junior Players

PONTE VEDRA BEACH | JP Lynch is a bit of a golf historian, perhaps more than most 15-year-olds.

That's why he harkened back to a Players Championship video he had seen from the 2007 tournamentafter he hit his tee shot at the par-4 10th hole of the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass into the left fairway bunker in the third round of the 20th Junior Players Championship on Sept. 6.

It was roughly the same spot that Phil Mickelson was in during the third round of the first Players held in May, four years before Lynch was born. Mickelson carved the ball through a narrow window between two palm trees to set up a birdie that was the signature shot of his victory that week.

So when Lynch found his ball in the same bunker ― in a shallow footprint,

by the way, with the ball slightly below his feet ― he kept that image in his mind.

JUNIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP LEADERBOARD

"If Phil could do it, why can't I?" said the Austin, Texas resident who has verbally committed to Oklahoma. "Might as well take the risk and go for it."

JP Lynch came from two shots back

Lynch did go for it, in true Phil fashion.

The ball came out clean, shot through the two trees and landed on the green, 1 inch from the hole. His birdie tap-in ignited a streak of four birdies in a five-hole stretch and he went on to post a 66 and win the Junior Players by one shot over Brady Barnum of Dublin, Ohio (68), at 8-under-par 208.

Ronin Banerjee of Irvine, Calif. (69) and Alexis Rouleau of Montreal (70) tied for third at 4-under and Sam Carraher of Crown Point, Ind. (73) was fifth at 3-under.

The tournament was interrupted for three hours at 2:45 p.m. when a thunderstorm swept through the area, bringing lightning that stubbornly hung around long after the rain stopped.

At the time the weather horn blew, Lynch had marked a 20-foot putt at the 18th green and Barnum was over the left-rear bunker. They and nine other players waited for the weather to clear enough to finish, biding their time with ping-pong and TV in the TPC Sawgrass Champions Locker Room.

Lynch, who entered the tournament 51st on the American Junior Golf Association Rolex Rankings, won his third AJGA title, all in the past nine months. He is also a member of the national powerhouse Westlake High School golf team in Austin that has won 15 Texas high school championships, the last two with Lynch in the lineup.

Lynch was two shots off the 36-hole lead shared by Guiseppe Puebla (77―217, tied for 11th), Carraher and Dawson Lew (74―214, tied for sixth) and figured he had little to lose by going for broke a few times.

Lynch motivated by Scottie Scheffler's 2024 Players

In addition to being inspired by Mickelson's 2007 shot at No. 10, Lynch also conjured another famed piece of Players Championship history, Scottie Scheffler's 2024 victory, when he shot 64 in the final round to rally from five shots back.

"I watched Scottie shoot 64 and pass about 24 guys," Lynch said. "That was kind of my mentality. Give it your best shot, whether I shot 66 or 80. I tried not to look at the leaderboard [on his phone] because anything can happen at this place."

Lynch followed that shot with a 3-foot birdie putt at the par-5 11th hole, an 8-footer for birdie at the par-4 12th and a 20-footer for birdie at the par-4 14th to take the lead outright. Lynch parred out from there, including a tense moment at the 17th hole when he thought he had blown his tee shot over the green. It came to rest just short of the rough and he two-putted from 50 feet.

Lynch two-putted No. 18 to secure the victory, in eerie darkness and thunder still booming west and south of the course. His birdie attempt tickled the corner of the hole and he allowed himself a slight fist pump.

Barnum pitched to 12 feet and made the par putt.

The only spectators were their families and AJGA officials.

Barnum, ranked 29th among AJGA players and headed for the University of Georgia in 2027, said he adopted the same type of mentality as Lynch.

"Nothing to lose, let's be aggressive," he said. "Make as many birdies as we can and see how it goes."

Lynch and Barnum broke out of a large pack of contenders. When the final round started, 14 players were within four shots of the trio tied at the top and when the final group turned, Lynch and Lew were tied at 5-under and six players were within five shots.

Barnum was not without his hero stuff. He made a 20-foot birdie putt at No. 4, pounded a 7-wood from 242 yards out to within 4 feet to set up a birdie putt at the par-3 eighth and scraped a birdie putt from 30 feet away off the fringe at the par-4 12th.

But a bogey at No. 13 halted his momentum and his last gasp was a two-putt birdie at the par-5 16th. He missed a 12-foot birdie attempt at No. 17.

How did Charlie Woods finish?

Charlie Woods hit the ball well enough to have cracked the top 10 late on his front nine and continued pounding the putting surface for most of the back nine. He shot 71 to tie for eighth at 1-over 217.

However, a series of putts that caught the hole and spun out resulted in a frustrating day at the Stadium Course, where his father, Tiger Woods, won two Players Championships.

Charlie Woods began the day tied for 14th, only four shots off the lead. He got in red numbers for the tournament when he birdied three of four holes, at Nos. 7, 9 and 10, wrapped around a bogey at the par-3 eighth.

Woods also followed his hole-in-one at No. 3 in last year's Junior Players with another hero shot. His wedge into the 10th green nearly went in for an eagle-two, and he settled for a tap-in birdie. He then birdied No. 11 on a 15-foot putt, drawing him within five shots of the lead.

After a par at No. 12, Woods had three chances at birdie on the next three holes, and lipped out each time. His tournament effectively ended on the 16th tee when he hooked his tee shot in trees to the left, with the ball bouncing out only about 180 yards from the tee. He had a clear line to punch out, hit his third shot left of the green and got up and down for par.

Woods two-putted the Island Green from 25 feet for his third par of the week at No. 17, then got up and down from the right side of the green for par at the last, making a 4-foot putt.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: JP Lynch inspired by Phil Mickelson's 2007 shot to win Junior Players