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Ringler rises to top of class at Crestwood
   2010 Kansas Junior Amateur Championship

   Hutchinson’s Thane Ringler admits his high school golf season did not have the storybook finish he may have hoped for his senior year.

   But maybe the Kansas Junior Amateur Championship title he earned last month will make up for that.
   Ringler, who shot a 78 to finish sixth individually at the 5A tournament at Winfield Country Club and saw his Salt Hawks place third as a team, was the only player in the field in red figures at Pittsburg’s Crestwood Country Club. His 214 total after three trips around the testy track gave the recent graduate his biggest victory to date.
   “It’s a great honor and God really blessed me today…it just really hasn’t sunk in yet, but it’s a great feeling,” said Ringler, a young man of faith who’ll take his considerable golfing talents out west this fall to play and study at The Masters College in Santa Clarita, Calif. “I felt like I had a good grasp of (the tournament). I knew with the players that were out there, there were good enough players that someone could go low. So I wasn’t sure where everyone was at, but I knew if I was even or something under par I’d have a really good shot at winning.”

Birdies arrive at turn
   Ringler, who finished second in his age group last year, opened the 2010 Junior Am with a round of one-over 73 and moved himself into the last group for the final round with a fine three-under 69 on day two. For the first time in the event’s history, three players shared the top spot as the final round began. Opening day leader Henry Simpson of Mission Hills and his teammate on 2010 6A State Champion Shawnee-Mission East, Chase Hanna, each joined Ringler at two-under 142.
   The threesome had no birdies in the opening nine holes of the final round. Ringler, 18, had Thane Ringler

birdie opportunities, but he was unable to connect. His short game allowed him to save pars and keep the round going. A front-nine, even-par 36 kept the Prairie Dunes Country Club golfer in front of Hanna by a single shot.
   “I knew I was playing well enough, I just needed to go out there and perform,” Ringler said. “It was a solid front nine. I don’t have any complaints. I had a couple putts that were make-able birdie putts. But I also got up and down three or four times for good pars. I was scrambling a little bit, but I was managing.”
   Hanna, who made a “good” bogey after his second shot found the hazard on the first hole, then joined Ringler on the par train and turned at one under for the championship after eight straight to close out his front side. He settled for a 76 on the day and third place overall.
   “I made like (11) straight pars after (bogeying the first hole),” said Hanna, a 15-year-old sophomore-to-be who tied for second at the 6A meet with a 76 on Alvamar’s private course. “Thane was one up on me after the turn…he made some putts and I thought maybe I could make some. (But) nothing really fell. Third is solid, but I was looking to win.”
   Simpson, 16 and playing out of Kansas City Country Club, suffered a pair of double bogeys and a bogey during his opening nine and fell to three over for the event. He played the course’s four par-three holes in five over in a final-round 81 and settled for 12th place.
   “I was pretty disappointed with myself after that double bogey on (No. 3),” Simpson admitted. “It was a par 3 and I hit an iron right and just wasn’t comfortable after that all day on the par threes and had a bad one over there on the back nine too. The whole three days were solid…I just wanted to finish better than I did today.”

   Ringler’s patience appeared to pay off as the last threesome made the turn. The tall player from Hutch hit a nice drive on the par-4 tenth hole and drilled an approach shot to three feet.

He rolled in the putt and had the group’s first birdie of the day. Ringler then knocked his tee shot at the par-3 11th to about 20 feet and drained that putt to make it two in a row.
   “I knew on 10 if I hit a good drive it was a birdie hole with that front pin and I hit a good wedge in there and managed to make a good putt,” Ringler said. “Then on 11, it’s a pretty tough hole, but I knew if I put something on the green I’d have a run at it. I put it in the middle of the green, about a 20-footer, and I made a good roll at it and it goes in.”
   Ringler called his score “a really poor bogey” at the short, par-4 12th but he got the stroke right back at the par-5 13th with his third birdie in four holes. He drove in the left rough, hit a wood second short left and then pitched to three feet. When Hanna suffered double bogey on the hole after facing a difficult third shot from a fairway bunker, Ringler had a five-stroke lead over those in his grouping.
   “I got a little chunk fat on the wedge and it was a bad feeling; I knew I’d made a little mental mistake there and I knew I had to re-double my mental efforts, the mental game there and get back in the hunt,” Ringler said of momentary troubles at No. 12. “(The birdie at the par-5 13th) was a good birdie. I needed that one to keep my confidence going. …I was hoping to be a couple under going into the last couple holes.”
   Ringler’s five-stroke margin allowed him enough cushion to survive a double bogey when his tee shot found the water at the par-3 14th. Four straight pars, including a nice approach at No. 18 from a difficult stance near the hazard, gave Ringler a final-round, even-par 72 and

what turned out to be a three-shot victory over Overland Park’s Joseph Winslow.
   Winslow, playing in the next-to-last grouping, had a final-round 73 to go with his opening-day 70 and a second-day 74. It was improved play for Winslow who admitted he struggled during the previous week’s Watson Challenge event at Kansas City Country Club.
   “Today, I just hit some great shots out there but didn’t get enough out of my round,” said Winslow, who missed a playoff by a single shot at the 2008 Junior Am at Stagg Hill in Manhattan. “I didn’t hit it where I needed to and I didn’t make birdies where I was supposed to. I hit some really close that I just didn’t make. Last week, I felt like I was off, but now I feel better about my game. So I’m pretty happy with where I stand.”

   Ringler’s winning 214 score was six shots better than second-place Ryley Haas of Colby in the 18 division. Haas had rounds of 74-71-75 to finish four better than third-place Ian Boat of Chase Hanna

Leawood (76-74-74).
   Winslow took the top spot in the 17 division with his 217 total. Leawood’s Michael Kreamer (77-72-71), Wichita’s David Auer (74-73-73) and Topeka’s Justice Valdivia (77-69-74) shared second place at 220.
   Lake Quivira’s Logan Coffman (78-70-72) and Tonganoxie’s Colby Yates (73-73-74) tied for the top spot in the 16 division at 220, two shots ahead of 2009 overall champion Myles Miller of Wellington (72-77-73).
   Hanna’s 218 final score gave him an eight-stroke win in the 15 division – his third Junior Am division triumph in as many tries. Overland Park’s Travis Mays (74-74-78) was second at 226 and Kansas City’s Austin Lowe finished third (75-77-78).
   Wichita’s Sam Stevens had rounds of 75-71-79 and won the 14 and under division at 225. That was three shots clear of Wichita’s Matthew Gilbaugh (74-78-76) in second place. Mission Hills’ Preston Fleenor (75-78-81) took third.

Perfect scoring conditions
   Taking advantage of ideal scoring conditions, Simpson got off to a fine start in the opening round of the three-day Junior Amateur Championship at Pittsburg’s Crestwood. The junior next fall at Shawnee Mission East was five under through seven holes and had a shiny 32 on the front side to open the event.
   “I had a solid back nine, a lot of pars and made one birdie, and two bogeys. (I) shot 37, 69 Joseph Winslow

so I was in the lead after the first day and felt comfortable about it,” Simpson said. “The conditions were perfect; the first and second day were perfect -- no wind, a little bit of a (weather) delay the second day. The course was a little wet, but other than that it was good and the greens were quick.”
   That gave him a one-shot lead over Winslow and Sterling’s Michael Gellerman. Winslow, a 17-year-old senior-to-be at St. Thomas Aquinas who plays much of his golf at Olathe’s Shadow Glen, wasn’t making many putts early but remained confident with the flat stick.
   “Day one I was feeling good about my game, I started out making a lot of pars, hitting good shots in there. I wasn’t making anything, but I was feeling it with the putter,” he said. “I thought ‘the putter is going to get hot and I’m going to go real low.’ It just didn’t happen on day one, but I figured 70 was a pretty good start. But then I went out there on day two and just struggled my way around the course. I started off nice, but just wasn’t on my game. You know that happens, but I felt like I was in a pretty good position going into (the final round).”
   The field battled a slight weather delay late in the second round, played on a day when Ringler and Hanna moved into serious contention with their three-under 69s.
   “The first round was a bit of a struggle, I wasn’t putting very well but I was hitting it solid…I managed to shoot a 73, but it could have been a lot better. I was happy with starting out in the hunt at least,” Ringler said. “The second day I was hitting it pretty well; the driver was a little errant, but the wedges were on point. I put it tight on three or four holes and made good birdie putts. The putting came around on the back nine. I had six birdies and three bogeys. I bogeyed 18 to shoot 69.”
   And in the second round the putts started to drop for Hanna, who tied for third in event last year.
   “The first day was a lot like today – I hit it well all week I just didn’t make many putts,” the Meadowbrook Golf & Country Club player said. “I made a lot of putts yesterday when I shot three under so I played pretty good. Yesterday I hit the ball like I did all week -- I just made some putts.”