A breezy Sunday and deep field of young stars did not stop 16-year-old Ryan Voois from claiming the 2020 Southern California Amateur Championship at the Morongo GC at Tukwet Canyon.
Following a 5-under 67 in the first round on Saturday, Voois held the overnight lead and was paired in the final group with runner-up Matt Monheim and Timothy Jung who gave him plenty of pressure throughout the final round in friendly competition.
“It was awesome, I’ve known Timothy for a long time, we’ve been playing forever.” Voois said. “It was good to play with friends and we were all comfortable and excited to play with one another.”
At the completion of 18 holes, Voois and Monheim were knotted up at 5-under, ensuing to a sudden-death playoff as daylight was fading. Hole No. 1 was all they needed after Voois drained a 42-foot birdie putt from the bottom to top slope to walk-off with the SoCal Junior Amateur Boys title.
“It’s great, since my last tournament I’ve been working really hard and everything’s starting to come together, so it’s good to see that happen,” Voois said.
Timothy Jung finished in third at 4-under par. Henry Yang and Shuqun Sun round out the top-5 finishing at 2-under overall.
Voois is the 6th SoCal Junior Amateur Boys Champion, this championship started in 2015 as a junior amateur boys and girls event run by the SCGA and SCPGA.
“It feels great, I mean all those past champions are so good and they are all going places in golf,” Voois said. “It was cool yesterday as I was walking into the course there was that board of past champions and to just add my name to the list it feels awesome.”