THOMASVILLE — Last weekend’s Junior Players Championship did not end the way Mason Howell would have liked but it showed the Brookwood junior is capable of going toe-to-toe with the world’s best golfers.
Howell placed fifth at the three-day tournament at TPC Sawgrass with a 3-under-par 213. He finished three strokes behind tournament winner Hamilton Coleman, from Augusta.
“It was a lot of fun. It was hot,” joked Howell. “I feel like I played really well. The first two rounds I was really in control of my game. I definitely had a lot of confidence. That golf course is special, just so iconic. I played well the last day, just had some really unfortunate breaks. I just kind of got unlucky, and it just wasn’t my day. I battled back and gave myself a decent score. Overall, it was still a great tournament.”
Howell shot a first-round 69 and followed with a 70 in the second round. He led the tournament after two rounds before finishing with a 74 in round three.
“It was definitely frustrating (in round three), but I knew I had to keep my head. The second you go negative, it’s really hard to rebound,” Howell said. “I was getting a little unfortunate. I hit a sprinkler head on hole (No.) 5 which led to a bogey. It was an unfortunate break, and I plugged in a bunker on (hole) 7. That led to a double (bogey). I was 5-over through 10, and I managed to get it back to 2-over. I really fought my way around.”
The tournament was Howell’s last for a few weeks. He’s now looking forward to enjoying life as a high school student.
“Just staying at home. We’ve got some Friday night lights we’re looking forward to going to. I don’t have a tournament in about another month, so I kind of have some down time before we kick it into gear again,” Howell said.