Valdes shows the skill to win at Augusta
Dr. Phillips golfer Brendan Valdes now knows what it’s like to stand over a pressure putt at Augusta National, home of The Masters. And he’s just a ninth-grader.
Valdes, a 15-year-old with braces and a big smile, lined up a putt from 15 feet out and stopped it within 14 inches of the cup to win a tiebreaker and capture his age-group championship in the Drive, Chip and Putt national finals in Augusta, Ga., on Sunday.
Two-time Masters winner Ben Crenshaw presented the championship trophy to Valdes, who put the finishing touch on a conquest that saw him advance through local, semiregional and regional tournaments to reach the site of this week’s Masters as one of 10 boys 14-15-year-old finalists.
“To have a two-time Masters champion hand me the trophy in his green jacket, that was unbelievable,” Valdes said. He was speaking by phone after watching Monday’s Masters practice round — an experience in itself.
“That was amazing. Getting to see the undulation of the course. It’s so different from what TV shows. On TV it looks kind of flat. It’s not. There’s hills everywhere. It made it kind of hard to walk it.”
Valdes, a top-10 finisher at the Florida high school championships in November, scored 23 points in Sunday’s three-pronged contest to tie Josh Lavely of Kewadin, Mich. That forced the tiebreaker, where Valdes went first and was closest to the pin.
“I knew I had to put some pressure on him,” Valdes said. “I picked a good line and hoped I got the right speed, which I did.”
Valdes finished fourth in the chipping competition and fifth in driving with a mark of 242.2 yards, then rallied into the tie for the overall lead by winning the putting portion with two putts that combined were within 2 feet, 6 inches of the hole.
Another Central Florida golfer, David Wu of Winter Garden, finished third in the boys 12-13 age group.
Valdes shot rounds of 74 and 77 at Mission Inn to tie for 10th in the Class 3A state tournament. He was the top ninth-grader in 3A.
He plans to make the return drive to Orlando with his family today and come back to school on Wednesday. Then it’s time for more practice as he prepares for an AJGA event in the Atlanta area this month.
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