Name games: Luke Balaskiewicz, Emmett Kuhlenkamp share Jacksonville Amateur lead at 4-under

Luke Balaskiewicz and Emmett Kuhlenkamp have something in common besides both being rising high school seniors with long surnames (for Scrabble fans, Balaskiewicz tops Kuhlenkamp 29-24 if proper names were allowed).

They’re also in their first Jacksonville Amateur Championship and they never looked like nervous rookies in Thursday’s first round at the Jacksonville Golf and Country Club.

Jacksonville Amateur leaderboard

Jacksonville Amateur second-round tee times

Balaskiewicz and Kuhlenkamp both got off to fast starts, overcame critical mistakes at the same short par-4 hole and held their games together down the stretch to share the first-round lead by one shot at 4-under-par 68.

Balaskiewcz, who plays at Bolles, birdied Nos. 1 and 3, bided his time until birdies at Nos. 11 and 14, and then smacked a 9-iron to within 5 feet at the par-4 18 ^th hole to set up a closing birdie to tie Kuhlenkamp, who had just finished at No. 9.

Kuhlenkamp, a member of Fleming Island’s Class 3A state championship team, began on the back nine and birdied Nos. 11 and 16, turned and birdied Nos. 1 and 4, the latter on a 40-foot putt.

He then eagled the par-5 eighth hole on a 6-foot putt, after crushing a hybrid from 233 yards into the green.

Past JAGA champion Jason Duff is lurking behind

Their slim lead is over a proven winner in JAGA events. Jason Duff, a rising senior at the University of North Florida and the 2022 JAGA champion at Deerwood. Duff birdied three of his first six holes and went on to shoot 69. Also at 3-under are Landon Durham, a junior at Elon College who lives in Ponte Vedra and Patrick Hamlin of St. Augustine who cooled off after starting his round eagle-birdie.

Danny Erickson (71), a member of four state champion teams at Ponte Vedra High and a redshirt freshman at UNF, is alone in sixth; and four players are tied at even-par: Alexandre Vandermoten , a former Jacksonville University player, Adam Waller, who played at Nease and is a rising sophomore at Valdosta State, former Bolles player Cade Black and former Nease player Cooper Diaz.

The high heat and humidity and relatively windless day still left conditions difficult for the field. Duff, who followed up his 2022 victory with a second to Will Davis last year at San Jose, said finding the right spot on the meandering fairways was crucial to set up shots to the slick greens.

“You have to be precise,” he said. “It’s very tight. There’s not a lot of room for error and when you do make mistakes you’ve got to miss good.”

Duff didn’t make many mistakes. His only bogey came when he left his tee shot at the stout 200-yard par-3 17 ^th hole in the left bunker. He blasted over the green on the other side and two –putted from the fringe.

Damage control at No. 13

Balaskiewicz and Kuhlenkamp both had brilliant recovery shots at the par-4 13 ^th hole in a display of what Duff meant about minimizing damage.

Balaskiewicz hit a tree with his tee shot at the 411-yard hole and the net result was a 125-yard drive. He had 286 yards to the green and muscled a 3-wood right of the green and got up-and-down on a 10-foot putt.

Kuhlenkamp was in the fairway with his tee shot but he shanked his second shot into the pond to the right of the green. Undeterred, he knocked his next shot on and made a 10-foot putt for bogey.

“The greens are fast and they’re perfect,” Kuhlenkamp said. “You have to pick your spots off the tee.”

Luke Balaskiewicz is on a roll

Balaskiewicz comes into the tournament off an extended period of good golf. He won the district and regional tournaments and finished fifth in the state tournament for the Bulldogs last fall and has four top-three finishes in a row in Florida Junior Tour events, and made the cut in the Florida Junior Boys and the Florida Amateur.

When asked what’s been clicking, he had no hesitation.

“Putting,” he said. “It makes everything else easier.”

In Kuhlenkamp’s case, he said being part of a state championship team and the motivation of chasing teammate and state individual champion Tyler Mawhinney has helped boost his game and his confidence.

“The confidence comes from having played with such a good group of guys,” he said about the Golden Eagles golf team. “Having those guys around you makes you want to play better.”

The second round will be on Friday, with the cut for Saturday’s final round to the low half of the field.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Name games: Luke Balaskiewicz, Emmett Kuhlenkamp share Jacksonville Amateur lead at 4-under