Brooke Sansom still has two more attempts at winning more Bud Burns Dixie Junior Championships before she gets too old to compete. For her competitors, that’s probably bad news.

Sansom, from Pike Road, shot 70 Tuesday and blew away the field to win the Dixie Junior for the second straight year. Her 140 (-4) total was eleven shots better than second place Alexis Berger from Alabaster, who won a scorecard tiebreaker over Auburn’s Sarah Battye.

“It’s special because you are coming back to a place where you’ve won before. You know you can probably win again, so that’s a good thing to keep in mind,” Sansom said.

With the victory, Sansom defended a championship for the second straight week. She also won at Willow Point last weekend for the second year in a row.

“I guess you’re adrenaline gets going for that trophy,” she said.“You want it twice. You want your name engraved on it twice and I guess that’s what got me going.”

Sansom’s lead was never really in doubt Tuesday.

She ran away from the field of 27, which is the biggest girls field that has competed in the event’s history.

She led the field in birdies (12) and had the best scoring average on the par 3s, par 4s and par 5s.

Although she was better than the rest of the field on the front nine — shooting an average score of 36 over the two days — she put most of the space between herself and the rest of the field on the back of the course.

She made nine of her tournament best 12 birdies on the backside and closed strong both days. She made seven of her birdies on the closing stretch of 15, 16, 17 and 18. Sansom still has 2016 and 2017 to try to add two more Bud Burns championship trophies to her already impressive resume.

She’s currently ranked as the No. 13 junior golfer in the class of 2018 by Golfweek’s girl’s junior rankings.

 

Maddox leads boy 

competition after day one

Cody Maddox of Guin raced out to a front nine 31 Tuesday and shot a 69 to lead after the first round of the boys part of the more Bud Burns Dixie Junior Championship.

Maddox birdied four holes on the front nine and held on through a rocky back nine despite a double bogey at 13.

Trussville’s Logan Archer was one more shot back after an opening round 70. Archer birdied three of his first five holes and also double bogeyed 13.

Trinity’s Dakota Terry was third after an opening round 73.

Players that qualify for the boys “A” division will play 36 holes on Wednesday, which is for the top qualifiers in the 15-18-year-old age range.

Ryan Heath and Robert Davidson lead the 11-and 12-year-old boys championship after opening round 76s. Selma’s Jones Free is only four back after an 80. Arrington Mooney, also from Selma.

Mooney shot an opening round 102 and is in eleventh in the age group.

Will Klecka shot a 74 on day one and leads the 13-and 14-year-old championship. Selma’s Thomas Morris is eight back after an opening around 82.

Terry leads the 15-and 16-year-old championship by one shot over Drew Smith and Bay Simpson.