Buchholz High junior Bodi Karsono won the boys 13-15 age division at the 2007 Boys World Junior Match Play Championships, which were held at North Shore Golf Club in Orlando in August. Despite rainy weather and winds of 5-10 mph, Karsono persevered to take top honors.

(Photo: Buchholz High junior Bodi Karsono holds his match play title trophy.)

Karsono captured the Championship Bracket of the boys 13-15 age division by defeating Daniel Berger of Key Biscayne in an intense match by a score of 1-up. Karsono, who has twice represented the Tiger Woods Foundation in the Callaway Golf Junior World Golf Championships, was the sixth seed after shooting even-par in the seeding round. Karsono proceeded to win four matches before meeting Berger in the final. After 6 holes, the match was all square, but Berger made 3 birdies in a row to gain a 3-up advantage on Karsono at the turn.

However, Karsono made an impressive back nine charge, with birdies on the 10th and 11th holes and a win on the 14th hole, to again make the match all square. Karsono then won the 16th hole to go up with two holes to play, but Berger did not go down without a fight. After Karsono stuffed his tee shot on the par-3, 17th hole to within 5-feet, Berger drained a 30-foot birdie putt to keep his chances alive.

Karsono then nailed his 5-foot putt to stay dormie going into 18. After an errant approach into the green, Karsono still had a par putt to win the match after Berger missed his birdie attempt. Karsono became the Junior Match Play champion for his age group with a ten-foot putt that plopped into the center of the cup.

Karsono also participated at the 2007 Callaway Golf Junior World Golf Championships on July 14 – 21, 2007 at Torrey Pines Golf Course (South), in La Jolla, CA, in July. Representing the Tiger Woods Foundation National Junior Golf Team at the tournament, Carsono advanced to the final day of competition and tied for 31st place out of 180 competitors from all over the world, with a score four-day score of 303.

Carsono also is a straight “A” student at Buchholz and has earned perfect scores of 5 on Advance Placement tests in both World History and Environmental Science.

At our press time, the Buchholz High boys golf team had an impressive 7-2 record.

Look for more coverage of the Buchholz High golf teams in our November issue.