The Dawg Days of summer hit the Junior Players with two (maybe) future UGA players leading

Mason Howell birdies his last two holes, Hamilton Coleman posts the tournament’s low score on their way to the final group for Sunday’s final round at Players Stadium Course.

One of the players in the final threesome of the 18th Junior Players Championship on Sunday has already decided to play golf at the University of Georgia — despite having two more years until his high school class graduates.

The other, with the same amount of time left in junior golf, still has an open mind. But he’d be bucking family tradition if he didn’t become a Bulldog.

Either way, they have more immediate issues at hand: battling it out in the final threesome in the final round of the Junior Players Championship, at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.

Mason Howell of Thomasville, Ga., birdied the hardest par-3 and the hardest par-5 holes on the course to polish off a 70 on Saturday, and at 5-under-par 139 has a one-shot lead over Hamilton Coleman of Augusta, Ga., (68, the tournament’s low round for the first two days), who birdied No. 17 and then made a gutsy par at the last to finish at 4-under.

Logan Reilly of Lovettsville, Va. (72), who held a share of the 18-hole lead, is in third at 3-under, Luke Colton of Frisco, Texas (72) is fourth at 2-under and Kailer Stone of Alameda, Calif. (71) is fifth at 1-under.

They are the only players who have broken par for the first 36 holes.

Reilly earned his spot in the final three some when he rallied from a stretch of three bogeys in four holes to birdie Nos. 8 and 9.

First Coast players lagging behind

After Miles Russell became the first resident of the First Coast to win the Junior Players last year — with Phillip Dunham of Ponte Vedra Beach finishing second and Tyler Mawhinney of Fleming Island in a tie for sixth — it will take an extraordinary final round for any of them to reach the top 10, much less contend.

Junior Players leaderboard

Junior Players final-round groups, tee times

Dunham (75) and Jackson Byrd of St. Simons Island, Ga., (73) are tied for 18th at 3-over. Dunham made only one birdie but it was at his final hole, the par-5 ninth.

Lucas Gimenez of Jacksonville had a wild ride over the Stadium Course, signing for a card that contained four pars, seven birdies, five bogeys and two double bogeys. It added up to a 74 and he’s tied for 31st at 5-over.

Russell got his score to even par through 13 holes and was only four off the lead at the time. But he bogeyed four of his last five holes and shot 76. He’s tied for 34th at 6-under with Mawhinney (77).

Ambrose Kinnare of St. Augustine (83) is tied for 68th at 15-over.

Junior Players leaders putt, scramble well

Both of the leaders said the course takes a mental toll on players, especially off the tee.

“The greens are in really good shape but you have to play really smart to get there,” said Howell, who hasn’t made a college decision yet but is from a Bulldog family — both his parents graduated from UGA. “If you have one lapse you’re in trouble. You can’t just walk up to a tee and whack at it.”

Coleman agreed with the sight lines off the Stadium Course tees.

“They are just so demanding,” he said. “There is not a breather hole off the tee. Every tee shot, you’re kind of stressing. Once you’re in the fairway and in the right position, you can kind of attack.”

Howell, Coleman get hot at different times

Howell is 14th on the AJGA Rolex Rankings and has five top-10 finishes this year in AGJA or national junior events, including a tie for fifth in the Western Junior.

He was 1-over for his first 10 holes after starting his round at the par-4 10th, then dropped birdie putts of 15 feet at No. 2 and 20 feet at No. 5. Howell capped his day when he drilled a 4-iron from 211 yards out to set up a 35-foot birdie putt at the par-3 eighth, then pitched onto the green of the par-5 ninth hole in three, and made a 3-footer.

Coleman, who verbally committed to Georgia last week, is 91st on the Rolex Rankings. He bounced back from a bogey at No. 2 with short birdie putts at Nos. 3, 4, 7 and 9, a stretch highlighted by a 6-iron against the wind from 176 yards out to within inches of the hole at the seventh.

Coleman birdied the 13th hole on a 15-foot putt at No. 13 and then chipped in from the right-front of the 14th green for birdie, negotiating a difficult angle to the front-left pin.

He almost holed out another short-game shot at the last. Coleman pushed his drive right and had to punch out from the trees. The ball rolled onto and over the green, settling into the left bunker. His sand shot tickled the edge of the hole before rolling 8 feet away, but he made the comebacker for par.

“I scrambled well, definitely,” Coleman said. “My irons have been really solid all week. I just need to tighten up the driver a little bit tomorrow.”

Howell, Coleman have played often

As South Georgia residents, Howell and Coleman know each other well and have played numerous times with and against each other and paired up for a practice round earlier in the week.

“He’s always fun to play with,” Coleman said. “Every time we play together we have fun.”

They also have a good track record on the First Coast. Howell is in his first Junior Players but he won the Billy Horschel Junior Championship on Oct. 5, 2023. Coleman tied for 18th in last year’s Junior Players and tied for third in the Horschel Junior Championship (which is played under a Stableford format), one point out of a playoff between Howell and Clark Van Gaalen.