Villaroman Wins World Junior Golf

After two days of scintillating golf, Los Angeles’ Ken Tanigawa returned to normal in Friday’s final round of the boys’ 15-17 Junior World Golf Championship on Torrey Pines’ South Course. And normal--a final round of par 72--wasn’t quite good enough.

Tanigawa, who had shot a tournament-record 66 in the second round and a solid 69 in the third round to tie for the lead, finished two strokes behind the Philippines’ Carito Villaroman, who shot a three-under 69 Friday to defeat Tanigawa and South Africa’s Manuel Zerman.

In the girls’ 15-17 division on Torrey Pines’ North Course, Dana Lofland of Oxnard squandered a five-stroke lead in the final round but recovered in time to defeat Jean Zedlitz of Pleasanton, Calif., in a four-hole playoff.

Said Tanigawa, who began the last round tied with Zerman, La Habra’s Bob May and Honolulu’s Damien Jamila, one shot ahead of Villaroman: “I hit a couple of bad shots that cost me pars and I didn’t putt well on the front nine.

“(Villaroman) stuck a lot of good iron shots on the finishing holes and that made the difference.”

Villaroman was just one shot ahead of Tanigawa with two holes to play but widened his margin by sinking a 25-foot-birdie putt on 17. At the 18th, Villaroman played conservatively for par to finish with a four-round total of 282, six-under par.