World Junior Championship : Pennsylvania Golfer Doesn’t Have Second Thoughts in the Rain

The way Francis Vaughn’s mother sees it, her son wins golf tournaments about as often as it rains here in the middle of July.

For that reason, Dory Vaughn has refused to send Francis to the Optimist Junior World Championship the last two years. She paid for his trip from Hershey, Pa., this year only because it was his high school graduation gift.

“I was surprised she let me come,” Francis said.

Friday, Francis got what turned out to be another nice surprise. It rained. And, that helped him.

Francis won the biggest golf tournament of his career.

Vaughn, who had shot a brilliant five-under-par 67 in Thursday’s third round to pull within one shot of the lead, wasn’t so brilliant Friday, scoring just one birdie during a two-over-par round of 74 on Torrey Pines’ wet and windy South Course.

However, the player that Vaughn was trying to catch, South Africa’s Manuel Zerman, didn’t handle the wet turf nearly as well. The soaked putting greens proved to be his undoing during a final-round 77 as Vaughn passed him to win the boys’ 15-17 age division by two strokes.

In the girls’ 15-17 division on Torrey Pines’ North Course, Brandie Burton of Rialto scrambled for par on the 72nd hole to hold off Honolulu’s Nicole Horner by one stroke.

Burton, who won the girls’ 13-14 age division here last year, became the first 15-year-old girl in the 20-year history of the tournament to win when she knocked in a 10-foot par putt on No. 18.

Vaughn, meanwhile, didn’t have to come up with any similar heroics. After a bogey at No. 12, he simply parred the final six holes and dared Zerman to try to catch him.

“My mom will probably get on my case for shooting a 74,” Vaughn said, laughing. “Actually, I think she’ll be pretty happy for me.”

Vaughn had finished second in four consecutive state junior tournaments in Pennsylvania before coming to San Diego this weekend.

And he was second entering Friday’s final round.

“I finished second behind four different players in those tournaments,” Vaughn said. “I was always playing against them instead of just playing the course. I was determined to just play the course this time.”

The course would prove to be difficult. Especially without rain gear.

The woman that Vaughn has been staying with this week went for a drive Friday morning and his rain gear was in the trunk of her car.

“I waited as long as I could for her to get back then I just grabbed a couple of towels and left for the course,” Vaughn said. “Maybe I handled the rain better than he (Zerman) did.”

Actually, that was only apparent on the putting greens. Both players played well through the misty conditions but Zerman simply couldn’t make a putt.

He three-putted from 18 feet at No. 9 to bogey as Vaughn birdied for a two-stroke lead. On the back nine, neither player birdied, with Vaughn bogeying at No. 12 and Zerman falling two strokes back again with a bogey at No. 17.

Trailing by one shot at both the 14th and 16th holes, Zerman had chances for birdie but missed short putts. Both times, Vaughn turned his back to his competitor waiting only for the crowd’s reaction to tell him if the tournament had been tied.

“It was my way of not trying to worry about what he was doing,” Vaughn said. “He hit some great shots during the round and each time I just had to come back with a good shot of my own.”

Zerman, who finished second here two years ago and third last year, was a disappointed runner-up again.

“I thought I would win this year,” he said. “But I just couldn’t get myself mentally together for the final round. I was thinking, ‘Well, if you don’t win, you’ll finish second.’ You just can’t think thoughts like that. I hope I learned my lesson.”

One person won’t be thinking about second anymore.

“Yeah, my mom will have to admit finally that all of my practicing has paid off in a first,” Vaughn said.