Brookwood’s Howell fares well at U.S. Junior Amateur

Brookwood junior golfer Mason Howell flexed his muscle against the best junior amateurs in the world this week at the U.S. Junior Amateur in Oakland Hills, Michigan.

Howell fared well in finishing in a tie for 33rd out of 264.

“It was a lot of fun. That’s probably one of my favorite tournaments every single year. It’s such a cool venue,” Howell said. “It’s such a fun tournament. It makes us juniors feel like pros the way they have it set up. It’s awesome.”

It was Howell’s third time playing in the tournament, but it was his best finish. The tournament is designed for two rounds of stroke play, dwindling the field to the top 64 which then turns into match play. Howell was 1-under-par after two rounds which netted him 12th place in stroke play. He lost in his first match play that ended in 16 holes.

“Stroke play, you’re just playing to be inside the top 64, so you really don’t want to do anything too crazy,” Howell said. “Once you get to match play, you’re just playing one guy. It’s just head to head, so your mindset definitely switches a little bit. Match play is such a cool format, because anything can happen. It doesn’t matter what seed you are.

“My match that I got knocked out in didn’t end how I wanted it to. I feel like I played well, I just got beat. Those first two stroke play rounds, I played really well, especially the first round.”

Howell shot a 65 and 74 in the first two rounds of stroke play.

With school starting back soon, Howell will now take a month off before playing in the Junior Players Championship at the TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, on Aug. 29-Sept. 1.