Brookwood’s Howell finishes fifth at Junior Players Championship

Last weekend’s Junior Players Championship did not end the way Mason Howell would have liked but it showed the Brookwood junior is capable of going toe-to-toe with the world’s best golfers.

Howell placed fifth at the three-day tournament at TPC Sawgrass with a 3-under-par 213. He finished three strokes behind tournament winner Hamilton Coleman, from Augusta.

“It was a lot of fun. It was hot,” joked Howell. “I feel like I played really well. The first two rounds I was really in control of my game. I definitely had a lot of confidence. That golf course is special, just so iconic. I played well the last day, just had some really unfortunate breaks. I just kind of got unlucky, and it just wasn’t my day. I battled back and gave myself a decent score. Overall, it was still a great tournament.”

Howell shot a first-round 69 and followed with a 70 in the second round. He led the tournament after two rounds before finishing with a 74 in round three.

“It was definitely frustrating (in round three), but I knew I had to keep my head. The second you go negative, it’s really hard to rebound,” Howell said. “I was getting a little unfortunate. I hit a sprinkler head on hole (No.) 5 which led to a bogey. It was an unfortunate break, and I plugged in a bunker on (hole) 7. That led to a double (bogey). I was 5-over through 10, and I managed to get it back to 2-over. I really fought my way around.”

The tournament was Howell’s last for a few weeks. He’s now looking forward to enjoying life as a high school student.

“Just staying at home. We’ve got some Friday night lights we’re looking forward to going to. I don’t have a tournament in about another month, so I kind of have some down time before we kick it into gear again,” Howell said.