Uniontown resident and North Coast Junior Tour player Maxwell Moldovan is going to Augusta!
On Easter Sunday, The Golf Channel will cover the Drive, Chip & Putt Finals with four hours of live coverage starting at 9 am from Augusta National.
Junior golfers from around the country have been narrowed down through local, sub-regional and regional competitions to make the finals.
Maxwell Moldovan, a North Coast Junior Tour player from Uniontown, OH, will be one of those on center stage as a finalist at the April 5th championship.
Maxwell will compete in the 12-13 age bracket against nine other regional champions.
Moldovan took to golf at a very young age. By the age of seven, he had already racked up 11 wins on the U.S. Kids Canton Local Tour, and shot a 32 at the age of nine. So, when the opportunity arose to compete in the Drive, Chip and Putt Championship, he jumped at it.
The local qualifier was held at Chippewa Golf Club. Maxwell tied for the highest drive score, and did well enough in the chip and putt sections to win the Boys 12-13 age group by five points.
Advancing on to the sub-regional qualifier at Westfield Country Club, Maxwell again came ready to play. He hit the grid with all his drives, nailed all three chipping targets, and sunk the short putt to finish second. This was enough to earn him a spot in the regional qualifier at Prestwick Village Golf Club.
In preparation for the regional qualifier, Maxwell’s dad — John Moldovan, a golf professional at Prestwick Country Club — tried to temper Maxwell’s expectations. “I explained to him that there are only ten regional qualifiers in the country, so he’d be going against the area’s best,” said John. “I wanted him to know that just getting to this point on his first try was a huge accomplishment.”
Maxwell was unfazed, to say the least. Not only did he perform well, he won all three phases of the competition. He knocked all three of his drives down the middle—the farthest going 221 yards—and he chipped close to all three targets. The only misstep came when he pushed the short putt long, but he more than made up for it by draining the 30-foot putt.
Good luck in Augusta, Maxwell!
