Alexa Melton Comes From Behind and William Mouw Cruises to Victory at the Thunderbird International Junior

The final round of the Thunderbird International Junior concluded with two first-time invitational champions. William Mouw of Chino, California, went wire-to-wire to win his second tournament in the past month to become the Boys Champion. And, Alexa Melton of Covina, California, came from behind to win in the Girls Division.

20th Anniversary

This was the 20th anniversary of the Thunderbird International Junior, an event that has been hosted by Grayhawk Golf Club every year on Memorial Day since 2000. The tournament has had notable past champions such as Ryan Moore, Brian Harman, Morgan Pressel and Ariya Jutanugarn. The field this year included nine of the top-10 boys in the Rolex AJGA Rankings and seven of the top-10 girls.

Mouw Goes Wire-to-Wire

William Mouw shot a 3-over-par 73 in his final round that included 10 pars in his first 11 holes. He finished the tournament at 1-under-par 209. Last year, Mouw finished fifth at the Thunderbird International Junior and earlier this year he won his first AJGA event, the 2019 PING Heather Farr Classic. Mouw is No. 12 in the Rolex AJGA Rankings and the high school senior has signed a National Letter of Intent to Pepperdine University.

Stephen Campbell Jr. of Richmond, Texas, finished in solo second after finishing the tournament with a total of 3-over-par 213. Campbell Jr. shot a final round 3-over-par 73 and had three birdies on the day. The University of Oklahoma verbal commit is currently No. 43 in the Rolex AJGA Rankings.

Melton pulls away with birdies down the stretch

Alexa Melton started the day one shot off the lead and had a tight battle down to the end with her fellow competitors. In the end Melton birdied two of her last three holes to come away with a two-shot victory and her first invitational win. The Pepperdine University commit shot a three-day total of even-par 216 and had 11 birdies on the weekend.

Rose Zhang of Irvine, California, and Sadie Englemann of Austin, Texas, both of whom have verbally committed to Stanford University, finished T2 after shooting a three-day total of 2-over-par 218. Zhang shot the low round of the day for the girls with a 1-under-par 71 to move her up the leaderboard. Englemann shot a 2-under-par 34 on her back nine to make her way back into the top-3. She shot a 4-over-par 76 in the final round.