Colton Danks is on fire. The junior golfer is now 3 for 3 in his past 3 tournaments of the season on the Tarheel Youth Golf Association Tour. This time, Danks was able to claim career win number four on the TYGA circuit at Raleigh’s Wildwood Green Golf Club in the Jack Ratz Memorial Tournament.
Danks fired a six-over-par 76 on Monday to win the event by one shot in the 12-13 year old age group. He reached the 76 total after a pair of 38s on each set of nine holes.
“It’s nice to be playing well,” said Danks, who played his steadiest round of the season during the winning effort. “Most of my other rounds this year, even when I’ve won, have had their share of bad holes. I had the triple and the double a couple of weeks ago at Goldsboro, and some big numbers at other events, but in this one, I was just able to play a solid round. Take away some three putts, and it could’ve really been a great round. Some of these greens are so big though and so undulating, that three putts are just going to happen. Nevertheless, I am glad to have won another event out here, because there are really some good players that play in these events,” he continued.
Danks, who struggled in the last event on mid-range wedged shots, had that problem solved on Monday. The 13 year old worked for the past week on 50-75 yard shots with his various wedges, and was able to hit them well at Wildwood.
Despite the mentioned three-putts by Danks, he putted pretty well on Monday. His biggest shot of the day perhaps was the downhill swinging par putt that he rolled in on the finishing hole to seal his victory.
“I knew that was a big putt, because I told myself before the round that I wanted to shoot better than 77,” he said. “I thought that something around 74-75 would probably do the trick as far as winning, and thankfully 76 was good enough.”
With his third win of the year, Danks has now won more events this season than any other golfer in the 12-13 year old age group in the TYGA events.
At the beginning of the year, Danks expressed how it was time for him to begin winning events on a regular basis, and making noise in the junior golf ranks. With three wins and a second place finish in four tries, he appears to be doing just that.
Danks’ first win of the year assured him a position in the TYGA Tournament of Champions at Mill Creek Golf Club in Mebane on Aug. 11-12. His third win of the year makes him a favorite entering the event.