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By DAN MIROCHA
Assistant Editor

ORLANDO, Fla. – The wheels starting spinning in Cameron Peck’s mind as he walked to the 18th green Friday at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge.

The 17-year-old from Olympia, Wash., had just birdied Nos. 15-17 and had a three-shot lead at the HP Boys Invitational, putting him in prime position to win his second AJGA invitational of the year.

But his mind was elsewhere. Peck now had the perfect stage to recreate Tiger Woods’ 18th-hole hat slam after he won the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March with a dramatic birdie putt.

“I was thinking about it walking down the 18th fairway,” Peck said. “I had to do it.”

Peck lagged his 12-foot par putt near the hole and tapped in for a closing bogey, then lifted his black Nike hat in the air and threw it to the ground. He then flashed a mega-watt smile and raised his arms in the air.

Talk about an exclamation point.

“To actually play a course that the pros play, it’s awesome,” Peck said. “This is huge.”

Peck closed with a 3-under 69 to finish at 4-under 284 and top Christopher Walker by shot. Walker, who was playing with Peck and in his final junior event before enrolling at Notre Dame in the fall, birdied two of his last three holes for his best AJGA invitational finish.

“Cameron lit it up,” Walker said. “It was fun to watch.”

With his FootJoy Invitational title last month and a victory in April at the Wellstone Communities Junior at Craig Ranch, Peck has now created a marquee match-up not only at next week’s U.S. Junior Amateur, but for AJGA player of the year honors.

Defending Junior champ Cory Whitsett won the Rolex Tournament of Champions July 5, which followed his victory at the Western Junior in late June.

“Me and Cory, we’ve been playing a long time together,” Peck said. “It’s going to be close.”

Peck was a shot behind leader Austin Cody when he reached the par-5 12th, but sank a birdie putt to draw even. Cody, a 16-year-old from North Charleston, S.C., followed with a birdie at 15 to regain the lead, but it didn’t last long.

Playing in the group behind, Peck knocked in a 20-foot birdie putt from off the 15th green to draw even, then punched a 3-iron shot from 200 yards out of the right rough on No. 16 that curved around a tree and landed on the green. Two putts later he had another birdie and his first lead. He rolled in his third consecutive birdie at the par-3 17th for a two-shot lead. When Cody bogeyed No. 18, Peck had a three-shot advantage.

“I usually hit the ball really well, the problem is I don’t make enough birdies,” said Peck, who tied for third this week with 15 birdies. “I’ve been working on my putting a lot. I’m able to go under par now when I need to.”

Jeffrey Kang birdied three of his last five holes to close with a 68, the same final-round score posted by Michael Jae Woo Im. Both players tied for fourth.

Peck, No. 11 in the Golfweek/Titleist Junior Rankings, is the first player since Andrew Yun in 2006 to win two AJGA invitational titles in a year. At last year’s Junior at Boone Valley, he lost in the Round of 32. He’ll enter next week’s national championship at Shoal Creek as a favorite.

“My confidence is really high,” Peck said. “I feel like I can almost win anything right now.”

• • •

Dan Mirocha is a Golfweek assistant editor. To reach him e-mail dmirocha@golfweek.com.

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Final scores with relation to par from the AJGA’s HP Boys Junior Championship, played July 15-18 at the par-72, 7,277-yard Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Fla.:

1. Cameron Peck	73-72-70-69--284		-4
2. Christopher Walker	72-68-73-72--285		-3
3. Austin Cody	67-74-74-71--286		-2
4. Michael Jae Woo Im	69-76-74-68--287		-1
4. Jeffrey Kang	71-75-73-68--287		-1
6. Adam Sumrall	74-73-72-69--288		E
6. T.J. Vogel	74-73-72-69--288		E
8. Patrick Cantlay	73-69-74-73--289	+	1
8. Julian Suri	76-71-69-73--289	+	1
10. James Back	73-71-76-70--290	+	2
11. Tyler McCumber	72-75-75-69--291	+	3
11. Aaron Sherry	70-74-72-75--291	+	3
13. Joseph Byun	75-71-76-70--292	+	4
13. Ben Kohles	70-71-75-76--292	+	4
15. Tye Beall	73-74-73-73--293	+	5
16. Hojin Kang	71-75-76-72--294	+	6
16. Seth Reeves	74-71-78-71--294	+	6
16. Jace Long	73-69-76-76--294	+	6
19. Benjamin Bauch	75-72-74-74--295	+	7
19. David Sanders	70-76-76-73--295	+	7
19. Jack Schultz	73-73-76-73--295	+	7
19. James White	73-73-76-73--295	+	7
23. Andrew Sajevic	72-75-74-75--296	+	8
23. James Kwon	71-72-77-76--296	+	8
23. Dean Hester	74-72-74-76--296	+	8
26. Bo Andrews	73-74-77-73--297	+	9
26. Byeong-hun An	72-73-71-81--297	+	9
28. Brinson Paolini	77-73-75-74--299	+	11
28. Curtis Thompson	78-72-75-74--299	+	11
28. Logan Harrell	73-75-82-69--299	+	11
31. Anthony Paolucci	77-73-74-78--302	+	14
31. Ryan Thornton	70-75-80-77--302	+	14
31. Andrew Colvin	76-75-76-75--302	+	14
34. Brock Wilson	72-76-72-83--303	+	15
34. Eli Juren	76-72-78-77--303	+	15
36. Pete Kellermann	79-71-74-80--304	+	16
36. Taylor Szyndlar	75-76-77-76--304	+	16
38. Hunter Sparks	79-72-79-75--305	+	17
39. David Harper Jr.	72-76-80-78--306	+	18
40. Brandon Dalinka	74-75-77-82--308	+	20
41. Kyle Kmiecik	73-73-84-83--313	+	25
• • •
Missed the cut
42. Richard Werenski	76-76--152	+	8
42. Michael Kania	75-77--152	+	8
42. Mark Pollak	76-76--152	+	8
42. Keith Mitchell	77-75--152	+	8
42. Patrick McCormick	74-78--152	+	8
42. Franco Castro	77-75--152	+	8
48. Tommy Chung Hao Mou	76-77--153	+	9
48. Benjamin Thorseth	73-80--153	+	9
48. Mark Mumford	77-76--153	+	9
51. Daniel Lee	76-78--154	+	10
51. Michael McGee	79-75--154	+	10
51. Matthew Siporin	77-77--154	+	10
51. Kevin Phelan	79-75--154	+	10
55. Nicolai Kokholm	75-80--155	+	11
55. Ben Itterman	77-78--155	+	11
55. Kenny Leech	78-77--155	+	11
58. Michael Cromie	78-78--156	+	12
59. Brandon Ramirez	81-76--157	+	13
59. Mitchell Gray	80-77--157	+	13
59. Will Almand	79-78--157	+	13
62. Brant DeLongy	80-79--159	+	15
62. Aaron Fitzpatrick	80-79--159	+	15
62. William Sjaichudin	82-77--159	+	15
62. Michael Boyd	77-82--159	+	15
66. Smylie Kaufman	80-80--160	+	16
66. Robert Mills	81-79--160	+	16
66. Alex Moon	78-82--160	+	16
69. Johnathan Schnitzer	81-80--161	+	17
69. Jason Burstyn	80-81--161	+	17
69. Shane Lebow	78-83--161	+	17
69. Zachary Blair	82-79--161	+	17
73. Mark McMillen Jr.	78-84--162	+	18
73. Chandler Gruenemeier	84-78--162	+	18
75. Matthew Mabrey	84-81--165	+	21
76. Jeff Hatten	82-92--174	+	30
DQ. Zhong Yang Fu	76-DQ
WD. Talor Gooch	75-WD

Posted: 7/18/2008

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