Scots-born Karis Davidson finishes T13 in  Arizona Thunderbird Junior Championship Queensland-based, Innerleithen-born Karis Davidson, the highest ranked Scots-born female at number 86 in the World Amateur Rankings, finished a creditable joint 13th in a girls' international field of 30 players at the 2015 Thunderbird Junior International Championship over a longish Raptor Course (Par 72, 6,342yd) at Grayhawk Golf Club, Scottsdale, Arizona this week, writes Colin Farquharson  The Davidson family emigrated from the Tweed Valley to Queensland seven years ago, since when Karis has become one of the leading Australian girl golfers Karis, pictured, who has her 17th birthday on July 7 , shot 73-74-71 for a two-over-par tally of 218 - only six shots behind the winner, Mika Lui from Beverly Hills, California (68-74-70 for 212). Lui is ranked No 41 in the WWAGR A bonus for the Scots teenager on her trip to the States was a guided tour of the Ping factory and a gift of a new set of custom-fitted Ping clubs. There were no British girls in the field. Matty Lamb from Hexham and Daniel O'Loughlin from Nottingham finished T31 and T39 respectively in the boys' division won by Sam Burns from Shreveport, Louisiana with an 11-under-par total of 205 (69-66-70) Lamb was doing quite well with his first two rounds of 73 and 71 but he faded over the final circuit for a 79 and a total of seven-over 223. O'Loughlin shot 76-79-72 for 227 SCROLL DOWN PAST THE NEWS RELEASE TO VIEW ALL THE SCORES Burns holds lead to win Thunderbird International Junior Liu takes home Girls Division title in third appearance at Grayhawk SCOTTSDALE, Ariona – Sam Burns of Shreveport, Louisiana, made birdie on No. 18 to hold onto his lead, firing a 2-under-par 70 in the final round to win the Thunderbird International Junior with a tournament total 11-under-par 205.  In the Girls Division, Mika Liu of Beverly Hills, California, reclaimed the top spot to win at 4-under-par 212 tournament total. Burns entered the final round with a two-stroke lead over the field, but felt the competition nipping at his heels from the start, but the No. 1 player in the Polo Golf Rankings held on, winning his third Invitational. “It means a lot to me to win since it was one of my last AJGA tournaments,” said Burns, who will play at Louisiana State University in the fall. “I had to focus on my game and get myself as many opportunities to birdie as possible. I think if you do that out here you can score pretty well. Last year I had the same deal where I was leading after two rounds and lost it, but I wasn’t going to let that happen this year.” Braden Thornberry fired the low final-round score with a 5-under-par 67, finishing second with a 10-under-par 206 tournament total. Tied for third at 7-under-par 209 were Collin Morikawa of La Canada Flintridge, California, and Koichiro Ishika of Kakogawa, Japan, and tied for fifth at 5-under-par 211 were Sahith Theegala of Chino Hills, California, and Hidetoshi Yoshihara of Irvine, California. Liu made back-to-back birdies on Nos. 14 and 15 on her way to winning her third AJGA event and second title in as many weeks after taking the inaugural U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball title. The No. 30 player in the Polo Golf Rankings was playing in her third Thunderbird International Junior. “Every time I come to this tournament it is really special to me,” Liu said. “After three years of coming here I finally grabbed the title. My strengths today were hitting on the fairways and hitting on the greens. I was just conserving myself to not get in trouble, make pars, and grabbing birdie opportunities when I could.” Tied in second were Angel Yin of Arcadia, California, and Bailey Tardy of Norcross, Georgia, with a 3-under-par 213 tournament total, and tied in fourth were Andrea Lee of Hermosa Beach, California, and Mariel Galdiano of Pearl City, Hawaii, with a 4-under-par 214.

Boys Division FINAL TOTALS Par 216 (Par 3x72) Yardage 7,112 Name Grad Hometown Score 1 Sam Burns 2015 Shreveport, La. 69-66-70--205 2 Braden Thornberry 2015 Olive Branch, Miss. 71-68-67--206 T3 Collin Morikawa 2015 La Canada Flintridge, Calif. 70-70-69--209 T3 Koichiro Ishika 2017 Kakogawa, Japan 70-67-72--209 T5 Sahith Theegala 2015 Chino Hills, Calif. 67-70-74--211 T5 Hidetoshi Yoshihara 2016 (Japan) Irvine, Calif. 70-67-74--211 T7 Ryan Grider 2017 Lewisville, Texas 74-71-67--212 T7 Viktor Hovland 2016 Oslo, Norway 67-72-73--212 9 Michael Feagles 2016 Scottsdale, Ariz. 73-68-72--213 T10 Matthew Wolff 2017 Agoura Hills, Calif. 70-72-72--214 T10 Jacob Solomon 2015 Dublin, Calif. 74-68-72--214 T10 Luis Gagne 2015 Orlando, Fla. 72-71-71--214 T10 Yechun (Carl) Yuan 2015 (China) Lake Mary, Fla. 68-71-75--214 T14 Gordon Neale 2015 Dove Canyon, Calif. 75-70-72--217 T14 Doc Redman 2016 Raleigh, N.C. 72-70-75--217 T14 Andrew Kozan 2017 Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. 75-67-75--217 T14 Wilson Furr 2017 Jackson, Miss. 69-74-74--217 T14 Aaron Whalen 2015 Ephrata, Wash. 71-73-73--217 T14 Eugene Hong 2018 Sanford, Fla. 72-72-73--217 T20 Won Jun Lee 2017 (South Korea) Wesley Chapel, Fla. 69-81-69--219 T20 Nathan Jeansonne 2015 Keithville, La. 76-75-68--219 T20 Kyler Tate 2015 Winter Garden, Fla. 70-77-72--219 T20 Cameron Young 2015 Scarborough, N.Y. 77-68-74--219 T20 Norman Xiong 2017 Canyon Lake, Calif. 68-76-75--219 T20 Philip Barbaree 2017 Shreveport, La. 73-72-74--219 T26 Roberto Lebrija 2016 Mexico City, Mexico 76-72-73--221 T26 Spencer Soosman 2016 Westlake Village, Calif. 67-80-74--221 T26 Brad Dalke 2015 Hobart, Okla. 74-74-73--221 T26 Herik Machado 2016 Porto Alegre, Brazil 70-74-77--221 T26 Wocheng (Aden) Ye 2018 (China) Lake Mary, Fla. 72-72-77--221 T31 Charles Kim 2015 (South Korea) Cedar Park, Texas 77-70-76--223 T31 Chandler Phillips 2015 Huntsville, Texas 71-72-80--223 T31 Kristoffer Reitan 2017 Nesøya, Norway 72-72-79--223 T31 Matty Lamb 2016 Hexham, United Kingdom 73-71-79--223 35 Tyler Strafaci 2016 Davie, Fla. 73-76-75--224 36 Brandon Smith 2015 Frisco, Texas 74-73-78--225 T37 Jamie Cheatham 2015 Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. 78-70-78--226 T37 Lachlan Barker 2016 Willunga, Australia 74-77-75--226 T39 Joshua McCarthy 2016 Danville, Calif. 76-76-75--227 T39 Daniel O'Loughlin 2016 Nottingham, United Kingdom 76-79-72--227 T39 Triston Fisher 2015 Southlake, Texas 82-73-72--227 42 Inigo Benaran 2016 San Sebastian, Spain 78-78-72--228 T43 S.M. Lee 2016 Buford, Ga. 80-74-75--229 T43 Riley Casey 2016 Abilene, Texas 74-72-83--229 45 Cooper Dossey 2016 Austin, Texas 76-79-75--230 46 Esteban Missura 2017 Quito, Ecuador 81-78-74--233 T47 Felix Palson 2016 Lidingö, Sweden 77-78-83--238 T47 Tyler Moore 2015 Escondido, Calif. 79-80-79--238 Girls Division FINAL TOTALS Par 216 (3x72) Yardage 6,342 Name Grad Hometown Score 1 Mika Liu 2017 Beverly Hills, Calif. 68-74-70--212 T2 Angel Yin 2017 Arcadia, Calif. 75-72-66--213 T2 Bailey Tardy 2015 Norcross, Ga. 74-69-70--213 T4 Andrea Lee 2016 Hermosa Beach, Calif. 72-71-71--214 T4 Mariel Galdiano 2016 Pearl City, Hawaii 69-73-72--214 T6 Robynn Ree 2015 Redondo Beach, Calif. 71-69-75--215 T6 Lauren Stephenson 2015 Lexington, S.C. 72-69-74--215 T8 Bethany Wu 2015 Diamond Bar, Calif. 73-71-72--216 T8 Himawari Ogura 2017 Koutou, Japan 72-71-73--216 T10 Hailee Cooper 2018 Montgomery, Texas 73-75-69--217 T10 Cheyenne Knight 2015 Aledo, Texas 72-73-72--217 T10 Agathe Laisne 2017 Paris, France 69-74-74--217 T13 Jillian Hollis 2015 Rocky River, Ohio 72-74-72--218 T13 Karis Davidson 2015 Hope Island, QLD, Australia 73-74-71--218 T13 Lilia Vu 2015 Fountain Valley, Calif. 75-71-72--218 16 Nelly Korda 2016 Bradenton, Fla. 80-73-67--220 T17 Kaitlyn Papp 2017 Austin, Texas 73-71-77--221 T17 Hannah O'Sullivan 2016 Chandler, Ariz. 75-75-71--221 19 Abbey Carlson 2016 Lake Mary, Fla. 76-73-73--222 T20 Ana Paula Valdes 2016 (Mexico) Bluffton, S.C. 72-74-78--224 T20 Kristen Gillman 2016 Austin, Texas 74-75-75--224 T20 Alyaa Abdulghany 2017 Newport Beach, Calif. 78-75-71--224 T23 Linda Lundqvist 2016 Balsta, Sweden 77-70-78--225 T23 Elizabeth Wang 2018 San Marino, Calif. 75-75-75--225 25 Rinko Mitsunaga 2015 Roswell, Ga. 75-75-79--229 T26 Marion Veysseyre 2016 La Chapelle Auzac, France 79-72-80--231 T26 Maria Fassi 2016 Pachuca Hidalgo, Mexico 77-76-78--231 T26 Vanessa Manrique 2017 Bogota, Colombia 76-82-73--231 29 Rachel Dai 2015 Milton, Ga. 77-80-75--232 30 Sofia Linette Garcia Peralta 2016 Asuncion, Paraguay 77-85-82--244