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Maxwell Moldovan spent the days leading up to the Jones Cup eyeing the weather in Sea Island, Georgia. Moldovan, a 19-year-old Ohio State sophomore, got excited by forecasted weekend conditions that probably made much of the rest of the field cringe. There’s a reason that, in three trips to the Jones Cup, Moldovan has always been in the mix.
For Saturday’s second round, a south wind switched directions and blew twice as hard, and the temperature dropped roughly 20 degrees. Moldovan’s game holds up well in those kind of conditions.
“We’re not strangers to wind at all, especially the cooler temperatures,” said Moldovan, an Ohio native.
On Saturday, only eight players broke par and many of the names on the top of the leaderboard backed up from low scores on Friday. Moldovan fired a 1-over 73 at Ocean Forest Golf Club, three shots higher than his first-round score. A triple bogey on No. 11 and a double bogey on No. 14 drove up his score but he offset those with five birdies – including a hole-out from a bunker on No. 17.
Leaderboard: Jones Cup
“I did feel like my round today was kind of a good example of what happens at the Jones Cup when the wind is up,” he said.
Moldovan plays a low ball flight, which works to his benefit in tough conditions. On days like Saturday, his mantra is just to keep it in play.
“You don’t always need to attack pins when the weather is like this,” he said. “If you can get it on the green and give yourself 20, 30, 40 feet, you’re picking up shots on the field.”
Moldovan finished 11th here in 2021 and eighth in 2020. Both finishes fell in the midst of a two-year winless drought that Moldovan cracked in July when he won the Southern Amateur by a record margin. His 20-under 72-hole total at Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Mississippi, shattered Justin Leonard’s winning record from 1993 by six shots.
Looking back on that stretch of golf, Moldovan maintains that all things happen for a reason.
“I’ve never let the tough finishes and tough weeks get to me more than a couple of days after and I’ve always tried to continue to work and push through them,” he said. “I worked really hard during that win drought and even though the results didn’t always show – I had some good tournaments in that stretch and I had some bad ones – although the results didn’t show, I knew I was getting better.”
Moldovan’s year took off after his Southern Amateur victory. He made match play at the Western Amateur and U.S. Amateur. He was seventh at the Maridoe Collegiate and third at the Windon Memorial – both college events – and scored a top 10 at the Patriot All-America Invitational to end the year.
In a year and a half as a college golfer, the venues have been thrilling for Moldovan. The Floridian, which annually hosts the Valspar Collegiate in the spring, has been his favorite. He finished runner-up there last year. Moldovan recognizes the fields are deeper than they were in junior golf too.
“Now with college golf, over half the guys are very capable of winning with a good week,” he said. “The competition makes everybody better, and the golf courses too.”
Moldovan enters the final round eight shots off the pace set by Palmer Jackson, a Notre Dame junior who has had rounds of 66-69 this week. A lot can transpire in the wind, and Moldovan hopes to keep it interesting on Sunday.
“I’m just going to try to take care of my business and make as many pars as I can, hopefully a few birdies go down,” he said. “… Ocean Forest is a place where shots can come and go really fast.”