Great playing by Colin Proctor of Anderson and Adam Wood of Zionsville led to a playoff at the Hoosier Junior Championship at Otter Creek Sunday. Proctor shot 72-72 and Wood fired 69 in the final round, which added to his 75 was enough to catch Proctor. In the playoff, Proctor flared his approach left while Wood hit the green for a birdie opportunity. Wood eventually made his 4-foot putt for par and the win. “Colin’s a great player and we’ve crossed paths many times before. Today I just got a few putts to go in the hole and had a good ball striking day,” said Wood, who managed the gusting wind well. “I go to the range with friends, and we practice controlling it in the wind. Over time you get experience with how to manage it.” Wood has also won the Boys State Junior as well as an AJGA championship, and Proctor is also a former Boys State Junior champion.

With this victory, Wood clinched the honor of being named the 2011 Pepsi Indiana Junior Golf Program Boys Player of the Year. He will be recognized October 20th at the Indiana Golf Hall of Fame banquet at Meridian Hills CC along with the other junior program players of the year.

In the girls division the threat of a playoff never happened. With an opening round 71, Katie Sharp of Kendallville put herself in a great position with a 7-shot cushion. Even with a 79 the second day, she went uncontested and won by 10 over Rachel Welker of Terre Haute. “Overall I had a really good tournament,” said Sharp. “Today there was more wind but I had a few more mistakes than I needed to. I missed more greens and hit into a lot of bunkers.”

But despite feeling like she made some mistakes, her play and the win helped Sharp regain some confidence she lost at the IHSAA Girls State Finals two weeks ago. “I didn’t do as well at State as I would have liked, and it had me worried that I was losing it. But this tournament helped me gain a lot of confidence back. It’s a nice win after playing so poorly there.”