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By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Managing Editor 

ATHENS – It may have ended in heartbreak, but Chase Kyes’s performance at this year’s Alabama State Junior Championship didn’t lack fireworks July 19-21 at Canebrake Club in Athens.

The Spain Park rising sophomore put together a spectacular three days on the golf course looking to bring home the championship, and down to the final hole, he trailed by one stroke.

Sitting at 17-under par, Jackson Mitchell, playing on his home course, held a one-shot lead already in the house at 18-under after shooting a remarkable final round of 62.

Kyes, however, didn’t back down from the pressure that the final hole brought. After birdieing the par-5 each of the first two rounds, he stepped to the tee confidently and put together another closing birdie for the third day in a row to match Mitchell at 18-under and force a playoff.

The home-course advantage for the Athens High School golfer, however, proved to be too much.

Mitchell put together a clutch first playoff hole with a birdie that ultimately led to the win, while giving Kyes a runner-up finish.

It was a tough ending for the Spain Park golfer, but he put together a remarkable three-day showing at the tournament as he continues to be one of the top junior golfers in the state.

Kyes fired rounds of 66, 65 and 67 for an aggregate score of 198, making him one of two in the tournament to shoot three consecutive rounds of 67 or better.

Vestavia Hills’s Ward Harris did the same with rounds of 67, 67 and 65 to finish third and one shot out of the playoff, while Mitchell put together rounds of 67, 69 and 62, which was the low round of the tournament.

In the American Junior Golf Association, Kyes has been busy this summer, competing in several big events since June, finishing in the top five twice with a T5 at the Stewart Sink Championship and a T3 at the Mizuno/Keith Mitchell Junior Championship.

He is currently ranked 229th in the AJGA rankings.

The young golfer has also already competed highly for the Jags, finishing runner-up at this year’s AHSAA Class 7A State Championship.

He still has three more years at Spain Park and has been competing highly for the Jaguars since he was in eighth grade.