Staff WriterAt the Raiffeisenbank Golf Challenge in the Czech Republic—where the fairways are smooth, the putts are twitchy, and the pressure is turning up like a cheap sauna—Joshua Berry is proving that youth isn’t wasted on the young.
The 19-year-old Englishman fired a blemish-free 64, collecting seven birdies like they were going out of style, and vaulted himself into a four-way tie atop the leaderboard heading into the weekend at Golf Resort Kaskáda.
If the name Joshua Berry hasn’t been on your radar, it should be now. The lad birdied three of his first seven holes, then rattled off three in a row around the turn like a man trying to catch a train.
A final gain on the 15th and three steady pars to close saw him finish the day ten under par for the tournament, alongside Stuart Manley of Wales, Spain’s Sebastian Garcia, and America’s Palmer Jackson.
“It was nice to get out early this morning and post a number,” Berry said with the calm confidence of a man who’s clearly been practising more than just his swing. “I played really nicely off the tee and gave myself a lot of chances.”
Chances, indeed. Berry now finds himself not only in the hunt for a second career win on the HotelPlanner Tour—his first came earlier this year at the Kolkata Challenge—but also on the cusp of cementing his place inside the top five of the Road to Mallorca Rankings.
“It helps being able to draw off past memories, but I am just going to go play the same golf and hopefully post two good scores,” he added.
Standing in his way is a trio of contenders, none of whom showed up to make up the numbers.
Stuart Manley, a 46-year-old veteran with four career wins to his name, matched his younger rival’s composure with a five-under 66 of his own. Don’t let the age fool you—Manley’s still got plenty of fire in the belly and steel in the wrists.
“The game seems to be trending in the right direction,” he said. “The results haven’t been there, but I feel like I am playing better.
“I kept the ball in play nicely and I was pretty much always in the fairway, and I putted very nicely.”
Garcia, meanwhile, caught fire mid-round with a flurry of birdies that briefly had the course record pacing nervously in the locker room.
“I played very well but the putter was a little bit cold,” Garcia admitted. “I made a nice birdie on eight and that really got my round going. Overall, I played very well today.”
Rounding out the top quartet, American Palmer Jackson came out swinging with four front-nine birdies, stumbled slightly on the back, then closed with a chip-in that had shades of Seve and sent him into the clubhouse on a high.
“It was nice to chip that in and leave feeling good about the round because it was getting pretty tiring on the second nine,” Jackson said. “I thought it was a good challenge again. There are birdies there you just have to hit good shots.”
Breathing down their collective necks is Hong Kong’s Matthew Cheung at nine under, with a hungry pack on eight under that includes Italy’s Renato Paratore, Slovakia’s Tadeas Tetak, Sweden’s Tobias Jonsson, and American Nick Carlson.
The stage is set. Moving day begins Saturday at 7:30 am, with the final group—Berry, Manley, and Garcia—teeing off at high noon. Expect fireworks. Possibly even some golf.
And if Joshua Berry keeps swinging like this, expect to hear his name a lot more often—and not just in the footnotes.
