Former Clovis North star comes home after first year of college and scores City Am win

Fresno Bee
·2 min read

Former Clovis North High star Aidan Tran closed with a fury Monday to win the 96th Fresno City Amateur at Riverside Golf Course.

Tran shot the low round of the three-day tournament, a 7-under-par 65 that included eagles on Nos. 9 and 18, to win by two shots over Fresno State’s Andrew Lee and four over defending and six-time champion Danny Paniccia.

Tran opened the holiday weekend tournament with back-to-back 69s to sit in a third-place tie with Lee (also from Clovis North) and Paniccia two shots behind Fresno State’s Jake Bettencourt (Buchanan) and one back of Cal Poly’s Jackson Parish.

In breezy conditions Monday, Tran opened with a birdie at No. 1 and added birdies at Nos. 4, 6 and 7 before the eagle at the par-5 No. 9 brought him to the turn 6 under for the day and pt him command. Lee and Paniccia were each four shots back and five clear of Parish and Bettencourt.

Tran matched Lee’s birdie on the signature 10th hole into the riverbed, but it wasn’t over. Tran made bogeys at Nos. 12 and 15 and headed to No. 18 in the next-to-last group with the lead but looking at a leaderboard full of four contenders.

Boom! Tran shut the door with his third eagle of the tournament (there were 30 total).

Tran was the only golfer to shoot in the 60s all three days finishing with a 13-under 203 total.

Lee shot 67-71-67—205, Paniccia finished at 68-70-60—207 and Parish (68-69-71) and Bettencourt (67-69-72) tied for fourth at 208.

Fourteen golfers beat par for the tournament; 44 out of a starting field of 132 made the cut at 5-over.

Tran also played in the Fresno City Am in 2018 and 2020. The 2020 event was shortened to a two day event.

He had an outstanding junior career including winning the 2022 Central Section championship as a Clovis North senior and winning three American Junior Golf Association events with seven other top-10 AJGA finishes.

Tran committed to Georgia Tech before he had played a round for Clovis North and made a mark in his first season at the Atlanta school, averaging 72.93 in 15 rounds with a low round of 65.