Tye Waller of Griffin shot a final-round 73 Wednesday to finish in a four-way tie for 5th place in the 47th annual Georgia Junior Championship golf tournament at the Doublegate Country Club in Albany. Fellow Griffinite Jake Harpe shot a 78 to finish the three-day tournament in a seven-way tie for 29th.

Andy Shim of Duluth (66-69-70—205) led from wire-to-wire and to top his nearest competitor in the 144-player field, last year’s champion Greg Sigg of Augusta (73-69-68—210), by an five shots. Emmanuel Kountakis of Martinez (71-72-72—215) finished third in the field which was cut to the low 70 plus ties after the second round.

Joining Shim, Sigg, Kountakis and Waller in the top-10 were: Adam Wright of Marietta at even-par 216; Brandon Lee of Alpharetta, Harry Lambert of Suwanee and Christopher Guglielmo of Cumming at 1-over-par 215; Jack Larkin, Jr., of Atlanta at 2-over-par 218; and Jacob Joiner of Albany and Tyler Young of Kennesaw at 3-over-par 219.

Waller (72-72-73—217), who opened with back-to-back rounds of even par, started the final round in a two-way tie for 4th, while Harpe (74-74-78—226), who opened with back-to-back rounds of 2-over-par 74, started Wednesday’s round in a seven-way tie for 17th

The top-8 finishers of the Georgia Junior Championship automatically qualify for the Georgia-South Carolina Junior Challenge Match later this summer. Shim, Sigg, Kountakis, Wright, Lee, Lambert, Guglielmo and Waller made the Georgia team and will represent their state. Larkin Jr. and Joiner are the first and second alternates, respectively. With the win, Shim also receives an exemption into the Georgia Amateur Championship, which is set for Ansley Golf Club-Settindown Creek in Roswell, June 12-15.

Two other Griffin-area golfers, Parker Plageman (81-77—158) and Devin White (76-82—158) — who also played on the Spalding High golf team this past spring as did Harper and Waller — were also in the tournament. Neither, however, survived the cut, each shooting 14-over to miss the cut by three strokes.