Southern Texas, home of largest PGA junior golf program, hosts championship
HOUSTON - The Houston-Area Chevy Dealer STPGA Junior Championship is underway at The Woodlands Country Club – The Palmer Course.
250 golfers between the ages of six and 18 have been playing in STPGA events all summer hoping to earn enough points to make it to the championship.
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"So we have over 250 tournaments across Southern Texas in seven different metro areas," said STPGA Executive Director Thomas Hutton. "They all earn points locally, and then they qualify in this event through all the points they earned throughout the summer."
A total of 11 champions will be crowned on Wednesday from "Little Linksters" to "Junior Tour" age groups.
The young golfers play two nine-hole matches and the older groups play two 18-hole matches.
The Southern Texas PGA Section has the largest junior golf program out of all 41 PGA Sections in the country.
This year, 4,200 junior golfers will play in 500 tournaments in the STPGA Junior Golf program. These events, that happen all over Southern Texas, are open to all junior golfers.
"We are really cost affordable, said Hutton. "We are really proud of that. Over 90% of our tournaments are less than $70."
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This week, the best of the best from the summer season are hoping to win at The Palmer Course.
10-year-old Aubry Bennett of Magnolia, Texas accumulated the most points over the summer in her age division.
She played in dozens of local STPGA events over the past few months, and is now hoping to see her name on the top of the scoreboard Wednesday.
"So excited, and I am going to shoot for first," said Bennett.
Monday started off with a practice round and a carnival gathering for all participants. First rounds of the tournament got underway Tuesday.
Many of the high school golfers are hoping to play in college, and use these events as a way to gain more competitive experience outside their regular high school season.
Andrea Juarez is heading to her junior year of high school, and said she was very excited when she learned she made it to the championship.
"It was a pretty big moment when I got the email. I was really happy," said Juarez.
10-year-old Andrew Ayuso and his younger brother Blake are both playing in their age divisions and said they like the experience.
"I really like the competition. I like the people who play against me," said Andrew.
The STPGA junior events take place all year and is run through a 501C3 called PGA Reach Southern Texas.
"We have a college scholarship program where we award over $200,000 in college scholarships to men and women.," stated Hutton. "We have a veteran program called PGA Hope, which is a free program for veterans. And then we also have an employment pillar where we employ 15 to 20 college age students throughout the year to administer all these events."
Many of the golfers who play in the STPGA Junior Golf events play in college and beyond. Most importantly, they are learning life-long lessons on the course.
"The skills that you can learn, the qualities of what golf stands for, in terms of honesty and integrity, but really meeting different people," said Hutton. "Golf opens up so many doors for so many people in their entire life and we just believe that getting kids involved at a young age is going to pay so much dividends to the industry, but also to them as individuals. "
You can learn more about the STPGA Junior Golf Program here and if you are new to golf aren’t sure where to begin, the STPFA has resources to help you get to the first tee.
You can view STPGA tournament scores here.