Katy Taylor senior Kevin Vanden Heuvel signed a national letter of intent Friday morning to compete for Arkansas.   Pictured above are: Taylor principal David Kendler, assistant principal Pam Metcalfe, former golf coach Jack Soliman, assistant golf coach Cindy Lloyd, Pat Vanden Heuvel (Kevin's father), Lisa Vanden Heuvel (Kevin's mother) and his grandmother, Barbara Machesny.   If you have news and photos from a recent college signing, please submit them to the Athlete's Connection by e-mailing to dpurpura@athletesconnection.com.

      Check out our photos from Wednesday's 18th annual St.

  Memorial High School golfer Cory Whitsett has been named a Rolex Junior All-American first teamer for the second consecutive year. Whitsett, a three-time Rolex Junior All-American and defending 5A state champion, won the Western Junior and Rolex Tournament of Champions and finished in the top 10 five more times. Former Montgomery High School golfer Lisa McCloskey, now at Pepperdine, earned similar honors on the girls side. The complete news release may be found here.

  Conroe High School's J.T. Taylor shot even-par 144 and Memorial's Tyler Gann shot 146 for second-place in a two-day tournament hosted by The Woodlands Friday and Saturday at River Plantation Country Club. Kevin Vanden Heuvel of Katy Taylor shot 149 - 74 on the first day and 75 on the second - to take third-place.

  BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Memorial High School junior Cory Whitsett helped the United States make history Tuesday.   Whitsett defeated Matteo Manassero of Italy 6&5, and the United States Junior Ryder Cup Team cruised to a 22-2 victory at the 2008 Junior Ryder Cup at The Club at Olde Stone.   The Americans built on their opening-day success in the foursome and mixed four-ball matches, winning 11 of the 12 Tuesday singles matches and earning a halve in the final match.   Whitsett, who never trailed in his match with Manassero, birdied four of his first five holes en route to his singles victory. "We wanted to play like the matches were zero to zero and just go out their and win as many matches as possible," said Whitsett, the defending 5A state champion who was playing in his first Junior Ryder Cup.

  Jordan Rumora of Cy-Fair High School shot 70 to lead the Houston City Junior Golf Tournament after Saturday's first round at Redstone Golf Club in Humble. Albert Miner of Seven Lakes finished at 72, tied with Johnathan Chen of Sugar Land and Kevin Vanden Heuvel of Katy Taylor.   A trio of Cinco Ranch golfers played well.

  Katy Taylor senior Kevin Vanden Heuvel won the Texas Junior Golf Tour’s Invitational Houstonian on Tuesday afternoon, shooting six-under par 138 at The Houstonian. Vanden Heuvel played well the first day.

      Although she played through 90-degree heat and was not feeling well, Alyssa Pantle still put up one of her personal best days of playing golf.

    It’s the final weeks of the Houston Golf Association’s Junior Golf season, and the competition is heating up just like the July weather. Area golfers braved the 90-plus-degree weather at Sugar Creek Country Club in Sugar Land on Monday afternoon to try to improve their rankings with two weeks left. Clear Lake senior Gabrielle McNary won the girls Weekly Series with a score of 86, 14 strokes ahead of second-place Courtney Brooks.

  BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Cory Whitsett weathered the storms that halted play on Wednesday, but could not hold on to the one that whisked him away from repeating as U.S.

  BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — What already promised to be a grueling week at the U.S. Junior Amateur just got a little more so. Thunderstorms halted Tuesday’s second round of play at Shoal Creek, pushing the remainder of the second round of stroke play to 8 a.m.

  BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Memorial’s Cory Whitsett will have to work from behind if he wants to defend U.S.

      With only a month left in the summertime, high school golfers are getting their final strokes in the Houston Golf Association’s Junior Golf summer season. In the event Monday at the Houston National Golf Course, over 100 high school players from across the area played in the seventh week of Junior Golf play, trying to increase cumulative scores from all summer long to win the season-long tournament. Seven Lakes junior Charlie Peters took first in the boys 16-18 Weekly Series division, shooting a 3-over par 75 on a hot and humid course.

Perhaps the comparison Houston Golf Association Junior Golf Coordinator Bill Walker made of the HGA’s Match Play Championships to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament was more appropriate than even he realized.

  To say the ink used to write Kirby Kramer’s name wasn’t dried when she won the Houston Junior Golf-Performance Series event Tuesday at Memorial Park is a bit of a stretch. But because she was one of the last entrants in the event, the Langham Creek sophomore’s name was the only one written by hand. Using this two-day event as a warmup of sorts for a match play tournament the next three days at Memorial Park, Kramer shot 38 on the back nine to finish at 17-over par 161 and earn a one-shot victory over Emily Gilbreth of Bellaire in the Girls 13-15 bracket. “I was a little nervous coming in but I was excited,” said Kramer, who lost last week’s Performance Series tournament by a stroke.

  To twist a time-honored saying, Kevin Vanden Heuvel had to go a long way to do what for some reason he couldn’t achieve a short distance from home. After the second time the then-junior at Katy Taylor failed to qualify for the U.S.

    At least three of the five champions at Monday’s Titleist Junior Tour thought The Club at Falcon Point’s course actually became two courses by day’s end. The relative cool of the morning made the front nine more forgiving, then everyone’s schools of thought changed once afternoon heat made the back nine as soft as a baking sheet. “Very different,” said Girls 15-18 champion Emily Franco, a sophomore at Cypress Woods.

    If two lessons were taken from Monday’s Southern Texas PGA Titleist Junior Tour at Redstone Golf Club, they were: First, in a tournament featuring golfers from ages 12-18, the oldest players don’t necessarily shoot the best. Second, talent from the Golden Triangle is more than willing to take center stage in the big city. The best round and three of the top five scores came from the Boys 14-15 group, and two winners hailed from the Beaumont area at Redstone’s Member Course. Hayden Cortez, a sophomore-to-be at Beaumont Kelly, shot a day-best 3-over par 75.

  The Houston Golf Association’s summer Junior Golf season continued Monday afternoon with its third event at Cypresswood Golf Club in Spring.

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — Memorial High School junior Cory Whitsett added the 91st Western Junior title to his growing resume on Friday, coasting to a 2-under-par 68 to close out the 72-hole championship at 12-under-par 268, four strokes in front of Tyler McCumber and T.J.

    Greater Houston’s premier junior golfers have yet another option for summer tournaments. The Southern Texas PGA debuted its Titleist Junior Tour event Monday, drawing 28 golfers to steamy Houston Country Club for the first of seven tournament scheduled this summer. This was the second upper-tier junior golf series to debut in as many weeks. Last week, the Houston Junior Golf Association debuted its 10-event Performance Series, which is aimed to be a tournament into which its best players qualify annually. Such a scenario is the Southern Texas PGA’s eventual aim. “We wanted to do a nice event for junior golf,” said Mike Ray, Executive Director of the Southern Texas PGA.

        On the first day of his second semester last year, J.D.

  {mp3}080610-Top 10 Whitsett{/mp3} From Friday, May 9, 2008 AUSTIN – By his standards, Cory Whitsett came undone at the end of the 5A state golf tournament Friday. Typically reserved outwardly, Memorial’s sophomore phenom yelled “birdie!” as he sank a short putt on No.

    The first round of the Houston Golf Association’s junior golf season began Monday afternoon with tournaments all over the Houston area. Tournaments in west Houston, Montgomery and League City started the three-month schedule for boys and girls ages 13-18 in the area.

  RICHMOND, Texas - While most 16-year-olds are taking it easy in their first week of summer vacation, Memorial’s golfing whiz kid, Cory Whitsett, spent his first day of summer Monday trying to qualify for one of the PGA Tour’s marquee tournaments. Whitsett, the reigning U.S.

    AUSTIN – By his standards, Cory Whitsett came undone at the end of the 5A state golf tournament Friday. Typically reserved outwardly, Memorial’s sophomore phenom yelled “birdie!” as he sank a short putt on No.

  AUSTIN - Strake Jesuit's Nicko Dodd and Memorial's Cory Whitsett both shot 72 Thursday and are tied for second-place after one day of the 5A state boys golf championships at Jimmy Clay Golf Course.   Dodd and Whitsett are two shots behind leader Ryan Dagerman of Plano West.   Memorial shot 298 as a team and is fourth.

  AUSTIN - The Seven Lakes boys golf team improved its state placement by three from 2007 to 2008, but the Spartans drove home Tuesday believing they'd let a better finish get away.   Monday's best scorers faded for Tuesday's final round and vice-versa, and Seven Lakes finished fifth in the 4A state tournament at Jimmy Clay Golf Course.

  AUSTIN - Albert Miner and Janell Lysack each shot 73 and are in second-place in their respective state golf tournaments, and the Seven Lakes boys team is second after one day of the 4A state meet at Jimmy Clay Golf Course.   Miner and Lysack both shot 1-under 35 on the back nine holes, which for Miner was his front nine because the boys team teed off from No.

{mp3}080501-Golf{/mp3} Three stalwarts in the hole and barely any turnover on the heels of an eighth-place state finish had Seven Lakes golf coach Sean Ewing thinking big this year. Once a solid move-in added consistently low scores, the Spartans’ status atop the region was solidified. The team Ewing takes to Austin for the 4A state tournament Monday and Tuesday at Jimmy Clay Golf Course features at least seven golfers who average in the 70s and a squad that will graduate only one senior. Sophomore Trey Sullivan and juniors Albert Miner and Brian Swanson all average in the low- to mid-70s.

      MONT BELVIEU, Texas – Confidence didn’t melt into jitters when Strake Jesuit golf coach Larry Finke notified his charges that a nine-stroke turnaround had put them in first place in the final round of the Region III championships Thursday. It morphed into a palpable electricity that catapulted the Crusaders into their first UIL state tournament. Robert Mills shaved eight strokes from the first round to the second and Chris Lauinger improved by seven, sending Strake Jesuit to a three-shot victory against Memorial at Eagle Pointe Golf Club. Strake Jesuit finished at 604.

  St. Agnes’ girls and St. Thomas’ boys golf teams led local representation this week at the TAPPS state golf tournaments across Texas. Both teams placed third in 6A competition in San Antonio. Catherine Herrara led St.

      MONT BELVIEU, Texas – Cinco Ranch golf coach Rick Nordstrom huddled with two of his sophomores Tuesday afternoon shortly after the Region III championships ended. Nordstrom reassured them through tears that this year was a building experience as much as anything, but it didn’t erase the Cougars’ disappointment in losing a grip on a berth in the state tournament. Tied with Clear Lake for second-place after the first round, Cinco Ranch faltered Tuesday and finished fifth at Eagle Pointe Golf Club.

  The Fort Bend Clements boys golf team is poised to make another run for a state championship, and senior Blake Redmond is looking to defend his individual state title.

  No one was seeing double at Bear Creek Golf World on Wednesday. They were seeing quadruple. If anyone doubted the Memorial golf program's dominance in District 19-5A, but if they did those likely were laid to rest when the Mustangs 'A' and 'B' boys and girls team each took first- and second-place in that order at the district championships. It was the boys team's seventh straight district title and 18th straight for the girls dating to 1991, according to the program's official Web site. Memorial's B team edged Stratford in a one-hole playoff for second-place. Mustangs sophomore Cory Whitsett, the defending district champion who placed third at state last year, shot 4-over par 148 to earn medalist honors.

    Seemingly the only person not high on Cory Whitsett's sixth-place finish at the Houston Boys Invitational Monday was Whitsett himself. The Memorial High School sophomore stayed in contention to win the 54-hole American Junior Golf Association event most of the weekend, but fell back in the field by shooting 4-over par in the final round on a breezy but otherwise picture-perfect day at Redstone Golf Club in Humble. Whitsett, a three-time winner on the AJGA Tour, parred 10 holes Monday but bogeyed six more, including the final three to finish at 5-over par 221, seven shots behind winner Morgan Hoffmann. "It's good for people who don't want to win," said Whitsett, ranked No.

        The HGA Fall Open concluded Sunday with championship play at the Kingwood Country Club.

  The Houstonian Golf and Country Club hosted the Houstonian Invitational this week with competitive rounds beginning on Monday and finishing on Tuesday.

  The Texas Junior Golf Tour held it's Houston Kickoff Classic Monday and Tuesday at the Walden on Lake Conroe Country Club.

       As summer is winding down, the majority of summer athletics has concluded to allow athletes to start preparing for the school year.

    Week 9 of the HGA Junior Golf Tournaments teed off all over Greater Houston on Monday.

    The Ganders flew east on Saturday to take part in Robert E.

On Tuesday, the second annual Texas Legends Junior Tour, taking place at the Deerwood Country Club, finished off one of two tournaments to be held this week.

        The seventh annual Cinco Ranch Golf Tournament was held Monday at Falcon Point Country Club.

  Former Houston Oiler coach Ed Biles and the Greater Houston Football Coaches Association (GHFCA) teamed up for the First Annual Scholarship Golf Tournament Friday morning at Oakhurst Golf Club. Monies raised from the event will be used for scholarships for the children of GHFCA members.

        The Athlete's Connection caught up with Texas Christian University sophomore golfer Megan O'Donnell.

  *All proceeds towards Shriners Hospitals*   The Fifth Annual 2007 Bayou Bowl Celebrity Golf Tournament was held at the Goose Creek Country Club in Baytown on Friday.

      Sixty male golfers and 24 female golfers were present at Redstone Country Club in Humble, Texas, for the AJGA Fidelity Investments Junior Championships Tournament June 5-7.

    The 21st Annual Eric Heitmann Katy Tiger Golf Scramble Tournament teed off Thursday at the Weston Lakes Country Club.

          It was a long day for the Region III men’s golf teams who played from early Thursday morning to late in the evening.