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. “We’ve run tournaments around here since 1992; most golfers know or have been in our ‘Little Linksters’ tournaments. But we wanted to do more and we have a great slate of courses lined up. …

“We would like to get it to the point where these are premier events and players qualify into them, but now we’re just getting this off the ground. We don’t want to have 100 to 200 players in a tournament; we’d prefer 70 to 80, something small enough that golfers get plenty of attention and it’s competitive.”

Only four golfers broke 40 on any nine-hole stretch at Houston Country Club in sweltering temperatures that soared into the upper 90s. The heat index topped 100 degrees.

“That didn’t bother me. This was a perfect day for golf,” said Patrick Bailey, a freshman-to-be at Episcopal who shot 7-over par 79 to win the Boys 14-15 bracket. “Today was probably the best score for a front nine I’ve ever had (37). I couldn’t have asked for a better day.”

Boys 16-18 winner Preston Moore, a junior-to-be at Kinkaid, shot 79 on the day, including 39 on the front nine. The other two to shoot less than 40 were in his bracket; runner-up Ryan Lyons of Spring and Chris Winters of Houston both shot 39 on the front.

Lyons finished at 11-over 83 and Winters shot 13-over 85.

Moore won despite not making any birdies.

“I missed about a six-footer for birdie at No. 11 and I got a good par on No. 17,” a 540-yard hole, Moore said. “The greens played very well. It was pretty good competition.”

Thomas Roberson of Sugar Land shot 85 to win Boys 12-13.

Cayla Schaner, the lone competitor in Girls 15-18 after Brandi McDonald of Silsbee withdrew, shot 102.

Laken Trahan of The Woodlands shot 92 to edge Memorial High School’s Kathleen Wahl by eight shots in Girls 12-14.

Monday’s complete scores are listed below.

The Titleist Junior Tour’s next event is June 23 at Woodlands Country Club. Subsequent events will take place at, among other courses, Redstone Golf Club in Humble and The Club at Falcon Point in Katy. The deadline to enter the Woodlands tournament is noon Thursday.

“I’ve played a few HGA events but these are the best-run tournaments I’ve been in,” Bailey said. “I had a great time.”
***
Southern Texas PGA Titleist Junior Tour
at Houston Country Club

Boys 16-18: Preston Moore (Houston) 79, Ryan Lyons (Spring) 83, Brandon Belcher (Spring) 84, Chris Winters (Houston) 85, Shehzad Hafiz (The Woodlands) 86, Nick Ramsey (Houston) 87, Cody Baker (Sugar Land) 91, Craig Johnson (Katy) 92.

Boys 14-15: Patrick Bailey (Houston) 79, Colby Casey (Alvin) 84, Justin Jeggle (Magnolia) 84, Rick Pfeffer (Houston) 84, Ricardo Del Rio (San Antonio) 88, Zachary Jackson (Houston) 88, Blaine Ray (Spring) 90, Keller Towns (Houston) 91, Andrew Winters (Houston) 91, Caulin Cragle (Bellaire) 92, Peter Stephens (Houston) 92, Victor Rodela (Corpus Christi) 102, Wayne Tibbitts (Humble) 103, Cody Tibbitts (Humble) 116.

Girls 15-18: Cayla Schaner (Sugar Land) 102.

Boys 12-13: Thomas Roberson (Sugar Land) 85, David Schack (The Woodlands) 86, Max Salinas (Katy) 117.

Girls 12-14: Laken Trahan (The Woodlands) 92, Kathleen Wahl (Houston) 100.

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