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. “The greens got harder so the ball ran a lot in a hurry. All of a sudden everything got different.”

Only two golfers broke 40 in any nine-hole stretch at Falcon Point, which had another edge on the players. Few if any greens were level, nor was the rest of the course, which sits on otherwise flat land.

“The greens are hard too. If you missed, you were done,” said Boys 16-18 champion Ryan Lyons, a Klein Collins junior who won for the second straight week. “You were making bogey or double-bogey.

“It makes you play less stupid. … If you’re hitting a long-iron; I laid up a couple times because I knew the ball wasn’t gonna hold. I was hitting a 5- or a 6-iron where I normally wouldn’t.”

Lyons shot 6-over par 78. No. 2 was the highlight of his day – he flew the green with an 8-iron on the par-3, then his downhill approach shot slid between six and eight feet to the left but he lipped it in.

“I basically went berserk after that,” said Lyons, who defeated Fulshear’s Sheldon Richardson by 11 shots. “I’ve got my game back. I’m not really scared of anybody. I just want to keep this birdie barrage going. I’m just starting to make pars; today I just tried to stay close and make those.”

Franco excelled on par-3s and finished at 18-over 90 in her first Titleist Junior Tour event.

Memorial High School sophomore P.J. Collier shot 78 to win Boys 14-15, besting Cody Hebert of Katy by four shots.

“The putts definitely got faster right around the 10th hole but that was the worst of it,” said Collier, a sophomore at Memorial who shot 80 to win a Junior Tour event last week at Lake Windcrest in Magnolia.

In Girls’ 12-14, Laken Trahan of The Woodlands captured her third victory of the summer, shooting 14-over 86 to edge teammate Diana Wohl by five shots. Trahan won the inaugural Titleist event June 16 at Houston Country Club and another at The Woodlands Country Club a week later. Her other finishes include one second and one third.

Both Trahan and Wohl will be sophomores at The Woodlands.

Ryan Bingham carded 13-over 85 to edge Sugar Land’s Taylor Roberson by one shot in Boys 12-13.
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Southern Texas PGA Titleist Junior Tour
at The Club at Falcon Point, Katy

Boys 16-18: Ryan Lyons (Spring), 78; Sheldon Richardson (Fulshear), 89; Tyler Mays (Sweeny), 93; Cody Baker (Sugar Land), 88; Brandon Belcher (Spring), withdrew.

Boys 14-15: P.J. Collier (Houston), 78; Cody Hebert (Katy), 82; Zachary Jackson (Houston), 86; Sam Harker (Bellaire) 87; Tanner Heidemann (Belleville) and T.J. McGrath (College Station), 88; Kirk Williams (Rockdale), 90; Garrett Gunter (Houston), 92; Justin Heuermann (Spring), 112; Chad Brandt (Spring), 117.

Girls 15-18: Emily Franco (Cypress), 90; Jordyn Dougal (Spring Woods), 100; Kelsey Haynie (Houston) and Cayla Schaner (Sugar Land), 109.

Boys 12-13: Ryan Bingham (Houston), 85; Taylor Roberson (Sugar Land), 86; Nate La Breche (Katy), 90; Coleman Fulcher (Houston), 107; Connor Schwartz (College Station), 114; Chad Brandt (Spring), 127.

Girls 12-14: Laken Trahan (The Woodlands), 86; Diana Wohl (The Woodlands), 91.

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