PGA

Area teams dominate qualifying for high school regional golf

Garry Smits
The King & Bear will be the site of the next North Florida Junior Tour event on Oct. 28-29. (File).

Three dozen boys and girls high school golf teams and another 43 who qualified as individuals will compete in six regionals tournaments on Monday and Tuesday, with spots in the state tournaments at stake.

Class 2A seems especially strong this year. In the boys Region 2-2A tournament on Monday at the Palencia Club, all nine teams that qualified from Districts 4, 5 and 6 are from the First Coast, with another eight individuals. In the girls 2-2A tournament on Tuesday at Blue Sky, eight teams from those districts qualified, with eight individuals.

Bartram Trail, which is playing in the Class 1-3A tournament at Golden Ocala on Tuesday, had the lowest district score of any area team at 2-under 285 at Blue Sky. Brett Schell led the Bears with a 68. Logan Jerrells and Chase Mackey both shot 69 for Creekside in that district.

Ponte Vedra shot 3-over 291 to win the District 6-2A tournament at Palm Harbor in Palm Coast, led by a 70 from Davis Lee. Ponte Vedra’s girls had the area’s low score in its district tournament at 311. The low individual girls scores in district tournaments were both by Atlantic Coast players as Ramya Meenkashiundaram and Amelia Root tied with 69s.

The other regional tournaments involving area teams, all on Tuesday, are the boys 2-1A at the University of Florida’s Mark Bostick Golf Course; the girls 2-1A at Fleming Island; and the girls 1-3A at Eglin Air Force Base in Niceville.

Junior Tour season begins

The North Florida Junior Tour began its 2017-2018 season with the annual junior member-guest tournament at Amelia National. There will be three dozen tournaments played for juniors from the ages of 7-18.

There will be 10 tournaments in the fall, beginning with the King and Bear Open Oct. 28-29 and the Hall of Fame Invitational at the Slammer & Squire Nov. 4-5. The fall schedule concludes with the Ponte Vedra Invitational, at the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club, Jan. 2-3.

Among the courses added for events are the Conservatory at Hammock Beach and Laurel Island Links. Tournaments also will be held at the TPC Sawgrass, San Jose and Marsh Landing.

For information on the the schedule and registration information, visit nfjg.org.

Schiavone on a roll

Chloe Schiavone of Jacksonville has finished third or higher in her last three events, the District 4-1A high school tournament at Bent Creek and two Florida Junior Tour events.

Schiavone shot 73 to win the high school tournament and lead Bolles to the district team title. She was second at the FJT’s tournament at the Ocala Golf Club, with rounds of 71-74 and was third at Falcon’s Fire with scores of 78-73. Schiavone is third on the girls 13-15 points list and seventh on the girls 18 and under player of the year points race.

Russell headed to Augusta

Miles Russell of Jacksonville Beach scored 128 points to win the boys 7-9 age group at the Drive, Chip and Putt regional finals last week at the TPC Sawgrass. Russell advances to the national DC&P at the Augusta National Golf Club on April 1, 2018.

Russell won the drive competition and tied for third in putting. He will joined 79 other age-group qualifies at the national finals, the Sunday before the Masters tournament begins.

Dream on

The Dream 18 tournament, which was postponed once because of Hurricane Irma, was finally played last week at the King & Bear, with more than $20,000 raised for St. Michaels Soldiers and the North Florida Junior Foundation.

The winning team was Duke Butler III, Duke Butler IV, Al Grant and Emily Tillo, who shot 58 in the two-best ball format.

Swain joins academy staff

Alana Swain, a member of an NCAA Division III national championship team at Methodist University, has joined the teaching staff at the PGA Tour Academy at the TPC Sawgrass. She had been a teaching professional at at the Atlantic Golf Club in New York and was a master instructor at the Jim McLean Golf School at Doral.

She was recognized by Golf Digest in 2016 as one of the top young instructors in the country.