Prior to the Pros

AUSTIN, Tex. – The champion’s trophy for the first Western Junior played in Texas will stay in Texas.

Zack Fischer defended the state’s golf honor Friday, winning the 2009 Western Junior Championship, presented by Callaway, at The University of Texas Golf Club in Austin.

Texan Wesley McClain fired a final round 3-under-par 69 to erase a two-shot deficit and capture a one-shot victory at the Heritage Junior Championship head on the South Course at Berkeley Hall. In the Girls Division, Haley Stephens of Greer, S.C., held off an early charge from her pursuers and carded a 3-under-par 69 en route to a five-shot win.

Conducted by the American Junior Golf Association, the Heritage Junior Championship was a 54-hole stroke play event. The tournament field consisted of 58 boys and 21 girls, ages 14 to 18 from 14 states, Canada and Argentina. The Boys Division played the par-72 layout at 7,056 yards, while the Girls Division played the course at 6,226 yards. 

AUSTIN, Texas - The world's top junior golfers will challenge the University of Texas Golf Club this week when the Western Junior Championship is held on the Roy Bechtol-designed track, marking the first time the country's oldest national junior tournament will be contested in the Lone Star State.

The 92nd Western Junior Championship will be held June 16-19. It is a 72-hole stroke play competition with 156 players from 40 states and a handful of foreign countries. The field will be cut to the low 70 and ties after 36 holes.

Spurred on by a tournament record-tying opening round 61, Penn State's Kevin Foley unseated two-time defending champion Rickie Fowler to take the 56th Sunnehanna Amateur in impressive fashion.

Foley recorded 11 birdies in the first round and never looked back. He found himself atop the leaderboard after each round, going wire-to-wire to claim his most prestigious victory to date.