|
 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.
Past Western Junior winners include former University of Texas player Brad Elder (in 1994), Jim Furyk (1987), Bobby Clampett (1978), Gary Hallberg (1976) and Willie Wood (1979). Others who have played in the tournament include Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Fred Couples, Scott Hoch, Tom Lehman, Craig Stadler and Corey Pavin.
"It's a great, great tournament, and it's amazing that it's never been held in Texas," said Ben Crenshaw, an Austin native and Champions Tour professional. "It's about time, and now that it is, it's wonderful that it's here in Austin and at the University of Texas Golf Club."
The last two winners of the Western Junior are Texans - Dallas' Cody Gribble in 2007 and Houston's Cory Whitsett last year. Neither of the players is in the field this year.
Opened for play in 2003 and lengthened and renovated in 2007 to create just the setting for this and future tournaments, the UT Golf Club is located in the Texas Hill Country some 15 miles west of the University of Texas campus. The course - which will play at approximately 7,150 yards for this tournament - was designed by the Austin-based Bechtol in collaboration with former partner Randy Russell.
"It is an amazing honor to be the first club in Texas' rich history of more than 110 years of golf clubs to host the Western Junior," said Steve Termeer, the UT Golf Club's general manager and director of golf. "The Western Golf Association is a fabulous organization that specializes in the Evans' Scholar program and has three featured events: the Western Junior, the Western Amateur and the Western Open (now called the BMW Championship). They are one of the most professional organizations to deal with, and we look forward to showing off the facility."
The UT Golf Club overlooks Lake Austin and borders the Balcones Natural Wildlife Preserve, offering challenging shots and views that rival the best in Austin and offers a first-class experience uniting superior golf and club amenities with the triumphant traditions embedded in the spirit of The University of Texas, which has a long and distinguished group of heralded golf alumni, including Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw, Mark Brooks, Justin Leonard, Harrison Frazar and Omar Uresti. Bechtol worked with each of those players and many others to assure the UT Golf Club would be great.
Bechtol has long been part of the University of Texas family - he played baseball for the Longhorns and his father Hub was the only consensus four-time football All-America as a receiver in the late 1940s. He said that being associated with the building of the UT Golf Club and the University of Texas on such a high-profile project as "a dream come true."
"We designed this course to be a stern, but fair, test of golf for all levels of play, and with the fact that we will be able to host the Western Junior Championship is continued validation that most of the things we did at the UT Golf Club were right on target," Bechtol said. "The true mark of a great course is its playability from all its tees and we feel that is the case here. We are very proud of this course."
 Bechtol's work and the versatility of the course at The UT Golf Club are evident in the fact that the course can host the NCAA men's regional tournament one month (as it did in May) and this tournament the next.
"Now that the course is more than 7,400 yards from the back tees, we have so many options for set up based on current wind conditions," Termeer said. "We have really developed a feel for how each hole plays and which pin placements are most and least receptive.
"While the field of the NCAA regional was very strong, this junior field features kids from 40 states and nine countries and many of these players will be the NCAA student-athlete or professional golfer of tomorrow," Termeer added. "This is arguably the strongest junior field in the world."
|
