The SA Smith West Texas Junior Invitational returns to the Odessa Country Club Wednesday and Thursday.
What began as a 64-player field in 2017 has now evolved into a full, 120-player event that showcases some of the premier junior talent from the West Texas area.
Jake McCullough, head PGA Professional at the club and President of the Northern Texas Section of the PGA, conceived the event to provide more opportunities for area’s golfers to compete.
“The main goal of the event was to offer a larger, nicer event for kids in West Texas to play in. There’s plenty of one-day events, there’s just not many multi-day, bigger events,” McCullough said.
As an added bonus, the tournament will offer AJGA Performance Stars for the first time, which help golfers to qualify for some of the largest junior events in the nation.
The tournament also offers exemptions for its winners of the 13-18 age groups into the 96th Texas Junior Amateur and the Ben Hogan Junior Cup.
In order to take home the trophy and its perks however, competitors will have to overcome the many challenges posed by the course.
“The biggest thing about the old course is the green complexes,” said McCullough.
The bent-grass greens feature a wide variety of undulations and slopes, and their steep edges threaten to punish shots that stray too far from the center of the green.
Add in the tree-lined fairways and potential for West Texas wind, and you’ve got quite the challenge on hand for players in the field.
The par-72 course is in peak condition for the players despite less than ideal weather in the area.
“I’ll tell you what, with the conditions we’ve had as far as the drought that we’ve been in, it really shows the talent of our golf course superintendents when they basically have nothing to work with and they’re able to put out a product like what we have right now,” said McCullough.
The first round of the 2022 SA Smith West Texas Junior Invitational tees off at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday with 18 holes, followed by the final round on Thursday.
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