CAGT Tees It Up This Weekend

A real shoot-out is in the making for this week’s SERVPRO Capital Area Junior Golf Tour event at Westfields Golf Club in Clifton, Virginia.

Several of the area’s top high school golfers, as well as other top junior players from Virginia, Maryland and Washington, DC will play in this weekend’s “Virginia Junior” sponsored by the VI Transportation Company. This Nationally-Ranked tournament will be the first event of the spring for the SERVPRO CAGT.

The boys 16-18 division includes the tour’s number three points leader in the division, Tyler Reid (Hayfield High School) as well as Matthew Spooner (West Springfield). In addition, two strong players who are CAGT newcomers, Nikos Pavlis (McLean) and Chris Song (Centreville) will be in the field.

Song won an impressive victory at last week’s International Junior Golf Tour (IJGT) event, also held at Westfields. Zach Millard (Oakton) and Telvin Walker (Washington, DC) are also expected to compete in the 16-18 division.

In the girls division, three young ladies who have all played in their State’s High School Girls Golf Chamionships will lead the field. CAGT girls points leader Nicole Feaster (Heritage High) and Juhee Bae (Chantilly) will compete, as will Katie Liebeck (West Potomac).

Liebeck will be making her first CAGT appearance, as will Bae. Like Song, Bae won her division at last week’s IJGT event. Bae also finished second at the 2010 VHSL Girls Golf Championships and previously won the American Junior Golf Association’s (AJGA) qualifiying event at River Creek Country Club in Loudoun County.  You can read more about the IJGT event, here and here.

Feaster, who won the 11-team Cheers Open — also held in Loudoun County, is also a winner of ESPN’s “Rise Above Student Athlete Award” for her courage in fighting off a debilitating injury in order to become one of the top female junior golfers in Virginia.

In the boys 10-12 group, six of the top fifteen CAGT point leaders will be in action, including four of whom qualified for last year’s CAGT tour championship. The field is lead by Graham Hutchinson (Bethesda, MD) and currently second in points for this division. And, the 12th through 15th place division points leaders — all of whom qualified for last year’s tour championship –will be jockying for position. They are Isaiah Boucher (Orange, VA) and Jake Miles (Spotsylvania, VA) as well as Ian Buchanan (Charlottesville, VA) and Phillip Andrukonis (Annandale, VA), respectively.

Kurtis Grant (Herndon, VA) currently 7th in the age 10-12 points standings, will also be in the field, as will CAGT newcomers Jonah Covitz (Washington, DC) and Pieter DeGrott (Potomac, MD). David Ross (Alexandria, VA) returns to CAGT action to round out this field.

Finally, the Boys 13-15 division will be the largest for the event and features several prominent juniors. Buzz Ganow (Battlefield High School) is currently 4th in this age group and will play in the event. Ganow was the first CAGT player to ever score a hole-in-one during a CAGT tournament when he aced the par-3, 8th hole at Augustine Golf Club in Stafford, VA back in 2009 — the first of 7 holes-in-one scored during CAGT’s inaugural season!

All told, nine of the top 30 players in the division will compete in the event including Drew Mueller (John Paul the Great) and Evan Santa (Edgewater, MD), who finished 3rd in the boys 10-12 division at the 2010 CAGT finals at Old South Country Club, as well as James Collins (Potomac Falls), Emmett Helmes (Langley), and John McGuinness (Oakton).

Also in the field will be Adrian Stewart (Bowie, MD) who captained the Bowie High School team as a Freshman last year and was recently selected to win the African American Golfers Hall of Fame’s “Youth Golfer of the Year Award.”

Kurt Funkhowser (Potomac Falls) and Robbie Yosaitis (Great Falls) currently sit 22nd and 18th in the points standings, respectively — and will both be in action as will Tyler Spears (Lee High School) who qualified for the Northern Region High School Golf Tournament as an individual during his Freshman campaign at Lee High of Virginia.

By far the player traveling the greatest distance to compete will be Jack Sheehan of Suffern High School.  Sheehan is making the trip from Suffern, NY.  This will be his first CAGT action in the 2010-2011 season after he qualified for, and competed in, CAGT’s 2009-2010 finals.

CAGT newcomers Mark Porter (Burke, VA) Demitri Keopradit (Springfield, VA) and Shaan Kololgi (Centreville, VA) round out the field.

Tee times for the VI Transportation’s Virgina Junior are scheduled to begin at 12:18 pm both Saturday and Sunday.

The tour is Sponsored by SERVPRO of Loudoun County. More information about this tournament, and the SERVPRO Junior Golf Tour, are available at www.cagt.org.