Battle Creek All Stars hope regional at Indian Springs is first step to PGA Jr. League title

BROKEN ARROW – For the Broken Arrow All Stars, this weekend’s PGA Jr. League regional at The Club at Indian Springs is the first step toward a goal it feels it pretty much gave away in 2021.

Known as Team Oklahoma once it reached nationals, five players are back from the team that competed in he National Car Rental PGA Jr. League Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona in 2021, only to be knocked off in the semifinals by eventual champion Team Utah.

“They definitely feel we should have won it last year and that is certainly the goal this year,” said coach Amanda Fisher.

The first step is to get through this weekend’s regional, in which eight teams will be competing in the 13-and-under category from Kansas, Missouri and Illinois, along with two Oklahoma teams, the Battle Creek All Stars I and a second team of up-and-comers the Battle Creek All Stars II.

The first team returns Chase Hughes, Emerson Majma, Evyn Cannon, Porter Hart and Ainslie Stanford III from last year’s third-place squad. It has added Jacob Newsom of Tulsa, Christopher Crawford of Norman and Austin Anderson, who lives near the Texas-Oklahoma border.

“Christopher is a big kid who was 6-under by himself in one of the qualifiers when Evyn couldn’t make it,” Fisher said. “Jacob is a long hitter who plays out of Battle Creek. Austin is a lefty with a great short game.”

Most of the Oklahoma squad competed in August in the U.S. Kids Junior World Championships at Pinehurst, with Cannon finishing as the runnerup in Girls 12 and Hughes finishing ninth in Boys 12.

Nearly 200 teams of junior golfers ages 10-17 split between two age divisions will enjoy two fun and exciting days of competition at 12 Regionals taking place during the month of September. The 12 Regional host sites were announced Aug. 11.

At Regionals, 13u All-Star teams (boys and girls ages 10-13) will compete for one of 12 spots in the National Car Rental PGA Jr. League Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, Oct. 6-9, which will be broadcast live on select ESPN networks. The competing 17u All-Star teams (boys and girls ages 14-17) will conclude their Championship Season journey at the Regionals, where they will determine the age division’s champion.

The teams will compete in four two-person scrambles on Saturday, with the top four teams reaching the semifinals Sunday morning. The championship match will be at 2 p.m. Sunday.

The roster for the developmental Battle Creek team consists of Alex Yorman of Owasso, Brant  Ritzhaupt of Broken Arrow, Brayden Sterling of Edmond, Benjamin Tackett of Tulsa, Colton Stevens of Broken Arrow, Edwin Wacoche of Tahlequah, Jackson Lamb of Owasso and Wyatt Basford of Tuttle.

All-Star teams competing in the Indian Springs  Regional include:

13u Teams:

• Louis 1 13u All-Stars – Players competed with Forest Hills Country Club (Chesterfield, Mo.), St. Louis (Mo.) Country Club and Greenbriar Hills Country Club (Kirkwood, Mo.) during the recreational season.
• Eldon 13u All-Stars – All players competed with Eldon (Mo.) Golf Club as the facility hosted its own league during the recreational season.
• Hallbrook Hackers 13u All-Stars – All players competed with Hallbrook Country Club (Leawood, Kan.) as the facility hosted its own league during the recreational season.
• Battle Creek 1 13u All-Stars – All players competed with Battle Creek Golf Club (Broken Arrow, Okla.) as the facility hosted its own league during the recreational season.
• Battle Creek 2 13u All-Stars – All players competed with Battle Creek Golf Club (Broken Arrow, Okla.) as the facility hosted its own league during the recreational season.
• Christensen Golf Academy 13u All-Stars – All players competed with Christensen Golf Academy (Quincy, Ill.) as the facility hosted its own league during the recreational season.
• Carlyle Lake 13u All-Stars – All players competed with Carlyle (Ill.) Lake Golf Club as the facility hosted its own league during the recreational season.
• Oak Brook Orange 13u All-Stars – All players competed with Oak Brook Golf Club (Edwardsville, Ill.) as the facility hosted its own league during the recreational season.

17u Teams:

• Whitmoor 17u All-Stars – All players competed with Whitmoor Country Club (Weldon Spring, Mo.) as the facility hosted its own league during the recreational season.
• Courtney Mahon 1 17u All-Stars – All players competed with Courtney Mahon Golf at Falcon Ridge Golf Course (Lenexa, Kan.) as the facility hosted its own league during the recreational season.
• Cypress Creek Cyclones 17u All-Stars – All players competed with Cypress Creek at Greystone (Cabot, Ark.) as the facility hosted its own league during the recreational season.
• KCCC 17u All-Stars – All players competed with Kansas City Country Club (Mission Hills, Kan.) as the facility hosted its own league during the recreational season.

To date, 68,000 players are participating in the 2022 season, led by 2,200 PGA Coaches. Additionally, PGA REACH –– the PGA of America’s 501(c)(3) foundation –– has provided nearly 2,500 scholarships to players who qualified for financial assistance or were from a military family.