Oklahoma blitzes Texas in Red River Team Championship
In one of the most dominant performances in the event’s history, the representatives of the Oklahoma Junior Golf Tour put on a show for their Texas Junior Golf Tour counterparts, winning the Red River Team Championship 32.5 to 15.5 after two rounds of play Saturday-Sunday at Dornick Hills Country Club in Ardmore.
“It was really our girls who set the tone, they just played phenomenally,” said Jay Doudican of the Oklahoma Golf Association. “And then the boys just took over.”
The scoring reflected in the link above is for the two rounds of individual play, but the team scoring is kept by pairing two Oklahoma boys or girls against two from Texas in best ball matches both days. The level of play can be astounding. Example, Ben Lathrop of Oklahoma City and Charlie Homsey of Overland Park, Kan., combined to shoot rounds of 62-66 and didn’t win either match, as both were halved.
Individually Juliana Hong of Norman finished atop the girls field with rounds of 74-70 with her high school teammate Harlow Gregory, battling an allergic reaction, taking fifth. Naomi Koontz of Newton, Kan., helped with a sixth-place finish, while Kate Dixon of Tulsa and Dia Singh of Bixby tied for seventh.
Lathrop tied for second individually in the boys division at 1-under with Ainslie Stanford III of Edmond, Jacob Newsom of Tulsa and Daniel Trousdale of The Woodlands, Tex. The low score of 2-under was posted by Daxton Galyean of Fort Worth (69-69).
Doudican, a long-time musician who got out his guitar and played and sang to the Oklahoma team at a Friday night rally, said the camaraderie and spirit among the Oklahoma squad was infectious and helped lead to the lopsided competition.
“I think everyone had a great time and they all just played great,” Doudican said. “We got really lucky with the weather and were able to play without delays and Dornick Hills was in phenomenal shape.”