Thompson, Moore prevail at OGA Junior Championship

Complete results:

By Ken MacLeod

EDMOND – In a testament to the breadth of talent in Oklahoma junior golf, a somewhat unheralded duo were the last ones standing at the end of a  OGA Junior Boys and Girls Championship at KickingBird Golf Course that included rain delays, 36 holes of stroke play and four matches, some that went extra holes.

Whatever fatigue was felt by Grady Thompson of Edmond, he shrugged it off with four birdies in his final nine holes of a 4 and 3 championship match with John Helzer, also of Edmond.

On the girls side, Kate Moore of Tulsa went 21 holes to upend stroke play champion and No. 1 seed Juliana Hong of Norman in the semifinals, and had enough left in the tank to outlast Megan Kalapura of Tulsa 4 and 3 in the finals.

Thompson, a junior-to-be at Edmond Santa Fe and the son of Central Oklahoma men’s golf coach Derrick Thompson, showed he’s been learning quickly from dad, a finalist for Division II Coach of the Year.

Thompson won both the Stroke Play Championship at 6-under after rounds of 64-70 and kept the hot streak going throughout match play. In the morning semifinals he dispatched Banks Cozby of Tulsa, another talented golfer in the loaded class of 2027, going up by two holes at the turn after a spectacular birdie on the ninth hole and holding on for a two up victory as neither player could manage a birdie on the back nine.

Helzer, who is home schooled and plays for the Oklahoma Storm team that includes the state’s top-ranked juniors Chase Hughes and Emerson Majma, had surprisingly never met Thompson, though both often practice at KickingBird. He took out Class 6A state champion Jacob Newsom of Broken Arrow 2 up in the semifinals with two key birdies on the back nine on the par-5 12^th and the par-3 16^th while Newsom was making nine consecutive pars from holes 9-17.

Helzer made a bogey on the par-4 first hole of the finals match and though he tied the match on the fifth hole he promptly fell behind with  double bogey on the devilish par-3 sixth hole. Thompson stretched the lead to two holes when Helzer bogeyed the par-3 11^th after pulling his tee shot near a fence, then Thompson birdied 12, 13 and 15 to close it out with a florish.

“There was definitely some fatigue, but I just tried to play as free as I could and it helps that I know the golf course so well,” Thompson said. “I had to play about 100 holes this week but at the end it doesn’t matter, I started making everything at the end so that was great.”

He credited his father with being a great influence on his game and outlook.

“He’s taught me basically everything I know and is a great mentor,” Thompson said. “It’s great learning all the mental stuff and just everything he’s taught me. Winning the stroke play and the match play here was just awesome and hopefully put me on the map for some coaches out there.”

Moore, who will be a junior at Metro Christian in Tulsa, finished second to Beans Factor in the Class 3A state championship while Kalapura won the Class 4A state title for Holland Hall. Kalapura said she struggled in the final after an exhausting 1 up victory over Maggie Ruby of Stillwater in the semifinals. Moore kept her game together after the rousing win over Hong.

In that semifinal Moore fell behind by two holes early, but took command with three consecutive birdies on holes 11, 12 and 13 to go from two behind to one ahead. Hong tied it with a birdie on the par-5 15^th, then it was all pars for both until extra holes.

Hong left a 5-foot birdie putt just short on the second playoff hole, then Moore ended it with a tee shot on the par-3 third hole to about 5 feet above the hole and rolled in the birdie.

“Kate played great,” Hong said. “I had my chances but didn’t make the clutch putts.”

“It’s great to play against the level of players I faced here and prove to myself that I can be successful against that level of competition,” Moore said.

With the victories, Thompson and Moore earn automatic berths in the U.S Junior and U.S. Girls Junior respectively. The U.S. Junior is July 21-26 at Trinity Forest in Dallas and the U.S. Girls Junior is July 14-19 at the Atlanta Athletic Club.

In the boys 12-15 division, Christopher Crawford of Oklahoma City edged Tyler Robertson of Stillwater 3 and 2.

Photos by Jake Kinzer