BRASELTON, Ga. — Boys Division defending champion Henry Do of Ypsilanti will highlight the 96-player field for the 27th annual Randy Wise Junior Open, the American Junior Golf Association announced Tuesday. In all, 45 junior golfers, ages 12-18, from Michigan will compete at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club, Aug. 22-25.
Since notching his first AJGA victory at this event in 2010, Do has risen to No. 30 in the Polo Golf Rankings behind the strength of two top-five showings in 2011. He finished T2 at the Rolex Tournament of Champions, and then finished T4 a week later at the Coca-Cola Junior Championship at Boyne Highlands. The rising junior at Greenhills School also represented the East Team at the 2011 Wyndham Cup.
Beau Titsworth of Avon Lake, Ohio, will be one of Do’s top challengers. At No. 68 in the Polo Golf Rankings, Titsworth has seven career AJGA top-10 finishes, including a fifth-place performance in this event last year. He has verbally committed to Oklahoma and won the 2011 Cleveland Junior Open.
Alexander Jones of Dewitt, Mich., has signed with Eastern Michigan and will make his first AJGA start of the season. Jones finished T5 at the 2011 MHSAA Division 2 State Finals and helped Dewitt claim its second-straight state championship.
In the Girls Division, two of the top finishers from 2010 will return with hopes of securing a victory. Talia Campbell of Dallas will compete in the event for the third straight year, after finishing sixth in 2010 (held at Warwick Hills) and winning in 2009 (held at Flint Elks Lodge 222 Golf Club). Campbell is No. 28 in the Polo Golf Rankings and advanced to the quarterfinals at the 2011 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship.
Lauren Grogan of Columbus, Ohio, will compete near her future school, as she has signed a National Letter of Intent with the University of Michigan. Grogan has top-10 finishes in six of her last seven AJGA starts, including a T3 finish at the 2010 Randy Wise Junior Open. Her 2011 campaign includes a runner-up showing at the Columbus Junior presented by the Memorial Tournament.
In all, eight girls from Michigan will compete, including Macy Hudson of Bloomfield Hills, Emma Salata of Ann Arbor and Sarah Dilts of Birmingham.
Since the event began in 1985, champions of the Randy Wise Junior Open have gone on to succeed at the collegiate and professional levels. Phil Mickelson earned back-to-back titles in 1987-1988, while Paula Creamer (2001, 2002) and Morgan Pressel (2003) also won during their junior careers.
The tournament practice round will be held Monday, Aug. 22, while tournament rounds will be played Tuesday, Aug. 23, through Thursday, Aug. 25. Tournament tee times will run from 7:30 a.m. – 12:40 p.m. off the No. 1 tee at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club. Guests are welcome to attend and admission is free.
Prior to the event, an 18-hole TaylorMade-adidas Golf Qualifier will be held Sunday, Aug. 21, at The Jewel of Grand Blanc’s Diamond Course. TaylorMade-adidas Golf Qualifiers give juniors an opportunity to “play their way in” to coinciding AJGA Open tournaments or earn a Tournament Exemption or Performance Star for a future event. The TaylorMade-adidas Golf Qualifier Series offers opportunities for AJGA juniors at approximately 50 AJGA Open events.
The American Junior Golf Association is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the overall growth and development of young men and women who aspire to earn college golf scholarships through competitive junior golf. The AJGA provides valuable exposure for college golf scholarships, and has an annual junior membership (boys and girls ages 12-18) of approximately 5,000 junior golfers from 49 states and more than 40 countries. To ensure scholarship opportunities for all junior golfers who have the skill, the AJGA created the Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE) Grant program to provide financial assistance to young players in need.
Titleist, the AJGA’s National Sponsor, has been the catalyst and driving force behind the Association’s success since 1989. Rolex, which is in its third decade of AJGA support, became the inaugural AJGA Premier Partner in 2004. In 2007, after 12 years of support, Polo Ralph Lauren became the AJGA’s second Premier Partner.
AJGA alumni have risen to the top of amateur, collegiate and professional golf. Former AJGA juniors have compiled more than 500 victories on the PGA and LPGA Tours. AJGA alumni include Stewart Cink, Matt Kuchar, Hunter Mahan, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Paula Creamer, Cristie Kerr, Inbee Park and Morgan Pressel.
For more information, please contact Chris Richards ([email protected]) in the AJGA Communications Department at (678) 425-1789, or visit ajga.org.
