Some of the juniors who participated in the 2017 U.S. Kids Golf Local Fall Tour, which completed its inaugural season on October 8 with the Local Tour Championship at Ravenwood Golf Club. Top finishers in the season-long points race eerned a trip to Pinehurst, NC, for the 2018 U.S. Kids Golf World Championship.
On Sunday, October 8, U.S. Kids Golf – a nationally-based organization promoting junior tournaments – concluded its inaugural U.S. Kids Golf Local Tour at Ravenwood Golf Club, following a 5-week, 6-event Fall Tour.
Open to boys and girls, ages 5 to 14, the U.S. Kids Golf Rochester Fall Tour provided opportunities to learn and play golf in age-appropriate competitions. Boys, ages 5 to 10 and Girls, ages 5 to 11, competed in 9-hole events each week, while Boys, 11 to 14 and Girls, 12 to 14, played 18 hole events each week.
Ravenwood hosted the Local Tour Championship, which determined the final standings for all six events in the series, in which juniors competed for points based on finish in each individual event. Other stops on the 2017 Local Fall Tour included Mill Creek Golf Club, The Golf Club at Blue Heron Hills, Eagle Vale Golf Club, Shadow Lake Country Club and Churchville Golf Course.
The top point winners in each age-based division at the conclusion of the Fall Tour earned a spot in the 2018 National U.S. Kids Golf World Championship next year in Pinehurst, North Carolina.
The Divisional flight winners for the 2017 Local Fall Tour included:
- Boys, ages 6 & under: Kyler Van Dorn (Victor)
- Boys, age 7: Massimo Riccio (Pittsford)
- Boys, age 9: Jason Starkweather (Rochester)
- Boys, age 10: Joshua Bradley (Rochester)
- Boys, age 11: Tomas Riccio (Pittsford)
- Boys, age 12: Ethan Provino (Mount Morris)
- Boys, age 13-14: Jack Berl (Victor)
- Girls, ages 7 & under:Delaney Abel (Corning)
- Girls, ages 8-9: Emily Zigrossi (Spencerport)
- Girls, ages 10-11: Jadyn Beach (Fairport)
- Girls, ages 12-14: Julia Zigrossi (Spencerport)
The U.S. Kids Golf Tour began in 2000 with a National Championship, which grew in popularity and eventually expanded into regional Tours throughout the country – but until this Fall, it had not been available in the Rochester area.
Thanks to the efforts of a handful of local parents (who had entered their children in other local tours), as well as the Rochester District Golf Association, which administered the 2017 Fall Tour, the U.S. Kids Golf Tour enjoyed a successful first year in Rochester, with between 35 and 40 junior golfers playing in each weekly event.
“Since we began with the U.S. Kids Golf World Championship in 2000, we’ve seen the program grow into local regional markets,” said Greg Hubbard, the National Director of U.S. Kids Golf Local Tours, who visited Ravenwood Sunday to watch the Tour Championship. “We had looked into other markets in New York State, but never found the right fit – Rochester has certainly proven itself to be a good match for U.S. Kids Golf.”
“We began with 75 Local Tours in regional markets across the country – and this year, we had 150 Local Tours,” Hubbard added. “That translates to 20,000 junior golfers in U.S. Kids Golf Local Tours who played more than 80,000 rounds this year alone.”
With the success of the 2017 Local Fall Tour in the Rochester area, plans are already under way to add a Local Tour in the Spring of 2018.
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