Junior golf championship is back

Golfers, are you ready for a Challenge? The SouthtownStar Challenge Junior Golf Championship, that is.

The 23rd edition of the Challenge, held at Glenwoodie Golf Course since its inception in 1989, is scheduled for Tuesday, June 14.

The entry fee remains $30, the lowest fee for a junior tournament in the Chicago area. Players not only get to play, but get lunch, a towel and a bag tag.

Best of all, they get to compete under USGA rules in a competition that has grown from a 60-person affair of three divisions in 1989 to a 156-player field featuring four divisions, two each for boys and girls.

Three of last year's winners are eligible to defend their championships. Only Keith Haines, who captured the Boys 16 to 18 Division in a sudden-death playoff in 2010, no longer is eligible. He's turned 19.

But Mokena's Bryant Bolden can come back and go for an unprecedented three-peat in the Boys 13 to 15 Division. Likewise, Flossmoor's Elizabeth Hassett can aim to repeat in the Girls 16 to 18 Division, and Mokena's Kelly Sterling is eligible to add a second title to her 2010 crown in the Girls 13 to 15 Division.

While most junior tournaments today require either joining a league or a group, the Challenge is open to all from age 13 to 18, and anyone from a beginner to a tournament-tested veteran can play. Players are grouped with players of similar ability.

Glenwoodie provides a solid test. The course isn't overly long - the boys play it at 6,423 yards, the girls at 5,167 - but the second shot is the key, and much depends on where the hole is cut on the big, sloping greens that are Glenwoodie's trademark.

Those greens have hardly been changed since Harry Collis and Jack Daray designed the course in 1922. A 1978 revision by Joe Lee while the course was under the management of Jemsek Golf added a new 11th tee and repositioned some bunkers, but the hills and valleys on the greens were largely undisturbed.

The hilly back nine also features a creek coming into play on several holes, including the par-4 16th, where the second shot must clear the gully in which the creek lies and then stay on a green that slopes severely from back to front. Several Challenges have been won and lost on the 16th hole.

Entries are now open. The deadline is May 31. The best advice to those wondering how soon they should enter: Do it now. In years when the Challenge fills up, it fills up quickly.

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