Area tournament schedules quickly filling up

Published 8:23 pm Sunday, January 7, 2018

Even though it is a little early, area tournament golf will begin the middle of the month.

It’s junior golf tournament play and will tee off Jan. 20 at Frasch Park in Sulphur.

The Texas-Louisiana junior tour has a four-tournament schedule that will include two events in our area and two in Texas.

The Frasch Park tournament heads off the slate and on Feb. 3 The National in Westlake will host an event. The other two are scheduled for Texas, Jan. 27 at the Henry Homberg Golf Course in Beaumont and Feb. 10 at the Babe Zaharis Golf Course in Port Arthur.

Junior golfers who wish to play in the events can go to www.bluegolf.com to sign up. They can also search Texas-Louisiana junior golf for more information.

Ben Suarez, who is the assistant coach for the area’s junior golf travel team, said he expected all members of the local squad to take part in the tournaments.

He added that at the end of the tournament play, one event will be played pitting the Louisiana players against Texas players.

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Frasch Park pro George McInnis has come up with discounts for junior golfers who want to play his course.

For the four days that students will be out of school — Jan. 15 and Feb. 12-14 — he’s offering a $5 green fee.

He also kicked off golf lessons at a reduced rate the first Saturday of three straight months. It began yesterday and the class in February will be for women and then in March for junior players.

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Dates have come up for this year’s city golf tournaments in Lake Charles, Westlake and Sulphur.

Pro Derek Smith said the dates for the Lake Charles city tournament at Mallard Cove are set for June 22-24.

Dates for the other two are tentative.

Westlake has its city dates at The National penciled in for April 27-29 and Sulphur has scheduled its city event at Frasch Park to run Oct. l3-14.

Last year Matt Nicholas won two of the events (Westlake and Sulphur) while Gage Primeaux took the Lake Charles crown.

In winning his two city titles, Nicholas became the all-time winningest city champion in the area with 10 to his credit.

Neithan Allen is the lone player to have won all three city titles in one calendar year, accomplishing that feat in 2013.

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The recent cold spurt that put ice on some greens had local courses closed down for several days. Most were opened up by Thursday, the Lake Charles Country Club was the last one to allow play on Friday.

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Louis Bonnette has written about local golf for the American Press since 1971. His column appears each Sunday. Contact him at 274-5689 or lbonnette@mcneese.edu