The Greater Pensacola Junior Golf Association’s annual summer tour is well underway, completing its third event on Tuesday at the Osceola Municipal Golf Course for the Pensacola City Championship.
Even with some top golfers graduating from high school last season, that’s not to say competition hasn’t been fierce on the course. The summer tour has seen three different golfers win the Boys Open division, while there have been two winners with one repeat for the Girls Open division.
“All the golfers have shown lots of progress from last year to this year, even within the first three weeks,” GPJGA Tournament Director Ty Aulger said after the event on Tuesday. “Especially in our area, it doesn’t always get looked at as great golf. Just based on the scores, coming in at under par or even par, it’s amazing what these kids shoot around here. They should get the recognition the big schools are getting. …
“We’ve had some graduate and move on, or they’re just not playing for whatever reason. And we’ve had other golfers grow into their game who are better than last year, and they’ve taken the reins of the summer program.”
The summer tour has just two more weekly events before the annual Divot Derby. Golfers will take to the links next week at A.C. Read Golf Course in the Blue Angel Classic, before going to Scenic Hills Country Club for the Southern Juniors.
The Divot Derby is slated for July 15-17, and will be played at Marcus Pointe golf Club on the first day, Perdido Bay Golf Club on the second and and Lost Key Golf Club on the final day, where tournament champions will be determined.
Last year, Pace’s Braden Duvall and Gulf Breeze’s Holland Davidson claimed the Divot Derby championships. Holland is now playing at the University of West Florida, which means there will be a new Divot Derby champion for the girls’ side.
Duvall, who will compete at Southern Miss this fall, could potentially return for the tournament.
“Some golfers have mentioned about coming back for the Divot Derby,” Aulger said. “It’ll be a really competitive tournament if they do, because you’ve got a lot of players who can shoot under par – on both the girls and boys side.”
Tate’s Baylor Touchstone, Northview’s Anna Kunkel win Pensacola City Championship
Baylor Touchstone, who golfs for Tate, won his first event of the summer on Tuesday with a two-round total of 146 (74, 72), just sneaking by Wyatt Hart (Pensacola Catholic) and Sammy Tucker (Booker T. Washington).
Touchstone was the area’s only golfer competing at state individually in Class 3A – Pace made it to state as an at-large team bid – and said the it’s good to capitalize and hone in his game over the summer, leading into the high school golf season.
“It’s really important to stay hot. The summer is just like a practice for high school,” Touchstone said. “We didn’t do that good at state, but I can redeem myself. It’s all I’m worried about.”
With windy conditions on Tuesday at Osceola, Touchstone said he had to get a “little creative” with certain shots, but thought his short game was working well.
Touchstone holed a couple birdies on the par-4 11th and par-5 15th on the back nine on Tuesday to secure the four-stroke victory over Hart.
“It feels great,” Touchstone said of the win. “I got pneumonia a couple weeks ago, so it feels good to be back and playing well.”
On the girls side, Anna Kunkel won her second summer tour event. She won the Pensacola City Championship with a two-day score 148 (73, 75), storming by the rest of the field with a 23-stroke victory.
Kunkel tallied a birdie on the back nine on Tuesday. But it was Monday where she made up some ground, recording one birdie on both the front nine and back nine, with an eagle on the par-5 fifth hole.
Rounding out the top three were Michelle Burt (Gulf Breeze) and Riley Bounds (Gulf Breeze).
“It felt really good to win,” Kunkel said. “I tried my best today and got the win.”
Kunkel noted her driver was important on Tuesday, helping pierce through the windy conditions. It’s been a focus while training, Kunkel said, and that helped her “play her best” during the tournament.
Kunkel previously won the summer tour’s first event at The Sugar Sands Showdown at The Club at Hidden Creek with a two-round score of 141, narrowly beating West Florida’s Abby Vernier by one stroke.
Kunkel led Northview to a second-place finish at the District 1-1A tournament last year, posting a two-under 69 in the tournament, before leading the Chiefs to a seventh-place finish at the Region 1-1A tournament, where she shot a 78.
“I just want to go out there and try to play to the best of my ability leading into the fall,” Kunkel said. “Especially playing with other very competitive golfers, that just helps me to play to my potential too.”
“I think the summer helps capitalize on their fall season in prep golf,” Aulger said. “This isn’t their big time of the year – they’d much rather play their best golf in the fall – but this helps them lead up to their next season.”
Ben Grieco is a sports reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. He can be reached on X (@BenGriecoSports) and via email at BGrieco@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: GPJGA’s Pensacola City Championship won by Tate’s Touchstone, Northview’s Kunkel
Read the full article here