Smith, Green ready to represent Utah / Logan CC to host
By BRADY BINGHAM
Standard-Examiner staff
LOGAN — They only get this chance once every 18 years.
So for two Top of Utah golfers — along with two more Utah junior players — earning a spot in next week’s Girls Junior America’s Cup is a tremendous honor.
The annual event, in which 18 teams from multiple western states, Canada and Mexico form four-person squads to compete in a 54-hole team tournament, will be held at Logan Golf and Country Club, July 28-30. It is only the second time in the 32-year history of the event that the tournament will be held in Utah.
Courtney Smith, the state 3-A championship runner-up out of Ogden High School, and Tara Green, the state 5-A champion from Weber High School, join Sirene Blair and Nicole Gaddie to form a solid Utah team prepared to take on top juniors from British Columbia, Mexico, Alberta, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Wyoming and California.
“There are great teams from all over, but I think this will be the best finish Utah has ever had,” said Utah team captain Toni Guest. “Whether we take first or not, I don’t know … it’s a very competitive tournament. But I think we will do very well.
“We have four girls that are outstanding. We are very excited.”
“We are going to do awesome. We have the best team this year,” said Green during a practice round at Logan Golf and Country Club on Monday. “I have been waiting to play in this tournament for a couple of years, so I am very excited.”
Green recently returned from San Diego after playing in the Callaway Junior World Championships at Torrey Pines Golf Course. Many of the same players competing at Junior Worlds have made the trip to play in the Girls Junior America’s Cup.
“We have four great girls … we are going to rock!” Green said with a big smile, excited to play in a team format. “Courtney is so bubbly, she is really going to make it fun.”
Smith, who played in the first round of the Utah Women’s State Amateur Monday morning at Thanksgiving Point, was also excited to play in the team format in which the top three of the four scores are tabulated.
“I have never been to a national team event like this; I am so excited,” Smith said. “It will be really fun to play together instead of against each other.
“It’s exciting to be a part of the history. It’s a really great tournament,” Smith added.
Lorena Ochoa, the LPGA’s top-rated player, is a three-time champion of this event. Other former competitors in the Girls Junior America’s Cup include six-time LPGA winner and Solheim Cup competitor Pat Hurst and LPGA star and fellow Solheim Cup competitor Natalie Gulbis.
“My first Junior America’s Cup was in New Mexico. (LPGA hall of famer) Kathy Whitworth spoke and I remember the whole experience,” said Gulbis. “It was the first time I met Lorena Ochoa. She and her teammates were doing the Macarena and taught us the dance.
“It was a big confidence boost because it meant I was one of the best players in the state and I got to compare my game against the other really good junior players,” Gulbis added.
“We have all worked hard to earn a spot on the team,” Smith said. “It’s a nice honor.”
The last time the Girls Junior America’s Cup was played in Utah was in 1991 at Ogden Golf and Country Club.
Utah State Women’s Amateur
Girls Junior America’s Cup team member Sirene Blair, just 14 years old, shot a 2-under-par 70 at Thanksgiving Point to take a first-round lead at the Utah State Women’s Amateur.
Blair leads by two strokes over Annika Afoa and Sue Nyhus. Julie McMullin, Lachelle Poffenberger and Natalie Stone were another shot back at 73.
The second round begins today at 7:30 a.m.
U.S. Junior Amateur
Farr West resident and Fremont High School star Patrick Fishburn is in the thick of things after Monday’s first round of the U.S. Junior Amateur.
Columbia’s Juan Luna posted a bogey-free 6-under-par 66 to take the early lead, while Fishburn was among a group of 28 players that shot under par at the Trump National course in Bedminster, N.J.
Fishburn fired a 2-under-par 70 and is currently tied for 13th place.
The cut for match play comes after today’s second round. The low 64 scorers advance to Wednesday‘s opening matches.
