Around the Green

Jimmy Demaret Junior Classic Set for Feb. 1-2

AUSTIN – The Jimmy Demaret Junior Classic will be played at Lakeway Country Club’s Live Oak Course for the second time in its 13-year history.    
 
“We take tremendous pride in being involved in growing junior golf,” Lakeway Country Club Head Golf Professional Keith Rader said. “It’s an honor to have the best players in the state coming here to challenge their games on our course.”
 
The event is named after one of Texas’ golf legends, Jimmy Demaret, who won three Masters Tournaments and 31 PGA Tour events in a career that spanned from 1935-57. He became the first three-time Masters champion after his victory in 1950 and was elected into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1983. The inaugural event was held at Onion Creek Club in 2008.

Scheduled for 36 holes of individual stroke play, the Jimmy Demaret Junior Classic features 84 golfers playing in three different divisions: Boys 15-18, Boys 14 & Under and the Girls 12-18. This is the second event of the 2020 season following the Winter Classic held at Dallas Athletic Club on Jan. 18-19.

This year’s field includes the Girls Division defending champion, Maddi Olson of Abilene. The 2020 Southern Methodist University commit will look to win her third consecutive Jimmy Demaret Junior Classic and fifth LJT title. Houston’s Zoe Slaughter highlights this year’s Girls Division as well. She is currently 68th in the Junior Golf Scoreboard Rankings and recently signed her National Letter of Intent to the University of Houston.

In the Boys 15-18 Division, Ben Delarosa of Dallas will look to win his first LJT event in the older division. He won the 93rd Boys 14 & Under Texas Junior Amateur last year at The Clubs of Kingwood. Last week’s Winter Classic Champion, Trenton Mierl of Austin, and the 2019 Boys 14 & Under Player of the Year, Grant Yerger of Driftwood, highlight the Boys 14 & Under Division. Mierl and Yerger will both look to add another LJT title to their decorated junior golf careers.

Last year, Fredericksburg’s Truett Burns won the Boys 15-18 Division on the second sudden-death playoff hole over Drew Murdoch and Colin Slater. Abilene’s Maddi Olson defended her 2018 title in the Girls 12-18 Division with rounds of 72-76, while Driftwood’s Grant Yerger won the Boys 14 & Under Division for his first of two LJT titles last season.

Other past champions of the Jimmy Demaret Junior Classic include Cooper Dossey, Philip Barbaree, Cole Hammer, Annika Clark, Maddie Szeryk, Tayler Termeer, Mac Meissner, Macy Fox and Libby Thomas.

Lakeway Country Club’s Live Oak Course originally opened in 1965 and was designed by Leon Howard. The par-72 layout runs along Lake Travis and features dramatic elevation changes.

Tee times begin Saturday at 8 a.m.; the final round takes place on Sunday, Feb. 2.

For more information about the Jimmy Demaret Junior Classic, click here.