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AJGA tournament moves North
Rain creates a course correction
By Dan Hiner
The recent weather nearly impacted Mill Creek Golf Course for the second time this season. However, Mill Creek will still host the Mahoning Valley Hospital Foundation American Junior Golf Association All-Star next week.
Rain over the past few days forced Mill Creek to move the event from the South course to the North course.
“It’ll give them the opportunity to play,” Mill Creek PGA director Brian Tolnar said. “It’s tournament ready. We got the golf course prepared.
“Our superintendent, assistant superintendent, myself, our two head professionals have been out marking it as we did the South course last week. It was a scramble to get the North all dialed in in a short period of time, but we managed to do it.”
The event will begin on Sunday with a qualification round at 8 a.m. featuring 100 golfers. The qualifiers will compete for six spots — four boys and two girls. The six qualifiers will compete in the 136-player field for the tournament.
The tournament will feature morning and afternoon groups on Tuesday and Wednesday before the field is cut for Thursday. The final round will tee off from the No. 1 and No. 10 tees at 7 a.m.
The North course will provide a different challenge for the participants. The North plays a shot harder than its counterpart. The North course’s greens are slightly more difficult do to sloops, but the fairways are straighter than the South.
“There’s some contour to [the South’s greens], but nothing like the contour that we have on our North course,” Tolnar said. “I’m gonna be anxious to see how the kids adapt to that — having greens that have a little bit more terrain, a little bit more break, a little bit more contour and a little bit more subtleties that they would see if they played the South course.”
The field consists of junior golfers from across the country as well as international golfers from Canada, Peru and China.
The field was expanded to 137 players last season. Tolnar said the expanded field provided more opportunities for golfers and their families while creating better finances for the area.
“It’s certainly special for us,” Tolnar said, adding that a goal ”is to be a leader in the community in bringing things into our community. And being in the golf department, our apparatus is through the game of golf and lens of golf.”