Jekyll Island Golf Club – Jekyll Island, Georgia
This Saturday and Sunday, March 12 – 13, marks the 13th annual Jekyll Island Cup at Jekyll Island Golf Club. Since 2004, Regional Championship qualified golfers and their families traveled to the small island off the coast of Georgia for the Jekyll Island Cup.
Over 300 of the world’s best golfers (ages 5-14) will embark on a two-day journey in hopes of being crowned the 2016 Jekyll Island Cup champion for their age group. The top three players from each age group will receive automatic invitations to the 2016 World (or Teen World) Championship in Pinehurst, North Carolina.
Of the 327 registered golfers, 32 are traveling to the United States from eight different countries – Canada, Germany, Guam, France, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico and Singapore. The remaining field will travel from 31 states across the U.S. The state of Georgia will send 60 representatives to the small coastal island, and of those 60, two brothers represent the only players in the field who could be considered locals – Edward and Robert Stephens from St. Simmons Island.
The Indian Mound course will serve as the competitor to Girls 8, Girls 9, Girls 13-14, Boys 8, Boys 11, Boys 12 and Boys 13 – 14 age groups. All other age groups will match up against Pine Lakes.
Only five of the fifteen champions from 2015 will return to Jekyll Island this year to defend their title. Last year, 7-year-old Sam Udovich fired back-to-back rounds of 31. His final score of 10-under-par was the low round among boys in the tournament. Also entering the clubhouse at 10-under-par in last year’s Jekyll Island Cup was four-time World Champion Alexa Pano. The 10-year-old carded 66-68, winning the age group by a commanding fifteen shots.
While the Jekyll Island Cup has the largest field of any of the ten Regional Championships, its storied history is what makes the tournament unique. Before it was a Regional Championship, the small island of Jekyll was the site of the U.S. Kids Golf World Championship from 2000 – 2003. The World Championship grew and had to find a new home, but the deeply rooted traditions of U.S. Kids Golf in Jekyll were not forgotten. The World Championship paved the way for the founding of the first Regional Championship – the Jekyll Island Cup.
The island welcomed many great champions over the years, and the tournaments served as a stage for some of the game’s brightest young stars to shine for the first time. Both Lexi Thompson and Cheyenne Woods burst onto the scene in Jekyll by winning the World Championship twice. Several of today’s college standouts and top-ranked amateurs made their names known in Jekyll – Georgia’s Lee McCoy, Alabama’s Robby Shelton, Stanford’s Mariah Stackhouse, Clemson’s Ashlan Ramsey and many more.
Regional Championship fields are mostly comprised of youth golfers who have earned “Priority Status” from shooting exceptional scores on Local Tours and other events.
Unlike other junior golf tournaments, parents are strongly encouraged to take part in the U.S. Kids Golf experience by caddying, and/or spectating with the rest of the family. U.S. Kids Golf is not just about golf. Most players and their families connect with other participants at the event and build relationships and memories that last a lifetime.
“The mission of U.S. Kids Golf is to help kids have fun learning the lifelong game of golf and to encourage family interaction that builds lasting memories.”
Follow the tournament on online:
www.facebook.com/uskidsgolf
https://twitter.com/USKidsGolfFDN
https://instagram.com/uskidsgolffdn/
For more information visit https://www.uskidsgolf.com/tournaments
Please direct all tournament operations questions to tournaments@uskidsgolf.com
Please direct all media inquiries to mleath@uskidsgolf.com
Contact:
Mack Leath (404) 909-5171
mleath@uskidsgolf.com
www.uskidsgolf.com
