Glengarry Golf Course holds Hurricane Junior Golf tournament

By: Paul Schofield
Monday, May 11, 2020 | 5:59 PM

No PGA. No LPGA.

But the coronavirus isn’t stopping the Florida-based Hurricane Junior Golf Tour from opening the season.

There were three tournaments conducted Saturday and Sunday, including one at Glengarry Golf Course in Unity. The others were in Georgia and Florida.

Over the next two weeks, seven more tournaments will be held, none in Pennsylvania. The tour returns to the Keystone State on June 6-7 at State College.

More than 75 boys and girls, ages 10 to 18, competed Saturday under not-so-ideal conditions: snowy, windy and cold. The second round Sunday was more pleasant.

Kids from across the state, Ohio, West Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Virginia and Florida played in the two-day event.

Ryan Bilby of Follansbee, W.Va., won the Boys 16-18 division by shooting an even-par 140. J.F. Aber of Sewickley was second with a 5-over 145 and Adam Lauer of Pittsburgh was third with a 6-over 146.

“It was really exciting to get out of the house and play,” Aber said. “We saw on the website that they were planning to hold a tournament, so we signed up. We never thought it would be held, but we kept getting emails saying it was on.”

Aber said some of the social distancing guidelines in effect were no exchanging scorecards, no shaking hands and staying outside as much as possible.

“The weather wasn’t great on Saturday, but at least we got to play” said Aber, who will attend Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. “It’s you out there playing against the course. “

Nicholas Turowski of Harrison City won the 14-15 division, Chris Pollak of Aurora, Ohio won the 11-13 division and Michael Jordan of Orchard Park, N.Y. won the 10-and-younger division.

The girls winners were Nina Busch of Pittsburgh in the 14-18 division and Mya Morgan of Elizabeth in the 13-and-younger division.

The Tri-State PGA is meeting this week and will decide the future of their regular and junior tournament schedules.

Western Pennsylvania Golf Association executive director Terry Teasdale said he still is awaiting guidance from the PGA and USGA on ways to handle tournaments.

He said he was surprised to learn the Hurricane Junior Golf Tour held an event. He said he’ll be calling around to see how they conducted it.

Paul Schofield is a TribLive reporter covering high school and college sports and local golf. He joined the Trib in 1995 after spending 15 years at the Daily Courier in Connellsville, where he served as sports editor for 14 years. He can be reached at pschofield@triblive.com.