DALLAS — The Legends Junior Tour’s top players in 2016 gather at Barton Creek Country Club to compete in the George Hannon Junior Invitational, the LJT’s “Tour Championship”, on August 15-16 at the Coore Crenshaw Cliffside Course.
 
The Hannon Cup Society created the event in 2009. Since then the LJT has conducted the prominent invitational. It brings together the top 99 boys and girls in the state, either through invitation or based off the current year’s LJT Player of the Year Points List. Three divisions compete separately: Boys 15-18 (60 spots); Boys 14 & Under (15 spots) and Girls 12-18 (24 spots).
 
George Hannon was born in Kemp, Texas and served a 59-year PGA career including an 18-year term as the University of Texas’ Men’s Golf Coach. Hannon’s career at UT included NCAA Champion teams in 1971 and 1972 as well as 12 Southwest Conference titles. Hannon coached golf legends such as Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite, Mark Brooks, Phil Blackmar, Brandel Chamblee, Warren Chancellor, Rik Massengale and Paul Thomas. Hannon was inducted into the Texas Golf Hall of Fame in 1991 and was the Golf Coaches Associations’ 2001 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient.  
 
The George Hannon Junior Invitational offers a true “Tour Championship” feel and serves to identify the state’s best junior golfer in each division. Golfers earned points towards the Player of the Year Points list by playing in LJT events and Texas Junior Golf Alliance events.
 
Last year’s invitational saw San Antonio’s Nicholas Duggan win the Boys 15-18 Division at Spanish Oaks Golf Club. Duggan held off Cedar Park’s Thomas Critch for a one-stroke victory at 1-under 141 overall. In the Boys 14 & Under Division, Dallas’ Turner Hosch shot 4-under 67 in the final round to hold off Mission’s Jun Min Lee and Dallas’ Scott Roden by one stroke. Austin’s Sadie Englemann won the Girls 12-18 Division by three strokes over the eventual Player of the Year in the Girls 12-18 Division, Hailey Jones.
 
This is the first year that Barton Creek Country Club has hosted the George Hannon Junior Invitational. The Cliffside Course was designed by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore and is focused on the natural beauty of the Texas Hill Country. The Cliffside Course features rolling hills, soft contours and native grasses that offer a variety of different holes.
 
Barton Creek Country Club gets to add its name to a distinguished list of golf courses that has hosted the George Hannon including, Spanish Oaks, Austin Country Club, UT Golf Club and The Hills Country Club.
 
The George Hannon Junior Invitational is one of four Major Championships on the LJT schedule. Points towards the Player of the Year Awards and Jackie Burke Cup teams are doubled and awarded to the top half of each division.
 
Past Champions of this event include Max Miller, Joe and Julia Beck, Scottie and Callie Scheffler, Brendan Redfern, Cole Hammer, Thomas Critch, Levi Valadez, Alexandra Rossi, Chandler Phillips and Hailee Cooper.
 
For more information about the George Hannon Junior Invitational, click here.
 
To see all the standings for the Player of the Year Points, click here.