Juniors to compete at Eagle Bend

Bigfork Eagle

Eagle Bend Golf Club will host the ninth annual Flathead Junior Golf Championships Thursday, Aug. 19.

Approximately 65 young golfers ranging in age from 5 to 17 will vie for titles in 10 different divisions separated by age and gender.

Those in the 5-to-7-year-old group play a mini-version of the club's Lake Nine while the 8 to 10 year olds compete on the full Lake Nine. The kids competing in the 11-to-13, 14-to-15 and 16-to-17-year-old groups play 18-hole course at the club a varying tee-off spots depending on gender and age.

Par for the nine holes will be 36 and par will be 72 on the 18.

All but one of last year's titleists (Missoula's Casey Diaz from the 14 and 15 boys division) will return to play in Thursday's tournament, though some will be competing in a higher age division.

One such case is Missoula's Maggie Crippen, who took first among the 14 and 15 year old girls last year.

Crippen will now be in the 16 and 17 year old division where she will face her older sister Kelsie. At the 2010 Class B State Tournament, Kelsie finished second with a 155 in the two-day tournament and Maggie placed fifth with 161.

Bigfork High School senior Kyle Parker will be attempting to de-thrown Missoula's Collin Gunstream in the boys 16-to-17 division.

Last year Parker tied Joel Mallams with a 79 for second place behind Gunstream. Mallams is has since aged-out of the junior tournament. Parker earned All-state honors as a sophomore and in the spring earned All-Conference honors. Parker had good odds of repeating as an All-state golfer, but the Bigfork High School golf team was disqualified from the 2010 Class B State Golf Tournament for practicing on a Sunday while traveling to the tournament.

Also playing from Bigfork's high school team will be sophomore Blake Weimer, who will play among the 14 and 15 year old boys.

Other contenders hailing from Bigfork include 12-year-old Ryan Keenan and summer Bigfork resident Grant Raffle, who is 16.

Last year Raffle shot a 79 and placed third among the 14-and-15 year-old boys. Keenan was fourth last year with an 87 in the 11-to-13 year-old age bracket in which he will play in again.

Last month Keenan took second in the boys 10-13 division at the 2010 Montana Junior State Championship golf tournament behind Ryggs Johnson of Libby. Keenan lost the tournament by one shot with his two-day score of 154.

Last year Keenan won the tournament in the 12 and under division. Earlier this summer he shot a 78 and finished first in his age group at the U.S. Kids Golf World Championship qualifier, though he opted not to attend the event Aug. 5 through 7 in North Carolina.

Keenan's older sister Sara, who has been a standout on the high school golf team the past two years, has decided not to play in this year's tournament. The high school junior shot an 86 in last year's junior tournament and earned second place behind Maggie Crippen, who had a 79, in the 14-and-15 year-old girls division last year.

Although she was unable to play in the state tournament due to the team's disqualification, Keenan placed fourth in the Class B Division 3 golf tournament.