Lately, more tournaments have been coming off the competition schedule than going on it, especially for junior golfers. Many of the top-ranked players haven’t teed it up since the Sage Valley Junior Invitational in March, a 54-hole event that concluded March 14 with the grounds closed to all spectators but family and essential personnel.
Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, Texas, is opening its facility for juniors just as it has done already for pros and top amateurs. The club hosted the Maridoe Samaritan Fund Invitational at the end of last month and has version 2.0 of the event planned for May 19-21. On Monday, Maridoe also announced that it would host the Maridoe Junior Invitational June 9-11.
The 54-hole event will feature a field of 45 elite junior boys. There will be no cut, and the field will be filled by invitation according to a player’s position in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, Scratch Players World Amateur Ranking, Golfweek Junior Rankings and Junior Golf Scoreboard.
The Maridoe Junior Invitational will be ranked by the WAGR, but there’s an even bigger carrot than that. Maridoe is already slated to host the Southern Amateur, one of the summer’s major amateur events, July 15-18. The top three finishesr in the Maridoe Junior Invitational earn an exemption into a field that’s otherwise already finalized. In other words, the Maridoe event offers a last shot at qualifying for the Southern Amateur.
Amateurs figured prominently into the Maridoe Samaritan Fund Invitational last month, and the same will be true for version 2.0. Many of the top collegians in the country helped fill the field and for MSFI2.0, but space also was reserved for two of the top juniors from each of the next four graduating classes.
Many of the top juniors events have dropped off the calendar in recent weeks, with perhaps the biggest domino falling April 24 when the USGA canceled the U.S. Junior and U.S. Girls’ Junior.
