Trent Harper cashes in on tourney ace

Published 5:19 pm Tuesday, May 12, 2015

By Bob West

The News Sports Writer

Bayou Din has been a hot spot for aces of late, with Nederland’s Trent Harper, Jasper’s Billy Rowles and Beamonter Jerry Johnson sinking tee shots. Harper, who used an 8-iron to score his hole-in-one on the 140-yard, 11th at Bayou Back, got more than satisfaction from his ace. Playing in the St. Anthony School tournament, he collected a $500 on-line shopping spree from Travis Mathews Clothing, plus roughly $500 more in Matthews golfing apparel. Witnesses to the shot were Billy Harper, Lawrence Drago and Joe Drago . . . Rowles sank what was his third hole-in-one on the 181-yard, 3rd on the Links Nine. He swung a 3-hybrid. Kevin Olbrich, Billy Rowles Jr. and Mark McKinley were his playing companions . . . Johnson authored his first ace on No. 8 of the Links Nine, using a 6-iron from 138 yards. Jim Eiselstein and Bobby West were the witnesses . . . Terry Dunahoe of Bridge City is on quite a roll. A couple of weeks after bagging an albatross/double eagle on No. 9 at Babe Zaharias, he followed up with an ace on the 112-yard, 7th with a pitching wedge. Matt Allen and Ralph Thompson witnessed the shot . . . Great news for Karlei Hemler. The PN-G sophomore, who won the District 22-5A championship and qualified for state, has been selected to participate in the inaugural First Tee Par 3 Championship June 24-28 in Richmond, Va. Hemler, who will represent the First Tee of the Golden Triangle, will be part of a field that includes 16 girls and 16 boys from across the United States. In addition to a 36-hole individual tournament, she will be part of team competition for the Territory Cup matching players from the Eastern part of the country against those from the West. Players arrive on June 24, play a practice round on the 25th, then compete in stroke play on June 26-27. Participants will be housed in dormitories at the University of Richmond . . . What looked like it was going to be a turning point in the 2014-15 PGA Tour season for PN-G ex Chris Stroud ended with a bit of a thud. Stroud, after climbing as high as No. 2 on the leaderboard Thursday and Friday at The Players Championship, and being No. 7 entering weekend play, struggled to a 76 on Saturday and wound up T42. As a result of the weekend fade, Stroud wound up with a check for $31,400 and only 25 Fed Ex points. He did move up to No. 115 on the Fed Ex points list. Stroud is playing again this week in the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, N.C. . . Nederland’s Shelbi Vincent and LC-M’s Brooke Brasseaux both finished with  54 holes scores of 237 to help the University of Houston-Victoria women’s team to a second place finish in the PGA Minority Collegiate Championships in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Vincent posted rounds of 80-77-80, while Brasseaux carded 81-78-78. UHV, paced by medalist Heather Shake’s 212 (67-78-67), finished 34 shots behind Bethune-Cookman. UHV opened play Tuesday in the NAIA Women’s National Championships at Savannah Quarters County Club in Pooler, Ga. The event runs through Friday . . . PN-G ex Jarrod Brown, a sophomore, has been named MVP of the Mary Hardin-Baylor golf team. MHB, which recently captured the American Southwest Conference tournament, opened play Tuesday in the NCAA Division III championships in Greensboro, N.C. There will be live scoring on Golfstat.com . . . The team of Lee Comeaux, Scott Deserano, Oscar Snider and Brian Olsen fired a 52 to win the Motiva Junior Achievement Scramble at Bayou Din. Closest to the pin winners on No. 3 on the Links Nine were Jim Serwan and Daniel Reyes, while Chuck Britten and Keith Brocato were the winners on No. 8. Don Morgan and Wayne Doucet claimed closest to the pin honors on No. 2 on the Bayou Front. J.T. Greak and Dustin Loden were long drive winners on No. 7 . . . The team of Cricket Owen, Mike Parker, Gary Anderson and David Sturgal accumulated 19 points to win the Babe Zaharias DogFight. Second with 17 points was the foursome of Russ Gloede, Troy Sedatole, Malcolm Tiller and Bryce Gregg. Closest to the pin winners were Rodney Christman (No. 2), Ron Mistrot (No. 7), Gloede (No. 12) and Cap Hollier (No. 15) . . . The Senior Game at The Babe was played in a 2 ball, 6-6-6 format. On the first six holes, the team of Hollier, Charles Leard, Ray Trahan and Steadman Tahaney won with minus 3. On the middle six, the Hollier team tied with the foursome of Rick Pritchett, Jim Cooper, Ralph Childress and Paul Bourgeous at minus 2. On the final six, the Pritchett team won with minus 1. Bourgeous was the closest to the pin winner at No. 2 . . . The Super Saturday Game at The Babe was played in a 2-ball format. On the front nine, the team of Ted Freeman, Don MacNeil, Don Duplan and Mark Petry tied with the team of Joey Alexander, Harrell Guidry, Wes McGuire and John Ramsey at minus 4. The back was won at minus 3 by the team of Pritchett, Hollier and Ivory Hatch.
Golf news should be faxed to 724-6854 or e-mailed to rdwest@usa.net.

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About Gabriel Pruett

Gabriel Pruett has worked with both the Port Arthur News and Orange Leader since 2000. A majority of the time has been spent covering all aspects of Southeast Texas high school sports. Pruett's claim to fame is...being able to write his own biographical information for this website.

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