Braden Bailey continues to have the best summer of any player — junior, amateur or professional — with Southeast Texas ties.
The Baylor sophomore-to-be from Groves added his fifth consecutive top-10 with his tie for eighth in the Trans-Miss Championship last week at Olympic Club in San Francisco.
Until making four consecutive bogeys on the front nine of the final 18 holes, it looked like Bailey was going to notch his fourth top-five finish. After rounds of 68-69-70, he closed with a 75 to finished tied with defending U.S. Amateur champ Scottie Scheffler of the University of Texas.
In five summer starts in high profile amateur events, Bailey has now finished T2, T3, T8, T4 and T8, and done it while taking two summer school courses at Baylor. Combined with his solid play in the Big 12 Championship, the NCAA Regional and the NCAA Championship, he’s moved into the World Amateur Golf Ranking top 100 (98) for the first time.
The strong summer showing also earned Bailey a late invitation into the prestigious Western Open next week in Chicago. The Western annually has the deepest field of quality players next to the U.S. Amateur.
After the Western, Bailey will prepare for the fall season at Baylor, where it is pretty much a lock that he will enter the 2016-17 schedule as the Bears’ No. 1 player.
CHIP SHOTS
It was another lost week in FedEx Cup points for the Lamar trio of Chris Stroud, Shawn Stefani and Dawie van der Walt, as well as Port Neches-Groves and Arkansas ex Andrew Landry.
Stefani and Stroud made the cut in the Barbasol Championship, finishing T31 and T47, respectively, but gained no ground.
Stroud is No. 134, while Stefani is at 139. Landry and Van der Walt are No. 185 and No. 171. Only four chances to get into the top 125 remain, starting with this week’s Canadian Open. …
Bryce Shaver of Lumberton and Trent Kizer of Vidor shot 80s Monday to tie for first place in Boys 15-18 in the Southern Texas PGA Junior Tour stop at Wildwood. Nederland’s Daniel Cormier fired a 78
for a four-stroke victory over Jack Burke of Orange in Boys 13-14.
Haley Simmons of Newton took Girls 15-18 with an even 100, while Elizabeth Townsend of Kountze continued her domination in Girls 13-14 with an 86. …
Last week’s YMBL-STPGA Junior Tour tournament at Bayou Din revealed a glaring lack of competition in all age classes. Joseph Wolcik won Boys 15-18 with a 141 (70-71) by seven shots over Shaver. That was close compared to the other age divisions. Burke prevailed by 20 strokes in Boys 13-14 with a 144 (75-69). Karlei Hemler shot 148 (76-72) to win by 24 shots in Girls 15-18.
Townsend’s 164 (82-82) was a whopping 73 shots better than the runner-up in Girls 13-14. …
In the Super Saturday Game best 2 ball at Babe Zaharias, the team of Adam Noel, James Shipley, Gary Hannan and Wes McDonald won the front nine in minus-9. On the back, minus-5 won for the foursome of Jim Jordan, John Williams, Larry Johnson and Jay Hampson. …
Monday’s Senior 50 Plus two-ball game at Babe Zaharias saw the team of Craig Fontenot, Paul Young, Ed Hetzel and Jim Cooper win the front with minus-5.
On the back, there was a tie at minus 3 between the team of Joe Gongora, Don MacNeil, Larry Thompson and the foursome of Roddy Weatherly, Hannan, Tom LeTourneau and Bob Moore tied at
minus-3. …
The Friday Senior 2-ball game at The Babe, saw the team of Jim Jordan, Hannan, Bob Briggs and E.T. Robicheaux score a sweep, winning the front in minus-7 and the back at minus-4. …
The Thursday Senior Game at The Babe was played in individual stroke play, with handicaps. First flight ended in a three-way tie at 70 between Gary Fontenot, Noel and Jordan. Tommy Duhon and Harry Green deadlocked in Second Flight with 65s. Stedman Tahaney was an outright winner in Third Flight with a 64. Closest to the pin winners were Duhon (No. 2), Noel (No. 7), Rick Pritchett (No. 12) and Jim Huebel (No. 15). …
The team of James Shipley, Buddy Sepeda, Duhon and Harold Wilkinson won the Wednesday Babe Zaharias DogFight with 21 points. Closest to the pin winners were Gary Whitfill (No. 2, No. 15), Don MacNeil (No. 7) and Pritchett (No. 12).
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