Braden Bailey has moved on to Baylor but it looks like Port Neches-Groves will continue to have the dominant male player in area high school golf. Josh Elmore, who advanced to state last year as a sophomore, served notice last week that we may not have seen anything yet.

Elmore fired an impressive two-under-par 69 at Rayburn Golf Club to win the Jasper Invitational by 10 shots over Nederland’s Brendan Marley. According to PNG golf coach Ricky Keyes, it could have been a 64 or 65.

“Josh’s ball striking is unbelievable right now,” said Keyes. “He hit every fairway and was on 17 of 18 greens in regulation. “He lipped out birdie putts on 15, 16 and 17, then missed a six-footer on 18 It was really impressive watching him.

Little Cypress-Mauriceville’s long time golf coach Bart Williams agrees. He told Keyes that he’d been coming to the Jasper tourney at Rayburn for years and could not remember a player shooting in the 60s. The asterisk is that Bailey never played in the Jasper tourney.

Thanks to Elmore, who is the defending district and regional champ and placed 10th at state last spring, PNG won the tournament by 24 shots with a 318 team total. Nederland was second at 342.

Other scores for the Indians included Timothy Feemster (80), Bryce Parsley (83) and Brian Landry (86). Chase Selman’s 89 did not count toward the team total.

Behind Marley’s 79, Nederland got an 85 from John Krautz and 89s from Brice Perryman, Daniel Cormier and Jadon Bell.

CHIP SHOTS

Chris Stroud, who hasn’t played in a PGA Tour event in over two months, returns this week at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

Stroud lost full- time playing status after finishing out of the top 125 last year and has found it difficult getting into events on the West Coast swing.

In his last PGA Tour action, Chris finished tied for 13th at the RSM Classic in Sea Island, Ga. Rounds of 69-67-68-66 earned him $99,750 of his $113,470 in winnings during three starts in 2016-17 events. Thanks to that T13, he’s No. 137 in FedEx points.

To make it back to the PGA Tour full time, Stroud climb back into the top 125. Given the limited number of events available to him, the pressure will be ramped up every time he plays.

The best thing about getting in at Pebble Beach is that he is guaranteed three rounds because of the pro-am format over three different courses. That format is also why many of the top players avoid Pebble Beach. …

While Stroud will be trying to generate some momentum at Pebble Beach, the other PNG ex playing professional golf, Andrew Landry, will be trying to win for the second consecutive time on the Web.com Tour.

Landry, who won the Bahamas Great Abaco Classic two weeks ago, is returning to the site of his first Web.com Tour win two years ago in Colombia. He’ll tee it up Thursday in the Club Colombia Championship, tied for first place on the Web.com money list with $108,000. …

Braden Bailey had a chilling experience in last week’s Davis Cup Invitational played at Ocean Forest Golf Club in Sea Island, Ga. Derailed when a cold front sent temperatures tumbling into the low 40s and wind chills into the 30s, Bailey struggled to a second-round 82.

He finished T44 with rounds of 76-74 sandwiched around the 82. His next tournament is Feb. 17-19 when Baylor’s golf team plays in the University of Houston’s All-America Invitational at the Golf Club of Houston. …

McNeese State-bound Karlei Hemler led PNG’s girls to another lopsided victory in Monday’s Hardin-Jefferson tournament at Idylwild Golf Club. Hemler fired a two-over par 74 to take medalist honors by five shots over teammate Brynna Bailey.

The strong one-two punch of Hemler and Bailey helped the Lady Indians win the team title with a 343 total that was 73 shots better than second place Kelly. Other scores that counted for PNG included a 94 by Kensey Dukes and a 96 by Kassidei Hemler. …

Southeast Texas players won five of seven flights in the Texas-Louisiana Junior Winter Tour stop played Saturday at Babe Zaharias. Timothy Feemster of Port Neches led the way for area players by firing a 77 to take Boys 17-18 by one stroke over Brendan Marley of Nederland.

Caleb Folmar of Buna shot an 81 to win Boys 14-15 over Hunter Christman of Orange by one shot and Micah Depew of Beaumont was a 7-stroke winner over Braeden Caywood of Nederland with a 92 in Boys 12-13.

Other Texas winners were Xander Parks of Orange with a 35 in Junior 10-11 (6 holes) that bested Lincoln Parks of Orange by 6 strokes and Foster Cecka of Orange with a 27 that won Junior 7-9 (5 holes) by 2 strokes over Ricardo Cardenas of Beaumont.

Louisiana winners were McKenzie Duff of Lake Charles with an 83 that clipped Daphney Tilton of Iowa by a stroke in Girls 16-18 and Carly Whittington of Kinder who won big in Girls 14-15 with an 81. …

Paced by an even par 72 from Ron Mistrot, the team of Don MacNeil, Jim Cooper, Bob West and Mistrot swept the Tuesday Twister Senior Game at Babe Zaharias. They were minus 6 on the front and minus 2 on the back. …

The team of Javier Torres, Tom LeTourneau, Gene Hardy and Charles Perez posted minus 5 to win the front in the Monday Senior 50 Plus 2 ball game at Babe Zaharias. On the back, the team of Gary Whitfill, Lee Bertrand, Raymond Darbonne and Paul Duplantis won with minus 3. …

The Super Saturday 2 ball game at Zaharias saw a tie on the front at minus 1 between the team of Tim Turner, Troy Touchet, Roy Martinez and Wes McDonald and the foursome of John Williams, Lee Bertrand, Don Duplan and Bim Morrow.

The Turner team won the back, also at minus 1. …

In the Friday Senior 2 ball at the Babe, the team of Paul Flores, Larry Johnson, MacNeil and James Trahan won the front in minus 4. The back went to the team of  Whitfill, Cody Metts, Touchet and Mike Hollier in minus 1. …

Format for the Thursday Senior 55 Plus game was a 9/9 with two-man teams flighted by handicap. First Flight finished in a tie at 65 between Roddy Weatherly-Bob Byerly and Earl Richard-Adam Noel.

In Second Flight, James Shipley-Bertrand won with 67, clipping Cap Hollier-E.T. Robicheaux by two shots. The team of Martinez-Touchet won Third Flight over Harry Green-Augie Seguar with a 70. Art Miller-Charlie Huckaby claimed Fourth Flight with a 70.

Closest to the pin winners were Trahan (No. 2), Raymond Darbonne (No. 7), Cricket Owen (No. 12) and Mike Lansford (No. 15).

The team of Whitfill, Bim Morrow, Roger Baumer and Gene Noble rolled up 20 points to win the Wednesday DogFight at Zaharias. Placing second with 18 points was the foursome of Benny Sharpe, Bill Jones, Dillard Darbonne and Tommy Duhon.

Closest to the pin winners were Noble (No. 2), Morrow (No. 7), Hollier (No. 12) and Owen (No. 15).

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