When the American Junior Golf Association returned to Otter Creek in 2013, Braden Thornberry won the boys division. Then, the Olive Branch, Mississippi, native defended his title in 2014.
Four years later, Thornberry was playing in the U.S. Open.
The boys and girls who will be playing in next week’s Circle K Junior Championship Hosted By Otter Creek represent a part of golf’s future. Some may play in the pros. The vast majority will play at the collegiate level.
“I remember whenever I was starting playing golf, and the goal was to make it to play in an AJGA tournament,” said Lauren Hartlage, a two-time girls champion at Otter Creek. “That’s where most of the college coaches would look for recruiting. A lot of the players from AJGA went to major Division I colleges.”
Hartlage, who is from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, played five years at Louisville. She is planning to go to Q-school for the LPGA and Symetra Tours at the end of August.
A five-time top-10 finisher in AJGA events, Hartlage’s only two AJGA wins came at Otter Creek in 2014 and 2015.
“They always have really good fields, so it is really a big deal to win those,” Hartlage said. “When I did win the first time, I played well, and the next year, I was fortunate enough to win again. Kind of having that pressure of being able to win a tournament and playing against more elite players for sure helped (in college).”
Drew Doyle finished in the top 10 in 13 AJGA events. The Louisville native just finished his freshman year at LSU.
He, too, thinks the AJGA tournaments he played while growing up helped prepare him for the college game.
“The players that I played with in those tournaments, they’re all playing college golf, and they’re my competitors,” Doyle said. “Playing against them has helped me prepare for college golf because most of the college players played in AJGA. Getting to see all the competition in college golf before you set foot on campus is perfect.”
Like Hartlage, Doyle had two AJGA victories, and both came at Otter Creek. He won the past two events in 2019 and 2020 to join Thornberry, who played at Ole Miss and currently is on the Korn Ferry Tour, and Hartlage as two-time winners in Columbus.
“It was awesome,” Doyle said. “That’s one of my favorite courses. It sets up perfectly for my game. I was able to stay in my house. I felt very comfortable in that event.”
For Annabelle Pancake, winning at Otter Creek had a little special meaning. Her father Tony Pancake, the longtime pro at Crooked Stick in Carmel, worked at Otter Creek when he was younger.
Annabelle won the girls division in 2019.
“That was really cool,” she said. “If there was any AJGA to win, I wanted it to be that one. The pro at the time, Jon Hoover, was my swing coach, and my dad actually worked there when he was young.”
Annabelle, a Zionsville graduate who just finished her freshman year at Clemson, had nine career top-10 finishes in AJGA events.
“I loved those tournaments mostly because they’re really competitive,” Pancake said. “The courses that they have us play are always top notch, such good quality, and the staff treats us like we’re professionals. It’s so organized and so very well done.”
For the second year in a row, the field size at Otter Creek will be reduced because of COVID concerns and protocols. A total of 78 golfers will tee it up between 7 and 9 a.m. Tuesday through Thursday in the 54-hole event.
Two local golfers will be competing. Luke Schneider, who just finished his junior year at Columbus North, qualified by having enough AJGA stars. Tyler Wilks, who just finished his sophomore year at North, earned one of the four sponsors’ exemptions.
