Golf loves its dues. Usually, you have to suffer, lose a heartbreaker, and trudge back to the McCabe Course year after year before you get to hoist the trophy at the Tennessean/Metro Parks Schooldays Golf Tournament. It is a 102-year-old tradition, after all. But this year? The kids crashing the gates do not care about tradition. They barely even know it exists.
Look at the leaderboard. It is a joke on history. The two girls fighting for the championship, Lyla Payne and Samantha Strothers, are tournament rookies. So is Wil Huddleston, the top-seeded boy heading into the semifinals. Three kids. Zero combined experience here. Yet, they are on the verge of stealing the state’s oldest junior golf title on their very first try.
Payne, a Clarksville native, only signed up because some guy at her school told her grandmother about it. She liked it. Strothers, hailing all the way from El Cajon, California, had to Google the tournament a few days ago. She saw a pretty course online and booked a flight. Now she is in the final. It is that simple.
Then there is Huddleston. The Maryville product at least knew the history. He watched the big names like Brandt Snedeker use this event as a springboard to the PGA Tour. He wanted in. His schedule finally cleared up, and he showed up to play.
He did more than play. He dominated. Huddleston dispatched Brody Smithson of Gallatin 6 and 5, then squeezed past Springfield’s Aiden Hampton 3 and 2. He sealed that quarterfinal match with ridiculous putts—a 30-footer on the 10th and a monster 60-footer on the 12th. Next up for him is Maxwell Hunt of College Grove. The other semifinal features Gallatin’s Carter Lomax against Pleasant View’s Cillian Carmack.
On the girls’ side, the path to the final was a demolition derby. Payne, the qualifying medalist, dismantled Emma Elkins and Megan Uchrin by identical 7 and 6 scores. Strothers was even more ruthless. She crushed Kate Bixenman 10 and 9, then sent Kate’s sister, Emma Bixenman, packing with an 8 and 6 victory.
The final matchup is a clash of styles. Strothers is a bomber. She averages 275 yards off the tee, taking aggressive lines and finally figuring out McCabe’s greens to eliminate the three-putts. Payne is not sweating the distance gap. She claims her short game is the equalizer. We will see.
In the younger bracket, the boys 12-14 division saw Franklin’s Jackson Scott dispatch Nashville’s Jess Judy 5 and 4, while Franklin’s George Armstrong took down Nolensville’s Ethan Huang 4 and 3. The victors will battle in the finals.
The old guard can romanticize the century of history all they want. The kids on the course do not care. They just want to win.
