Another year of summer golf for the Greater Pensacola Junior Golf Association and First Tee Gulf Coast has come to a close.
With the conclusion of the two-round A. Downing Gray Cup at the Pensacola Country Club, two new winners were crowned to end the summer.
West Florida alum Bentley Van Pelt secured the Boys Overall Junior Masters with a two-round score of 138 (73, 65). Northview’s Anna Kunkel, a rising junior, claimed the Girls Overall Junior Masters after firing a two-day total of 152 (72, 80).
“We had record heat, but we had record participation – particularly in our older divisions. We’ve got a lot of young golfers making great progress,” said Marty Stanovich, the executive director of First Tee Gulf Coast. “(Tournament Director) Ty Aulger has done a phenomenal job with our programs.”
To help celebrate the tournament at Pensacola Country Club, the tournament’s namesake, Pensacola native A. Downing Gray, who played in the Masters Tournament seven times in his career and won seven consecutive tournaments while playing college golf at Florida State, was there to present the champions with trophies.
“For the country club, I’ve been a member here for 18 years, and we’ve had the championship here for 15 years. To donate this course to us for two days to come out – and especially our graduating seniors, some of who might not be playing college golf but they’ve been long-time participants and can experience Pensacola Country Club at least once,” Stanovich said. “To do it with Downing, his resume speaks for itself.”
Stanovich called not only the two-day tournament, but the entire summer tour, a good “lead-in” for the high school golf season. While some golfers may have already graduated and are potentially gearing up for the collegiate ranks, Stanovich encourages all high school coaches to send their golfers to First Tee.
“They’re going to be more prepared to compete,” Stanovich said. “It’s a great lead-in. What I always encourage is if you want to play high school golf – even if the kids are playing in the nine-hole divisions – they’re going to be better prepared if you golf with us all summer.”
Capping off a solid junior career
Bentley Van Pelt, who graduated from West Florida this past year and is getting ready to golf for the University of Montevallo, had a pretty solid ending to his summer. He won the 67th annual Divot Derby a few weeks ago, and then kept his groove at the Pensacola Country Club.
Trailing by four strokes after the first day to Wilmer Mitchell, Van Pelt said the major difference between the two rounds was his ball striking, and seeing some deep putts fall early in the round to give him some “confidence on the greens.”
Then, came the par-3 seventh hole, where there was a “small hiccup,” as he described it. He chipped onto the green about 15 or 16 feet from the hole, and then scrambled for par.
“After hole seven, if I could just keep it going and hit it solid, I figured I could get it done,” Van Pelt said after the tournament. “You can shoot yourself out of it the first day (at the Downing Gray). I was kind of struggling early during the first round. I was having to tell myself, ‘Just don’t lose it on the first day.’ I kept myself in it. I knew if I could strike it better today, I knew I could shoot something under par.”
Velt Pelt could hardly be stopped on the back nine of the course, firing off four birdies with no bogeys to start creating some distance from the field. He finished off the day by sticking the ball within a few feet of the hole on the par-3 18th.
Then he drained it for birdie.
“That was an awesome finish for sure,” Van Pelt said. “This was my lowest tournament round, going seven-under. I’ve shot a 65 before, but that was on a par-70 course. … To do it on the second day of this tournament, it was a good feeling.”
Van Pelt leaves for Montevallo on Aug. 17, he said.
“It’s definitely another confidence-booster,” Van Pelt said. “To go low in the second round, that feels good to close out a tournament with a 65 going into college.”
“To have him – a great Divot Derby champion – come out here and play as well as he did, he is a late bloomer. We’ve seen that with a lot of young people,” Stanovich said of Van Pelt. “He’s a gentleman, a great junior golfer and to win the Divot Derby and now the Downing Gray, peaking at the right time, I can’t speak well enough about Bentley. … His college coach has to be super excited.”
Confidence into high school season
One of those “young golfers” that Stanovich was referring to is easily Anna Kunkel, who capped off her summer with a championship before her junior season at Northview High. Kunkel, who admitted the second day was a “bit of a rough day,” held on for the tournament win, securing victory by two strokes.
Kunkel maintained a strong early advantage after shooting even-par on the first day, but nerves came around during the second round. “I knew even though I had a couple bad holes, I still had…
