Heart of Ohio Junior Golf Association honored guest speaker William “Bill” Wise, professional golf sales specialist; as well as junior members and volunteers at the 29th Year-End Awards Banquet held at Kings Mills recently.
Wise was born and raised in Ohio, attended Kent State University and held positions as assistant PGA professional and head PGA professional at northern Ohio golf courses. He then entered the golf sales industry, representing the companies of Spalding, TopFlite, Ben Hogan and Etonic from 1979-2003, then Callaway Golf from 2004-15. He spoke of his life experiences and urged juniors to honor parents and make choices that will bring good attributes within their future lives.
Britton Hensel of Kenton received top honor of the season and was presented the David J. Wensinger Player of the Year $2000 scholarship award and the rotating trophy by Dr. Jerry Wensinger. He scored 93 points to top the 16-18 division and his low-scoring average of 73.2 entitled him to the low-scoring rotating trophy.
Elgin’s Lucas Haycook was runner-up to Hensel with 80 points and received the Ross Carley Memorial Player of the Year First Runner-up $1500 scholarship presented by Dennis Jesse. Griffin McCloy of Pleasant received the Wensinger Family Player of the Year Second Runner-up $500 scholarship awarded by Dr. Wensinger.
McCloy also earned the NUCOR Steel Marion “Most Improved” $500 scholarship award, improving 9.2 strokes from 2014-15. In addition, he was also voted his division’s “Sportsman of the Year” and was presented the Knights of Columbus $500 scholarship.
Pleasant’s Dustin Sites was honored with the HOJGA Three-Year Accumulative Point $500 scholarship and the Marion County Youth Foundation M.E.R.I.T. $500 scholarship was presented to Todd Crowe II of Fairbanks.
McCloy was second in the 16-18 low-scoring average with 77.5. Sites was third at 79.7, Haycook followed at 83.5 and Crowe was at 84.7.
Max McCloy was the winner with 100 points to top the 13-15 group to receive the HOJGA Player of the Year $500 scholarship award and the rotating trophy. He also had the low-scoring average of 75.5 to receive the rotating trophy.
Jed Charpie of Pleasant was second in points with 81 and Kameron Hall of Harding was third with 79. Big Walnut’s Zack Herbert took fourth with 56 points and Jason Joehlin of Pleasant had 43 to round off the top five in points.
Hall was second in low-scoring average at 80.2, followed by Charpie at 87, Herbert at 90.7 and Aidan Wilson of Fairbanks at 92.
Other division sportsmanship winners were Charpie in the 13-15 group and Nathan Stewart of Cardington, who received the honor in the 12-and-under class. All honorees received plaques.
Eagle Club honorees were Hensel and Zack Hosack of Mount Gilead. Plaques were also given for most birdies of the season. In the 16-18 division, Hensel had 15; while Max McCloy had six in the 13-15 class. Mason Rinehart of Pleasant had the most pars in the 12-and-under class with 12.
Hall was the top seller of raffle tickets, while the winner of the raffle prize — a complete set of TaylorMade Burner Plus irons — was Ann Penhorwood of Delaware. Lane Price of Delaware sold the winning ticket.
Information received from HOJGA.
