Rich Harvest Farms to Host 2019 Western Junior By Brian Weis

Rich Harvest Farms to Host 2019 Western Junior

By Brian Weis

Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois, will host the Western Golf Association's 102nd Western Junior on June 17-20.

The annual championship features an international field of 156 top junior players, all vying to win the country's oldest national junior golf championship.

First held by the Western Golf Association in 1914, the Western Junior has served as a proving ground for many future PGA TOUR stars, including past champions Rickie Fowler, Hunter Mahan and Jim Furyk. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Matt Kuchar also have competed in the Western Junior. The event was not played for several years during World War I and World War II.

The Western Junior has been played in more than 15 states and at several prestigious Chicagoland golf clubs. The event was played last year at Evanston Golf Club in Skokie, Illinois, and was won by Jeff Doty of Carmel, Indiana.

Rich Harvest Farms first hosted the Western Junior in 2003, when Brady Schnell posted a 72-hole total of 2-over-par 290 to claim the title. That remains the record for highest winning score since the Western Junior switched from a match play format to a 72-hole stroke play event in 1999.

"We're excited to bring the Western Junior to such a distinguished venue as Rich Harvest Farms," said Vince Pellegrino, Western Golf Association senior vice president of tournaments. "The layout of this course should again prove to be a true challenge for our entire field of exceptional junior players."

Among those expected to be in this year's field are: Vanderbilt verbal commit and 2018 U.S. Amateur match play qualifier Jackson Van Paris of Pinehurst, North Carolina; Rolex Junior All-American Alexander Yang of Carlsbad, California; and Arizona State verbal commit Jeewon Park of South Korea.

Designed by owner and Western Golf Association Director Jerry Rich, Rich Harvest Farms was rated fifth "Best New Private Course" by Golf Digest in 1999. In designing the course, Rich drew upon his background as an avid golfer who has played many of the world's finest courses.

"I am thrilled to once again host the best junior golfers in the world," Rich said. "It's all about growing the game and elevating junior golf tournaments to the level of professional ones. With the way junior golfers play today, you'd think you're watching members of the PGA TOUR!"

Rich Harvest Farms also hosted the WGA's 2015 Western Amateur, won by Dawson Armstrong in one of the most dramatic finishes in the championship's storied history. On the 20th hole, Armstrong closed out the final match against reigning PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year Aaron Wise by holing a 20-yard bunker shot for eagle.

"Mr. Rich has been a loyal supporter of our championships and of the Evans Scholars program," Pellegrino noted. "We're thrilled to have this opportunity to return to Rich Harvest Farms for another Western Golf Association championship."

Attendance and parking for the Western Junior are free. For more information, visit www.thewesternjunior.com.

Revised: 03/21/2019 - Article Viewed 19,402 Times - View Course Profile

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.