Local Youth Golfer wins Junior PGA Tournaments over the summer

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Crawford Curtis, the son of Andrew and Sara Curtis, has played golf since he was three years old.

Now at age eight, he already has a couple of championships to put on his shelf in his room.

“When he was seven he started playing in the Jr. PGA Tour in/around the Texas Panhandle Area,” Andrew said. “He went to the Area Championship and placed third last year (2020). This year he played in more tournaments and qualified to play in the Area Championship this year (2021) and won it in Amarillo.”

Crawford competes West Division in the North Texas Junior PGA which also features East and Metroplex Divisions. After winning the West Division, Crawford competed in the Summer Series which encompasses all of the North Texas Junior PGA, which he won in Dallas.

Crawford, who also plays football and basketball, said he enjoys playing golf and enjoys the thrill of scoring an eagle or birdie. He said the hardest part is the putting.

Brookehaven Country Club in Dallas, where the Summer Series was held, was set up for juniors with often deceiving greens.

“Sometimes the greens would look super-slow and then the ball would go fast,” Crawford said.

Crawford has already had his first taste of the sudden-death match play to win the Summer Series.

“The first day I played pretty bad and finished four behind the leader,” Crawford said. “The second day it was windy and gave me an advantage, because the others weren’t used to playing in 20 mph wind. I had two birdies, a double and three bogies.

“The sudden death whole was our worst hole, a par 3. So I used pitching wedge 10 feet from the whole. He (his opponent) hit his putt way past the hole, then lipped out for par so I knew he was going to make a bogey. On my birdie putt it toilet-bowled around, so I tapped in for par.”

Crawford loves to play at Pampa Country Club, practices five days a week and said his favorite hole in No. 4.

“I play from the women’s tees when I play out here and we have to go over a tree and land in the green,” Crawford said. “The green is super, super hard because it has a lot of slope. You have to hit it below the hole or in the hole.”

Crawford plans to play a few tournaments in the fall to get ready for the 9-10 season next year.

For more information on the North Texas Junior PGA Tour, visit https://www.ntpgajuniorgolf.com/junior-tour.