For a year, University Place’s James Feutz has known he’d be in Cincinnati this upcoming weekend for a family reunion.
Qualifying for the 34th Junior PGA Championship – one of junior golf’s few major championships – down the road in the small town of Maineville was Feutz’s stroke of good fortune.
Before 65 members start showing up mid-week for the family gathering in Cincinnati, a few are planning on making a detour to TPC River’s Bend in Maineville, some 15 miles away, to watch Feutz compete in his first major tournament.
The 15-year-old from Bellarmine Prep is one of 150 boys and girls who tee off this morning for the first of four rounds of the stroke-play event. Other Washington golfers include Silverdale’s Erynne Lee and Spokane’s Chessey Thomas on the girls side.
“I’ve been to a couple of (PGA Tour) events, and this is run just like one,” Feutz said Monday after his final practice round. “It’s been quite an experience.”
And he’s not kidding.
Feutz, who got into the field by winning a qualifying tournament late last spring at Tumwater Valley Golf Course, has been in town since Saturday. So far, he has gotten the royal treatment from the PGA of America, the governing body of golf putting on the tournament:
• For practice rounds, Feutz has been shuttled to and from the driving range, and to the first and 10th-hole tee boxes to play.
• On-site workers have brought out Titleist Pro-Vi balls for the golfers, including Feutz, to hit on the driving range.
• In the clubhouse, Feutz has a locker with his name on it.
• The PGA of America picks up the tab for some of the players’ lodging at the nearby Great Wolf Lodge, which has a video game arcade and an indoor water-theme park.
“Honestly, if I was 10 years old again, I would have thought I had made it to heaven,” he said of the five-star accommodations.
So, who has he gotten the best advice from entering his first major championship?
“Kyle Stanley,” he said. “I talked to him for a half-hour on Sunday night, and he told me this is nothing different than any other tournament, or any other round I’d play.”
Feutz said the course, which will play nearly 7,100 yards for the boys, is playing long because the area has gotten lots of rain recently and the fairways are soft. He tees off today at 9:30 a.m. PDT.
Todd Milles: 253-597-8442
todd.milles@thenewstribune.com
