THE 41ST ANNUAL KENNY NOVAK TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP DRAWS 128 NOPGA JUNIORS TO WALDEN
One of the most popular events of the junior golf season takes place next week when the Northern Ohio Section of the Professional Golfers Associations stages the 41st Kenny Novak Junior Tour Championship at Club Walden in Aurora.
NOPGA Junior Golf Coordinator Haleigh Gray said 128 boys and girls between the ages of 11 and 19 from throughout Northern Ohio have entered the 36-hole event that was established in 1984.
The event takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday, July 30-31.
The boys will compete in age groups 11-13, 14-15 and 16-19. The girls will compete in age groups 11-15 and 16-19.
ROUND 1 STARTING TIMES: 2024 Kenny Novak >
Many players who have won the Kenny Novak Junior Tour Championship have gone on to establish themselves in the world of golf at various levels.
Players such as Pepper Pike Club head professional Rob Moss (1988), Red Rocks Director of Golf Ron DeJacimo (1989), and Megan Costello Brown (2002), the Senior Director of Tournament Services with the PGA Tour, are past champions.
So, too, are Mark Telerico (1985), Aaron Crewse (1988) and Brian Polick (1995), who went on to terrific amateur playing careers.
Most recently, Madison Reemsnyder (2020), Madison Ardelean (2019), David Swab (2023) and Ella Wong (2023) are now enjoying collegiate careers at Xavier, Walsh University, Detroit Mercy and Washington & Lee, respectively.
The event gets underway Monday (July 29) with the Kenny Novak Scholarship Day Pro-Am, also at Walden.
The Kenny Novak is the last junior event of the season and will have a large bearing on determining the NOPGA Junior Players-of-the-Year.
Winners of the Section’s regular-season events automatically qualify to the Kenny Novak and the field is filled out by the leaders of the season-long points lists. The final points lists will determine the respective players-of-the-year as well as the NOPGA Junior Ohio Cup team.
Here are the current points-leaders heading into the Kenny Novak:
BOYS 16-19: Aryan Ahlwat (Broadview Heights) 2,313.13; Ryan Dinan (Akron) 1,680.00; Nathan Menapace (New Philadelphia) 1,669.11.
BOYS 14-15: Dexter James (Hudson) 3,715.83; Dominic Castelluccio (Westlake) 1,514.16; Anthony Gambone (North Canton) 1,361.25
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BOYS 11-13: Coleson Paez (Rocky River) 2,460.00; Elijah Kasler (Massillon) 2,120.00; Jacob Snay (Mansfield) 2,005.00.
GIRLS 16-19: Annelise Stencel (Akron) 2,188.37; Serena Wu (Solon) 1,975.50; Ellie Gonzalez-Ribble (Brunswick) 1,720.50.
GIRLS 11-15: Yumi Kohara (Hudson) 3,278.33; Kayla Knaze (Fairview Park) 2,285.00; Elena Varga (Hudson) 2,083.33.
ABOUT KENNY NOVAK:
The tournament honors the memory of Kenny, who died while saving the life of a friend from drowning. Kenny was the son of Walden members and residents Dick and Dianne Novak. He was an all-around athlete with a love of golf but shared interests in basketball, baseball, pole vaulting, skiing, tennis and swimming. He also had been a popular caddie at Walden. Just before his death, he had taken second place in the Mohican Hills Junior Golf Tournament in Wooster. In 1978, 1981 and 1982, he was a finalist in the Plain Dealer Junior Golf Tournament, qualified for the world putting championship at Firestone Country Club in 1982.
KENNY NOVAK SCHOLARSHIP DAY:
The Kenny Novak Pro-Junior-3 Am Scholarship Day on Monday kicks things off. Proceeds from this day will support the Northern Ohio PGA Section Foundation. Our main initiative from this event is to raise money to help financially deserving junior golfers pay for their college education. In 2021 and 2022, we provided two juniors with a $10,000 scholarship divided over four years. In 2023, we were able to give $27,000 worth of funding. With funds raised from this year’s event, we will fund 2024’s scholarship recipients, providing $30,000 in scholarships.
