On Sunday at Champions Golf Club, age-group winners and winners of the individual skill competitions had the opportunity to meet major champions as well as a few other interesting presenters. Australian Steve Elkington, winner of the 1995 PGA Championship as well as the 1991 and 1997 Players Championships, presented medals and trophies to several winners. He was impressed by the concept and implementation of Drive, Chip and Putt, a joint initiative founded in 2013 by the Masters Tournament, the USGA and the PGA of America.

“I wish it was around when my son Sam (now 26) was little, because he would have really gone for this,” said Elkington, who has been a member at Champions since 1985.

Elkington also marveled at the competitors’ skills. Their short games, in particular, impressed him. He noted the speed of the greens after watching Dixie Crain, winner of the Girls 12-13 age group, hole her putts from 6 and 15 feet before leaving her 30-footer within 3 feet of the hole.

“That's a real skill for their age,” Elkington said. “This is not just hit and giggle; this is the real deal.”



Besides Elkington, Champions co-founder Jack Burke Jr., who won both the Masters Tournament and PGA Championship in 1956 and is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, presented a few medals, too. His duties included giving a medal to his great-great-nephew, Matthew Burke, who won the chipping portion of the Boys 12-13 division. No doubt, the Burke family genes were a factor as was a little bit of good instruction.

Members of the Champions PGA staff and Thomas Hutton, Executive Director of the Southern Texas PGA also presented medals as well. The last pair to award medals and trophies were Brad Dalke and Bubbie Broders of the “Good, Good” guys, a group that has more than 1 million subscribers on YouTube. In an exhibition after the regional competition, the Good Good team competed in a Drive, Chip and Putt challenge of their own.

One of the most emotional moments, however, came when the aforementioned Dixie Crain won her age division. With her mom, Sherry, a chief petty officer stationed in Bahrain for another 15 months, not only was she not at Champions for Dixie’s win, but most likely won’t be able to come to Augusta in the spring either.

“It means so much to me,” Dixie said, unable to hold back the tears. “I wish she could have been here.”

Her father Rusty, a retired Navy chief petty officer himself, was there with his daughter, who won in what was her seventh Drive, Chip and Putt competition. “Anything is possible,” Rusty Crain said.

Competitors truly came from near and far. None traveled farther or longer than Jesse Linden, the Boys 12-13 age group winner who came all the way from North Rothbury, Australia. His trip, which included a long flight delay, took 42 hours. He and his father, Clint Linden, have spent the past few summers in the United States and this past year in Texas, where Jesse has competed in junior golf events. Jesse, who dressed in bright yellow pants and a colorful shirt, didn’t know fellow Australian Elkington before Sunday, but after spending 20 minutes with him, is now a fan.

And finally, the National Finalist with the shortest trip was Waits Rodriguez, who lives in the Houston suburb of West University Place. It was only a 45-minute drive to Champions, which might be the reason he had a gallery of 15 supporters. Along with his parents were a couple of siblings, a couple sets of grandparents and other relatives and friends. And they were all vocal at the awards ceremony, the last of the day, when Rodriguez won the Boys 7-9 division with 128 points. His 28-point margin of victory was the largest in any age group.

The Southern Texas PGA Section and Champions Golf Club handled much of the logistics for the Drive, Chip and Putt regional. Champions has a rich history of hosting major events, including the Ryder Cup, U.S. Open, five Houston Opens, five PGA Tour Championships, a U.S. Amateur and a U.S. Women's Open.

About the Finalists

Evelynn Artieta of Denham Springs, La., winner of the Girls 14-15 age group, prevailed by the slimmest margin on Sunday, and it was her putting that made the difference. Her score of 132 allowed her to edge out Naomi-Anne Phan of Grand Prairie, Texas, by just one point. It wasn’t until the last skill, where Artieta scored 60 points in putting to Phan’s 52 points, that the age group was decided.

“I just wanted to put up a good score and see what happens,” said Artieta, who was accompanied by her mother, Emily. Her father Corey, who is a firefighter, couldn’t make it, but he will be her caddie in the National Finals next spring.

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Jagger Jones, who won the Boys 14-15 division, is obviously good at golf, but he's more than good at a few other things, too, including music. They all boil down to "humble confidence," said Jagger, who came from Rogers, Ark., along with his father Jentry Jones.

“If I put my mind to something, I’ll be good at it,” said Jagger, who scored 122 points, including 50 points in chipping and 55 in putting. But he’s also a pretty fair guitar player (he likes to play rock like Van Halen) and plays the double bass violin in the Rogers High School symphonic orchestra. “He has a really good ear,” Jentry, an accomplished guitarist himself, said of his son “He’s beating me at golf now, and beating me at music. It’s awesome.”

Jagger hopes to play college golf at the University of Arkansas like his favorite golfer, John Daly.

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Dixie Crain, the daughter of two Navy veterans, won the Girls 12-13 division and will make her first trip to Augusta National. Like many of the competitors, however, she is multi-talented. She plays percussion in an honors band at Springtown (Texas) High School, competes at a high level on the cross country team as well as the track team and is taking all honors classes. She hopes to graduate a year early and play on the University of Oklahoma women’s golf team. For the past few years, Crain, who sunk her first two attempts in the putting skill, has been attending golf camps at Oklahoma. “I really want to play there,” she said.

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Jesse Linden, who came all the way from North Rothbury, Australia, to win the Boys 12-13 division, hopes to play college golf in the United States someday. Linden, who has been playing junior golf the past few summers in the U.S., wouldn’t mind playing for Texas A&M University. One reason is that he and his father, Clint, have gotten to know Sam Bennett, the former Aggie golfer who won the 2022 U.S. Amateur and had an outstanding showing at the 2023 Masters Tournament. Jesse’s father was introduced by Bennett’s agent, and the Lindens have not only followed Bennett’s career but have become friends with him as well.

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Ani Isabella Cooper, who won the Girls 10-11 division, said one reason she loves golf is the pressure. “I get excited and nervous at the same time,” she said. “I just take a few deep breaths, visualize my shot, and if I didn’t hit it well, I know I did my best.”

That attitude is taking her a long way. She’s also very sociable and encourages others to do their best. And she’s bilingual, too. Her mother, Anahit, is Armenian, and Ani Isabella speaks her mom’s language. As for how she got into golf, that came from her father, Dean Cooper, who started her early just so he could play golf with her someday. Now it’s turned into much more, as Ani Isabella not only has her sights set on Augusta, but playing at Stanford or Duke someday, too.

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Hayes Pethtel, who won the Boys 10-11 division, lists Phil Mickelson as his favorite player, which should be no surprise since they are both lefties. And like Mickelson, Pethtel, of Belton, Texas, is a pretty good putter, scoring 65 of a possible 75 points in that skill. He made his putt from 15 feet and left his putts from 6 and 30 feet right by the hole. Like some of the other National Finalists, he is also a musician and plays the violin at Lake Belton Middle School. The night before the regional, he watched his teacher perform with the Temple Symphony, undoubtedly helping him with the tempo of his putts on Sunday.

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Adelyn Owen, the winner of the Girls 7-9 division, has won a lot of tournaments in her short junior career and even had a hole-in-one at age 7. It came during a Northern Texas PGA Junior event when she hit a 4-hybrid on a 91-yard par 3.

“It took a couple of bounces and went in,” said Owen, of Corinth, Texas, which is north of Dallas. But even that doesn't compare to getting to go to Augusta next year. “After all that practice, I finally made it,” she said of her second attempt at Drive, Chip and Putt.

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Waits Rodriguez of West University Place, Texas, a Houston suburb, really excelled with his short game to win the Boys 7-9 division. He scored 45 points in the chipping portion and 55 in putting. He chipped in with his 9-iron out of the rough on his second attempt.

“I decided to hit it hard because everyone else was coming up short,” said Rodriguez, who was in the last group on Sunday. In case you were wondering, he was named after singer Tom Waits. Young Rodriguez isn’t a fan of the singer, or at least not yet.

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