Girls golf tournament returning to Dalhousie

The American Junior Golf Association will return to Dalhousie Golf Club in June after a three-year absence with the Rolex Girls Junior Championship.

Course owner Cord Dombrowski made the announcement of the 72-player event at a luncheon Wednesday at Dalhousie

The invitational-only event for girls ages 12 to 18 will take place June 10 to 14. The tournament will kick off with a pro-am on June 10 and followed by four 18-hole rounds of stroke play.

The event is one of three Rolex tournaments in the AJGA season. It is the first AJGA event for Dalhousie since it ended a three-year AJGA contract by hosting the prestigious Rolex Tournament of Champions in 2009.

"They only come along so often," Dombrowski said about the AJGA majors. "And when this opportunity came up, and we knew what the experience was like, we accepted."

The club had hosted the Dalhousie Junior Championships, an open event, in 2007 and 2008 and was named the AJGA's tournament of the year on both occasions. Dalhousie then won the organization's volunteer award as host of the Rolex in 2009 attracting an AJGA record of more than 400 volunteers.

The Atlanta-based AJGA had 96 tournaments in 2012.

"Once we finished doing the Rolex one and received all those accolades, especially with the folks in Atlanta, [their thinking] was, 'If we go back to Dalhousie and ask you if we can come back, we want to do it for a major,'" Dombrowski said.

The club, which always has had a presence in junior golf since opening in 2002, was of a like mindset. This year's Rolex event was the first major event available to Dalhousie since 2009.

"We're a major caliber facility compared to most of the facilities they play on," Dombrowski said. "We're a major caliber community, and the way we treated folks when they were here -- and that's a testament from them, not us. So we're pretty much going to stick with [majors events]."

Dalhousie, which has been ranked the No. 1 course in Missouri by Golf Digest, also has been host to tournaments on the high school and collegiate level, as well as seven Missouri Golf Association championships. It most recently hosted the Missouri Amateur in 2012.

Andrew Greenfield was the tournament director of the previous three AJGA events at Dalhousie, and his wife, Julie, will serve in that capacity this year.

Cape Girardeau mayor Harry Rediger spoke briefly at the luncheon, and commended Dombrowski and Dalhousie for such endeavors that help the region grow and enhance the reputation.

"This is a destination event which continues to help enhance that status," Rediger said.

Rediger said the previous AJGA tournaments brought about $300,000 to $400,000 to the local economy.

"I would anticipate in 2013 we would surpass economic impact of this event, for our city, to exceed a half a million dollars," Rediger said. "So it is a significant, significant event."

The tournaments also attract the premier junior golfers in the world.

The 2009 event had a field of 144 golfers from seven countries, including some of the top talent from around the United States. Victoria Tanco, who was from Argentina, won the tournament and is now on the LPGA Tour. Also in the field was 14-year-old Floridian Alexis Thompson, who two years later became the youngest-ever winner on the LPGA Tour.

The boys championship was decided in a playoff which included Byeong-hun An, who went on to win the U.S. Amateur the following month. T.J. Vogel, who won the Rolex playoff, won the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship in 2012 to qualify for this year's Masters in Augusta, Ga. Michael Weaver, who led the 2009 tourney after the first round, also has qualified for this year's Masters field.

And more top talent will visit in June.

The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla., hosted the Rolex Girls Junior Championship in 2012. The tournament turned into a runaway for then-defending champion Ariya Jutanugam of Thailand, who finished 18 shots ahead of her sister, Moriya. Both players remain eligible for this year's tournament, with Ariya a junior and Moriya a senior in high school.