Over the last three years, the girl’s W.Va Junior Amateur Championship title has come down to a battle between Kerri-Anne Cook from Oceana and Savannah Hawkins from Hurricane.
Monday morning when the ladies tee it up in the 2023 showdown at Guyan Golf & Country Club in Huntington, the dynamic duo will once again be the favorites to bring home the title.
“I think I am playing a lot better than maybe I was a couple of months ago. I seem to have my short game going a little better than it was earlier and I am also hitting it a little bit further now,” Cook said.
The W.Va Junior Amateur Championship is for participants that are 18 and under as of June 26, 2023. The tournament has five divisions which includes a boys and girls championship division, a division for boys 13-14 years old, a 12 and under boys division and a girls 10-14 age division.
Hawkins captured the 2020 event on the Cobb Course at The Resort at Glade Springs before Cook brought home the 2021 title in dramatic fashion winning the tournament at Bridgeport Country Club in a sudden death playoff.
“She had me by a couple of strokes and I made a couple of birdies to go to sudden death,” Cook recalled. “I think I rolled in a long putt and her putt just rolled over the edge. It was really close.”
Last year Hawkins returned to the winners circle at the Junior Am with a one-shot win over Cook at Sleepy Hollow Golf & Country Club in Charleston.
“It is a lot of fun. Every year it seems I get her by one shot or she gets me by one shot,” Cook said. “It is always back and forth between us.”
Success for Cook and Hawkins has come from years of hard work and a friendship that has helped both become two of the best junior amateur players across the state.
“We have know each other since we played U.S. Kids golf, maybe when we were seven or eight. We just kind of grew up together and always got along really well,” Cook said.
Hawkins also finished third in 2019 when former Beckley standout Mary Denny won the Junior Am championship at The Raven on Snowshoe Mountain, the same year Cook was capturing another championship in the 10-14 age division.
This past October, the rising seniors earned all-state honors at the state high school golf tournament. Hawkins finished second overall in the Class AAA division, while Cook was sixth in Class AA.
“It has been very helpful to have somebody to be competitive with and make you be on your best game,” Cook said.
Cook is also the reigning Player of the Year on the Callaway Junior Tour, an award she has now held for the past two seasons. The young phenom is off to a strong start this year with tour wins at Edgewood Country Club, The Resort at Glade Springs (Cobb Course), Pipestem Resort and this past Wednesday at the Pines Country Club. Cook also has a second place finish at Sleepy Hollow Golf & Country Club.
While the main focus will be on the two young standouts, there will be other contenders for the title this year which includes former Cabell Midland golfer Taylor Sargent and former Bridgeport linkster Marra Johnson.
Sargent was sixth overall in Class AAA at the state golf tournament last year and Johnson will be playing golf next year at Wheeling University.
“If any of the four of us have a good day, we will be right there,” Cook said.
Guyan Country Club is not overly familiar to Cook, but she has played the course and is acquainted with the layout.
“I played the course the other day, but my last tournament there was maybe three years ago. It has been a little while, but I have always liked that course,” Cook said. “It is always in great shape and you can count on that. I need to keep my driver in play and my short game will need to be on for me to play well.”
Cook and Hawkins will be grouped with Sargent and will start at 8:54 a.m. Monday, while Johnson is paired with Scarlett Albertson (George Washington) and Brielle Milhoan (Parkersburg), starting at 9:03 a.m.
“I am excited for the tournament and I feel pretty good,” Cook said. “I think what helps is that I am really comfortable with the people that I am playing with since I have played with them for so many years.”
The tournament is a two-day event and will conclude Tuesday.
