By Stan Olenik, Editor-Publisher

It wasn’t that long ago that Nick Biershenk, Brad Sill and Brandon Masters were the top Junior golfers in the Upstate.

Each of the three had outstanding junior, high school or college careers.

Masters won a state high school championship, Biershenk and Sill both won Junior championships and played college golf before continuing as professionals for a time.

The three former junior stars teamed up to play in The Fort Club Tough Day at the course near Ninety Six.

All three can still golf their ball and carded a 60 to share the first round lead, but at least in this tournament, they were the “old guys” competing with a younger version of themselves.

Dawson Szabo, Owen Kinnunen and Ryder Seppala were one of the teams of talented juniors in the tournament and shared the first round lead.

The other junior team of Hugh Faulkner, Davis Petty and Pete Revis were one shot back.

The six junior golfers, had resumes including state individual and team championships, national individual age group titles and SCGA wins that mirrored the junior achievements of the “old guys”.

In a different sort of pairing the 3 man teams played the Sunday round in groups of nine.

In the final round, Revis, the youngest of the juniors, carded an eagle and added a crucial par putt on the final hole, just about in the dark, to tie the “old guys” as both teams finished with a 127 total.

A playoff would have been interesting, but with less daylight this time of the year, the playoff was held on the scorecards.

Faulkner, Petty and Revis won the card playoff. The “old guys” finished second and the Szabo, Kinnunen, Seppala team was just a shot back in third.

Biershenk, who was the head coach at Limestone and an assistant at North Carolina State and Mississippi before leaving coaching had a hand in his teams loss.

“I worked with Hugh since he was about 8 years old. I helped a couple of the other guys on occasion and it was kind of fun competing with them,” he said. “They are all really outstanding players and nice kids,” he added.

Biershenk appreciated their skill and competitiveness as well as the maturity these very young golfers show on the course.

The former Clemson golfer isn’t ready to compare the large group of quality juniors to the players who were with him on the Tigers 2003 NCAA championship team that only had Palmetto State golfers on it, but if they keep progressing they could be.

“They are yes sir and no sir kind of kids. They respect the game and it shows in the way they play. If they can keep going the way they are they have a chance to be really outstanding players,” said the former college coach.

The Fort Tough Day Flight winners – First Flight – Walt Todd, Neal Todd, Jake Dickens, Second Flight – Blake Blizzard, Beau Lewis, Callahan Keever tied Kevin Addis, Cameron Addis. Keegan Farmer, Third Flight – Lee Timmerman, Bradley Gunner, Tim Gilbert.