The 68th Louisiana Boys’ Junior Amateur Championship and 60th Louisiana Girls’ Junior Amateur Championship get underway Wednesday at Southern Trace Country Club.
Both are three-round, 54-hole events.
Abigail McWilliams, a 2025 Benton graduate, and Benton rising junior Grace Goodwin are among the favorites in the girls’ tournament.
McWilliams and Goodwin teamed to win Division I state championships for Benton in 2024 and 2025.
Goodwin and Williams finished second and third, respectively, in the 2025 Division I tournament behind Brusly’s Maci Williams, who is also in the field. Williams won the 2023 Girls’ Amateur.
McWilliams recently finished runner-up in the Louisiana Women’s Amateur. She won it in 2024.
New Orleans’ Jade Nevis, who defeated McWilliams in the finals of the Women’s Amateur, is the defending champion. She is a rising sophomore at Sacred Heart, the Division II state champion.
Neves defeated Denham Springs’ Evelyn Artieta in a playoff last year. Artieta is also in this year’s field.
Airline rising sophomore Hudson Greene, the runner-up in the District 1-I tournament, is among three players from Bossier Parish in the boys field.
The others are Benton’s Hays Jorden and Bossier City’s Jacob Morris.
Lafayette’s Drew Sliman is back to defend his title. He was the medalist in the Division I tournament in May.
Sliman and Greene are in the three-player group that tees of at 9:18 a.m. on hole No. 1.
Division I runner-up Justin Lotz of Slidell (Northshore), Division II champion Kye Hanks of Lake Charles (St. Louis Catholic), Division III champion Noah Chauvin of Broussard (Ascension Episcopal) and Division IV champion Alex Roebuck of Ruston (Cedar Creek) are also in the field.