Tyler’s Reid Habermehl and 21st Century Junior Golf
Published 1:15 am Wednesday, July 8, 2026
FRISCO – As the final nine holes of the 100th Texas Junior Amateur were being played last week at Stonebriar Country Club, I marveled at the quality of play I was seeing from Tyler’s 15-year-old Reid Habermehl and his playing companions Declan Dent of Grapevine and Drake Gilbert of Lorena.
The 100th version of the state junior, now presented by the Texas Golf Association, had already caught my attention in the days leading up to the tournament because it fostered memories of my own junior golf. I recalled having the wonderful privilege of knowing and playing golf with Hugh Carpenter, the first winner of the championship in 1927. I also thought of my friend Wally Payne of Fort Worth, who won the tournament in 1970.
In crafting an article about the 100th rendition, I noted the previous winners from East Texas beginning with Billy Martindale of Jacksonville in 1956 and extending through 2003 champion Clay Hodge of Tyler. Between those two were Tyler standout golfers Steve Bowman (1975), Andy Dillard (1977) and Tommy Hathaway (1979). Now Habermehl, a sophomore at Grace Community School, is the next budding champion under the watchful eye of Chris Hudson at Willow Brook Country Club.
Arriving at Stonebriar, I bumped into college coaches from major Division I schools and all were familiar with Habermehl and others in the final few groups of the tournament. I also had the foolish idea that I could walk the second nine holes of play with a foldable chair. Even while favoring the shade, walking the course soon became untenable and thankfully I was able to hitch a ride on a cart driven by Dent’s grandfather Phil, a story himself that I will touch on later.
I already knew these young players were good and played a modern game like that on television each week, but still, it was fascinating to watch this talent level at such a young age. I couldn’t help but contrast it to my memory of junior golf decades ago.
Our junior tour in those days of the late 1960s consisted of tournaments in all the small towns of East Texas like Jacksonville and Kilgore. Playing every day of those hot Texas summers, we walked and drank lemonade and chipped and putted our way to scores in the 70s. Our clubs were archaic by today’s standards and the golf ball, made of real rubber, was soft and curved mightily. It also creased easily with anything less than a well-struck shot. But we could putt and did so on Bermuda greens “as grainy as barbed wire,” with just a squat to read the putt or maybe a plumb bob by those of us who religiously read articles in Golf Digest.
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Willow Brook was well-maintained in those days as was Briarwood (now The Cascades) and even Bellwood where I learned the game but nothing like The Dye Course at Stonebriar that is manicured and surrounded by beautiful million dollar estates. The hilly terrain is somewhat an anomaly in the DFW area and presumably is part of a fault line that runs from Oklahoma to the Hill Country near Austin and San Antonio. It was a proper setting to witness the golf shots played by Habermehl and his playing partners.
On this day, on the last nine holes, Habermehl carded six pars, two birdies and a lone bogey when he handcuffed himself by driving too close to the par 4 12th green that had a diabolical hole location near the front of the green. In retrospect, a lay-up shot off the tee would have been the better play. It was the only course management error he made and he explained later that he thought he could hit his drive farther and thus have an easier pitch shot on this par 4 hole playing just over 300 yards
These youngsters were driving it close to 300 yards and their drives were high in the sky like the pros. The same with their laser iron shots to large undulating greens. Putting may be the only area where the players struggled a bit and that made me wonder if maybe our “old school” method was better because it relied more on feel and intuition. Putting has always seemed more art than science.
Habermehl missed several birdie putts in the range of 15 to 20 feet before chipping in on the par 3 14th hole. Bolstered by that shot, he then canned a short birdie putt on the 15th. Then he made pars on the final three holes and signed for a 74, two over par. Having shot 76 the opening round with two double bogeys on his first nine holes, he shot a 2-under 70 in the second round and finished the tournament with a 220 total for 54 holes, and a tie for 14th along with Gilbert.
“All parts of my game were good this week,” Habermehl said after his round. “But they just weren’t as consistently good this week as I would have liked. I played pretty well except for a triple today and two double bogeys the first day. That’s seven shots that made a lot of difference.”
Dent shot a 70 in his final round to go with the low round of the tournament, a 68, in his second round after starting the tournament with a 77. His total of 215, one under par, was good enough to finish fourth behind winner Kaden Frierson of Austin (212) and co-runners-up Isaiah Diaz of Del Rio and Aada Parmar of Selman (214). Dent is committed to going to the University of Texas with one year of high school golf remaining and is the grandson of former Australian tennis pro Phil Dent, who allowed me to ride on his rented golf cart. The high point of his career was a loss to John McEnroe in the finals of the 1983 Australian Open.
It should be noted that the Dye Course is long at over 7,000 total yards and challenging with some tight fairways bordered by water and sand. The course played even tougher because of strong southerly winds. Those elements did not seem to faze Habermehl. As Hudson mentioned to me that day via text, Habermehl is such a good player for his age.
“Reid is a really talented kid,” Hudson said. “He is extremely knowledgeable about his golf game and very competitive.”
Those are good traits because he has plenty of competition in players like Dent and Diaz, especially Diaz, as he is 15 years old, too. And the players know this tournament and others are a showcase for their skills as 29 different college coaches attended the event.
Habermehl, who finished as TAPPS 5A runner-up medalist in May at Squaw Valley Golf Course in Glen Rose , has the game to win this event in upcoming years. He is a superb ball striker with good course management and a wonderful touch around the greens. He has that even keel temperament good for golf and is surrounded by a great family with father Erich, mother Amanda and older brother Davis all watching and supporting him at Stonebriar.
Already a part of the tradition of good Tyler junior golfers, Habermehl best golf seems part of his future. It will be fun to watch.