{"id":715867,"date":"2026-06-05T03:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T03:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/715867\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T03:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T03:08:13","slug":"how-newcomers-are-in-position-to-win-schooldays-golf-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/715867\/","title":{"rendered":"How newcomers are in position to win Schooldays golf championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

In most years, champions of the historic Tennessean\/Metro Parks Schooldays<\/a> Golf Tournament on Brandt Snedeker’s <\/a>Tour have come close to winning in previous years.<\/p>\n

The three-day tournament for boys and girls ages 12-18 is in its 102nd year, and winners usually qualify for match play before being eliminated, or maybe even advance to the championship<\/a> before losing.<\/p>\n

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That may not be the case for the 2026 tournament. Neither of the two girls in the championship \u2212 Lyla Payne or Samantha Strothers \u2212 nor the No. 1-seeded boy \u2212 Wil Huddleston \u2212 headed into the semifinals has ever played before in the tournament.<\/p>\n

Those three will try to win the state’s longest-running golf tournament in their first attempt.<\/p>\n

“I heard about the Schooldays from a guy at my school (Clarksville),” Payne said. “He told my grandma to sign me up for it, and I’m glad he did. I like it.”<\/p>\n

“I had never even heard of the Schooldays before a few days ago,” said Strothers, who is from El\u00a0Cajon,\u00a0California. “We looked it up online, the course looked beautiful, and it looked like a lot of fun, so here we are. I’ve learned a lot about the history of the tournament since we’ve been here, and it is really interesting.”<\/p>\n

\"Wil<\/p>\n

Wil Huddleston was the boys medalist who advanced to the Tennessean\/Metro Parks Schooldays Golf Tournament semifinals and Lyla Payne was the girls finalist who advanced to the championship on June 4 at McCabe Course.<\/p>\n

Huddleston, who is from Maryville, had at least heard of the Schooldays.<\/p>\n

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“I’ve always wanted to play in this tournament, but have never been able to because it hasn’t fit into my schedule,” Huddleston said. “I really wanted to play in it based on all the great names who have played in it, like Brandt Snedeker and a bunch of other (PGA) Tour players that have won this tournament. It’s such a big tournament, I wanted to play it.”<\/p>\n

Payne, medalist in the June 3 qualifying round, and Strothers, the runner-up, breezed through the quarterfinals and semifinals of match play on June 4. Payne defeated both Emma Elkins of Hendersonville and Megan Uchrin of Nashville 7 and 6. Strothers defeated Kate Bixenman of Old Hickory 10 and 9 and her sister Emma Bixenman 8 and 6.<\/p>\n

Payne and Strothers will meet in the championship on June 5 at 7:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

Strothers has been the best player in the girls field off the tee, averaging 275 yards.<\/p>\n

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“I drove the ball a little further today, got to know the fairways a little better, took a lot more aggressive lines,” Strothers said. “I also made a lot of putts, got to know these greens better. I spent more time (practicing) on the greens and stopped three-putting.”<\/p>\n

Payne said she is not intimidated by Strother’s long drives.<\/p>\n

“My drives have also been the best part of my game in this tournament, but you also have to have a good short game to beat (Strothers), and I’ve got a good short game too,” Payne said.<\/p>\n

Huddleston also made quick work of his opponent in the first round, defeating Brody Smithson from Gallatin 6 and 5. He then held off Aiden Hampton of Springfield 3 and 2 in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

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“(Smithson) was a very good young player, definitely had a good short game, but I just put up a couple of birdies and got hot, and I was up seven through nine, so he couldn’t really come back,” Huddleston said. “That gave me some confidence. I knew I could put up a bunch of birdies in the next round because I did in the first round.”<\/p>\n

Huddleston put Hampton away by making a 30-foot birdie putt on No. 10, winning 11 and making a 60-foot birdie putt on 12.<\/p>\n

Huddleston will face Maxwell Hunt from College Grove in the semifinal. Carter Lomax from Gallatin gets Cillian Carmack from Pleasant View in the other semifinal.<\/p>\n

In the boys 12-14 division semifinals, Jackson Scott of Franklin defeated Jess Judy of Nashville 5 and 4, while George Armstrong of Franklin defeated Ethan Huang from Nolensville 4 and 3. Scott and Judy will meet in the finals.<\/p>\n

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For the complete results and pairings, visit snedstour.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X @MikeOrganWriter.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Schooldays golf tournament might have newcomers for champions<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In most years, champions of the historic Tennessean\/Metro Parks Schooldays Golf Tournament on Brandt Snedeker’s Tour have come…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[138750,49,48,622,26062,259288,259286,259284,259287,82,259289,259285],"class_list":["post-715867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-brandt-snedeker","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-golf-tournament","tag-huddleston","tag-lyla-payne","tag-samantha-strothers","tag-schooldays","tag-sports","tag-strothers","tag-wil-huddleston"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}