When it comes to golf, Reynolds Lake Oconee seemingly has it all.
For starters, the master-planned development has 117 holes spread out across six championship courses designed by the game’s top architects with names like Tom Fazio, Jack Nicklaus and Rees Jones. Then, when it comes to golf course training and performance, the resort-style community features one of the country’s rare TaylorMade-anchored practice and club-fitting facilities known as The Kingdom.
Now, Reynolds Lake Oconee has golf’s future at its front door steps.
To be sure, this golf-oriented community has always embraced a youthful attitude with its approach to life – what with its multitude of lifestyle oriented amenities, services and events. But a new relationship with the American Junior Golf Association is literally making this master-planned development a lot younger in the coming years as it showcases the best junior golfers in the world for a new annual tournament series.
The fresh five-year partnership with the American Junior Golf Association announced last June brings a newly created championship event to the shores of Lake Oconee starting this fall during Columbus Day. The Junior All-Star Invitational at Reynolds Lake OconeeJunior All-Star Invitational at Reynolds Lake Oconee will serve as the season-culminating tournament of the AJGA’s American College Development Services (ACDS) Junior All-Star Series for players age 12 to 15, capping a season-long “Road to Reynolds” sequence of events showcasing the future of the game.
The event features 96 of the top male and female junior golfers competing in a 54-hole, stroke-play tournament at the acclaimed golf resort community. The international field will be determined by the AJGA Rankings, a proprietary system that provides a worldwide barometer of the top players using wins and top finishes in national junior golf events.
“All roads will lead to Reynolds Lake Oconee,” AJGA executive director Stephen Hamblin said at the time of the announcement. “This Invitational promises to become one of the premier junior golf events in the world, given the level of competition, the world-class caliber of the golf at Reynolds, and the resources available to junior golfers at the Reynolds Kingdom of Golf presented by TaylorMade.”
Meanwhile, the Rolex Tournament of Champions, the major championship for top-ranked boys and girls ages 12-18, will return to Reynolds Lake Oconee in 2021 after being held there for the first time last July.
“Hosting the AJGA’s Junior All-Star Invitational and the Rolex Tournament of Champions illustrates our commitment to engaging young golfers in the game of golf,” Lon Grundy, general manager, said during this year event. “Reynolds Lake Oconee is the ideal golf resort community for the entire family, and we are proud to be hosting these incredible juniors and their families over the next five years.”
The ACDS Junior All-Star Series has numerous college and professional alumni, including Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth, Morgan Hoffmann, Peter Uihlein, Bud Cauley, Vicky Hurst, Cheyenne Woods and Alison Lee. The AJGA Junior All-Star Invitational and Rolex Tournament of Champions events are among the most significant AJGA tournaments aimed at the next generation of golfers and a natural transition for a community that has a history of strongly supporting amateur golf.
For instance, Reynolds Lake Oconee annually plays host to the Linger Longer Invitational that features an elite field of NCAA men’s golf teams each March, while local qualifying rounds for the Drive, Chip and Putt National Championships are held on Reynolds’ Landing Course each June.
“We are always in search of partners that share the same values and expectation for excellence as we do,” Grundy said, explaining the community’s latest marketing effort in helping grow the game’s future. “The AJGA is a perfect example of this type of partner. In addition to the AJGA, having a world-class organization like Rolex as the title sponsor was the cherry on top. They had a very high expectation for the quality of the venue, the staff and the experience, and we were very excited to provide all of these.”
Grundy is quick to point out the membership at Reynolds Lake Oconee is extremely supportive of his operation’s junior golf efforts and the new round of AJGA tournaments are just scratching the surface. Among the other amateur and junior golf commitments: Reynolds is home of the Athens Area Junior Tour Championship and the Georgia PGA Junior Tour Championship each year and hosted several Georgia State Golf Association junior events over the past couple of years.
“The support of junior golf around Lake Oconee continues to grow,” Grundy said. “Reynolds has started the First Move Junior Program, led by our player development manager Rob Bowser. Rob has done a tremendous job launching this program that includes after school instruction, Saturday Family Golf and summer camps. Next year we will introduce elite training for the best of the best in the lake area and around the Southeast…Needless to say, junior golf is thriving at Reynolds Lake Oconee.”
