The 11th Annual Junior Honda Classic will be held Saturday and Sunday at PGA National Resort & Spa with 300 youngsters representing 21 countries and 18 states testing their skills over the resort’s Champion, Fazio and Squire courses.

Boys and girls competitions will take place over 36 holes on the Champion course in both the Boys and Girls 16-18 age group. The 36-hole competitions for the Boys 14-15 and Boys 12-13 will be on the Fazio Course. There will be additional 9-hole events for younger kids on the Fazio on Saturday.

The Boys 10-11 division and the Girls 10-11, 12-13 and 14-15 tournaments will be played on the Squire course..

Play begins at 7:45 a.m. each day.

This is the fourth year that The Junior Honda is part of the IMG Junior Tour, a series of events which allow junior golfers to compete and gain exposure to college golf, professional golf, and national junior rankings. It also is a qualifying event for the IMG Academy Junior World, one of the most prestigious Junior events of the year.

The top players in the event are Alexa Pano of Lake Worth, a 13-year-old competing in the Girls 16-18 Division and the No. 36 ranked junior girl in the country as a 13 year old and Boys 16-18 defending champion Luke Gifford of Boca Raton. One-armed golfer Thomas Morrissey from Palm Beach Gardens will play in the Boys 7-8 division on Saturday.

The countries represented this year are Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States.

“The Junior Honda has grown into one of the premier Junior events in the United States,” Honda Classic executive director Kenneth R. Kennerly said. “It is all about developing and growing the game of golf and doing it with the Juniors is the future.”

The Junior Honda Classic also gives the kids a PGA Tour experience, including the operation of the event, Florida State Golf Association rules officials, and tournament merchandise.

Winners are invited to attend the Champions celebration and be recognized on the 18th green on February 25 with the 2018 Honda Classic Champion.

For more information on players and scoring, go to thehondaclassic.com.

IMAGE: Tommy Morrissey, a one-armed golfer from Palm Beach Gardens, will play in the Junior Honda Classic this weekend in the Boys 7-8 Division. (Richard Graulich / The Palm Beach Post)

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