Local Junior Golfers Head to PGA National Championship After Regional Victory

Eight young golfers from across Fayette, Coweta, and surrounding counties have accomplished something no team from their golf academy has done before: They have qualified for the PGA Jr. League National Championship, where they will represent Georgia against 11 other teams from across the country.

The Summer Grove Medalist 17u All-Stars earned their place at nationals with a decisive 9–3 victory over the Tanglewood team at the PGA Jr. League Regional Championship at Indian Hills Golf Course in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Now they’re headed to Twin Warriors Golf Club in Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico, for the October 22–25 national championship. And they’re raising money to help get the entire team there.

For some of these teenagers, nationals represents years of working toward a shared goal. For others, it’s their first season with the team. But all eight have earned a place among the nation’s 12 regional champions.

Three years of chasing nationals

Peachtree City resident Joseph Saferian, founder of Medalist Performance Golf Academy and coach of the 17u team, has been building toward this moment for three years.

In his first season, he assembled a six-player team that won the Georgia state championship but was eliminated in the first round of regional competition. The following year, the team won state again and advanced all the way to the regional championship match, losing by a single point.

This year, they finally broke through.

At regionals, Summer Grove Medalist finished second in qualifying at 27 under par, then defeated the Bluffton A All-Stars 6.5–5.5 in the semifinals before overwhelming Tanglewood 9–3 in the championship match.

For Stockton Hay, 17, a McIntosh High School senior who has been part of the program since its early years, reaching nationals is the fulfillment of a longstanding ambition.

“It feels good. I’m excited. I think it’ll be fun experience not only for me but for everybody on the team,” Hay said.

Hay is one of the original players who helped establish the academy’s competitive program, along with teammate Collin Covington, 17, of Newnan.

The academy operates through Summer Grove Golf Club in Newnan, where Saferian and fellow coach Todd Ormsby work with junior golfers. Saferian also owns 365 Golf, an indoor golf training facility located inside the Home Plate baseball facility in Peachtree City.

Saferian said his academy currently serves about 41 junior golfers, with a focus on developing competitive skills, mental preparation, and pathways to college golf.

His students train as many as six days a week, balancing hours on the course with schoolwork, physical conditioning, and tournament competition.

“We don’t really worry about the outcome we worry about the process and the things that we can control,” Saferian said.

That preparation has paid off.

Best friends and golf partners

One of the team’s most successful pairings is also one of its closest friendships.

Brogan Lax, 16, of Senoia and Logan Scott, 16, of Jackson are best friends who compete together in the PGA Jr. League’s two-person scramble format.

At regionals, their partnership went undefeated.

Scott is one of the academy’s highest-ranked junior golfers. He said he is currently ranked approximately sixth in Georgia in his class and around 1,000th in the world among male junior golfers 18 and younger.

He’s also only been seriously playing golf for about four years.

His father introduced him to the sport, and Scott rapidly developed into a competitive player, recording multiple tournament victories and runner-up finishes this year.

Scott attends online classes through Acellus Academy, allowing him to spend much of his time practicing. He plays approximately nine holes a day and uses a golf simulator at home to continue working on his game.

Living in Jackson means traveling roughly 50 minutes each way to train with his teammates at Summer Grove. Until recently, his mother made those trips with him. Scott just turned 16 and recently drove himself to Summer Grove for the first time.

But when it comes to tournament pressure, playing alongside his best friend changes everything.

“When you’re playing by yourself, there’s quite a bit of pressure. But you know, when you got a friend with you, definitely helps you out,” Scott said.

Lax, a 6-foot-6 junior who also attends Acellus Academy, moved from Peachtree City to Senoia earlier this year. He previously attended Starr’s Mill High School before switching to online schooling to devote more time to golf.

He began playing casually with friends around age 13 after trying basketball, lacrosse, and swimming. Within a few years, golf became his primary athletic pursuit.

Both boys hope to play college golf, and Lax said his biggest challenge is not necessarily hitting the ball.

“I always felt like I could hit the ball well, but I’m currently struggling with the mental side of the game,” Lax said.

He hopes competing at nationals will help him continue building confidence while providing the opportunity to face some of the country’s strongest junior teams.

A team built on different strengths

The PGA Jr. League competition differs from traditional individual golf tournaments.

Players compete in pairs using a scramble format, with both golfers hitting a shot and then choosing which ball position to play from. That means a powerful driver can be paired with an accurate putter, and a struggling player can rely on a teammate to help recover from a difficult shot.

In match play, points are awarded across three-hole segments known as flags, making every part of a match important to the team’s total score.

Hay partners with Noah Robinson, 17, a senior at Trinity Christian School in Newnan.

Hay’s relationship with golf began long before he could swing a real club. As a toddler, he accompanied his father to the golf course, carrying little plastic clubs and riding along in the cart. There are even pictures of him doing it at about age three, although he doesn’t remember those earliest outings. Later, father and son regularly played together on Sundays after church.

What began as time with his dad became a serious competitive pursuit when Hay reached eighth grade. Today, he practices two to four hours most weekdays and spends additional time in the gym. He’s maintaining approximately a 4.0 grade point average while taking dual-enrollment courses that allow him to leave school early and practice.

He’s currently speaking with college golf coaches and hopes to study finance.

Robinson, meanwhile, said having a dependable partner makes competition less stressful.

“When you have two golfers that are both really, really consistent, it’s like you could mess up, but you know your partner’s got your back,” Robinson said.

He credits Saferian with building that atmosphere of encouragement.

“I just really love how Coach, he just pours a lot into us and just makes sure that we’re always on our best,” Robinson said.

Robinson has been playing golf with his father since childhood but began competing seriously when he entered high school. He also hopes to play in college and has been communicating with several college coaches.

One lesson he has taken from golf is learning not to dwell on mistakes. A bad shot can ruin the rest of a round if a player cannot move past it, he explained.

It’s a skill he believes applies beyond golf.

The youngest player and the only girl

At just 14 years old, Emily Williams of Griffin is both the youngest player and the only girl on the eight-member championship team.

A sophomore at Skipstone Academy, Williams skipped a grade in elementary school and has already been playing golf for approximately five years.

She’s accustomed to being surrounded by older male golfers.

“That’s basically how my whole golf career has been. I’ve always been a part of the boys and playing with the boys and always been the youngest in the group,” Williams said.

The transition to the Summer Grove team this year was a positive one.

“The team did a really good job of being welcoming since this is my first year of academy in the junior PGA,” she said.

Williams partners with Mason Parker, 16, of Peachtree City. The two played together for the first time at regionals, where Saferian said their performance was particularly strong.

Williams brings an accurate, dependable swing to the partnership, the coach said, and the pair shot six under par over nine holes in the regional championship round.

Unlike some teammates who homeschool to accommodate golf, Williams maintains a busy schedule at Skipstone, travels about 45–50 minutes to Summer Grove for training twice a week, and participates in her church’s worship team on Wednesdays.

Her mother frequently brings her computer along and works remotely while Williams practices. Her father also helps support her golf pursuits.

Williams said she has learned that improvement requires patience.

“Golf has taught me that you have to slow down and be patient with all the things that you’re trying to do,” Williams said.

The New Mexico championship will also mark her first trip west of the Mississippi River.

Her long-term goal is to earn a college golf scholarship.

From Scotland to Peachtree City

Another member of the team brings an international background to the group.

Thomas Fraser, 17, is a McIntosh High School senior who grew up in Inverness, Scotland, where his father introduced him to golf at age five.

His family moved to Peachtree City nearly three years ago, in part because of his father’s job, but the area’s abundance of golf courses helped make it an attractive place to live.

Fraser balances school, golf, and a part-time job at Chicken Salad Chick in Kedron Village. He practices about four or five days a week and works around his tournament schedule.

He also plays the bagpipes, sometimes performing at veterans’ funerals and ceremonial events.

Unlike many of his teammates, Fraser isn’t necessarily pursuing a place on a university golf team. He hopes to study business or finance, pursue a career in venture capital, and continue playing golf recreationally or through a college club.

Fraser believes golf can be valuable professionally as well as personally.

He’s particularly excited about experiencing desert golf in New Mexico, something he hasn’t done before.

And like his teammates, he’s learned that golf’s greatest challenges aren’t always physical.

“If I hit a bad shot in golf, I used to get really worked up, and my mind just used to enter a red state, and I wouldn’t be able to get out of that for 30 minutes,” Fraser said. “But now, if I hit a bad shot, I it might take like two minutes for me to get out of that red state, and I’m ready for the next shot, still as confident as I would be if as if I never hit a bad shot.”

Fraser partners with Collin Covington, who has been with the academy since its first competitive season.

Meet Team Georgia

The complete Summer Grove Medalist 17u All-Stars roster, according to the PGA, is:

• Emily Williams, 14, Griffin
• Logan Scott, 16, Jackson
• Brogan Lax, 16, Senoia
• Mason Parker, 16, Peachtree City
• Noah Robinson, 17, Newnan
• Thomas Fraser, 17, Peachtree City
• Stockton Hay, 17, Peachtree City
• Collin Covington, 17, Newnan

The team is coached by Joseph Saferian, with Chris Knobloch, PGA, also identified by the PGA as a team coach.

The road to a national championship

The team plans to arrive in New Mexico on Wednesday, October 21, for a welcome celebration that evening.

On Thursday, October 22, the players will have an official 18-hole practice round at Twin Warriors Golf Club, giving them an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the national championship course before competition begins.

Qualifying takes place Friday and Saturday, October 23–24, with players competing in two-person scramble teams over 18 holes each day.

The combined scores determine which four teams advance to Sunday’s semifinals and championship match-play competition on October 25.

Saferian said the first goal is to finish among those top four teams and earn a chance to compete for the national title.

The coach knows that the competition will be formidable, but he believes his team’s qualifying scores put them in a position to compete with the best.

And for the teenagers, the experience itself represents something significant: years of individual training culminating in the opportunity to compete together at a national championship.

Helping the team get to New Mexico

Qualifying for nationals brings a substantial financial commitment.

The eight players and their families must cover travel expenses, lodging, transportation, meals, and other tournament-related costs.

The team has established a GoFundMe campaign with a goal of $20,000 to help offset those expenses.

The fundraiser is seeking support from local residents, businesses, and others interested in helping the team represent Georgia.

For Stockton Hay, whose mother is the Rev. Morgan Hay, senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Peachtree City, the trip will include his parents and grandfather cheering him on.

Hay said donations would be appreciated by the team.

The young golfers have already earned their place on the national stage. Now they are preparing for their opportunity to compete against the best PGA Jr. League teams in the country.

The trip to New Mexico is an expensive one, so the team is looking for support from the community. To contribute to the team’s travel expenses, visit the Summer Grove Medalist 17u All-Stars GoFundMe campaign.