OWASCO - With 45 years to its credit, the annual Cayuga County District Golf Association Bobby Hoey Junior Golf Tournament has become a tradition for local youth golfers.

“I think it is the longest running tournament we have,” said tournament director Jason Lesch. “We have been doing this for a long time and we are still going.”

While the tournament has seen its ups and downs over the years, with varying numbers turning out, this year's event managed to put together a strong field of competitors.

Twenty-five golfers, broken into two divisions - 12-and-under and 12-to-18 - hit the links for two days of golf, starting at Highland Golf Club on Tuesday and Dutch Hollow Country Club Wednesday.

“A big part of our focus is on the younger golfers,” Lesch said. “This is a unique opportunity for them. This is the first time a lot of these guys get to play against people their own age. A lot of the time they just go out with their parents or something, but here they get to go out with guys their own age and play some golf and learn a little bit more about the game. That is our big goal here.” Taking the top spot in the 12-to-18 division was Eric Hlywa, 16, of Auburn who shot a 74 at Highland and had another strong day with a 78 at Dutch Hollow to finish with a five-stroke win (152). Last year's champ Bobby Dushatinski finished second with a 157, while Steve Dec was third (169) and Bobby Gage took fourth (170).

Hlywa remarked how much he'd improved since his first time playing in the tournament years ago.

“It has been a really good experience,” Hlywa said. “Each year I've done pretty well, usually I finish in the top 10. I feel like every year I play a little bit better. But this year it feels really good to win and I think I played pretty well.”

While Hlywa used the experience to his advantage, many of the younger players were making their tournament debut.

Jonathan Owens, who hails from Arizona but spends his summers in the area, takes lessons at Wells College.

While there, Owens#, coach mentioned the tournament.

“He told me about it,” Owens, 10, said. “He asked me if I would want to play, it sounded like it would be pretty fun. It was a really good time.”

Owens earned a second-place finish in the 12-and-under championship flight with a two-day total of 115.

Right behind Owens was another tournament first timer, Daniel Clark, 10, of Auburn, who earned a two-day total of 130.

Clark said that he has been golfing for more than six years, and like Owens, competes in a number of different sports, but has a deep interest in golf.

“This was a lot of fun,” Clark said. “I really enjoyed it. You get to play with a lot of different people and the courses are really nice.”

Taking the top spot with a two-day total of 86, was Mike May, 10, of Auburn.

May said that last year was his first year in the Bobby Hoey Tournament, but he only played one of the two days.

But this year he was ready to play both.

“I've been playing seven or eight years,” May said. “My dad got me into playing. We have a golf course right in our backyard so I get to play pretty much every day. I play a lot with my friends and neighbors. We'll walk over to Owasco Country Club and play, it is so much fun.”

May said that he has also competed in a number of other tournaments, some hosted by Tony Biata, as well as the U.S. Kids World Qualifier.

“It feels really good to win,” May said. “It was a good tournament, both courses were really nice and it was a really fun time.”

Lesch said that while numbers were down a bit, he was pleased with the tournament this year and that he is going to keep it scheduled for the last week of July next summer, with the hope of attracting more players.

“We'd love to see more kids come out and play in this,” Lesch said. “Highland and Dutch Hollow are so supportive of this; they love to see these kids out here. But we'd definitely like to see more kids and we'd like to get some girls involved too and keep this tournament growing.”