A pair of Jefferson City golfers will represent Team Missouri today and Wednesday in the eighth annual Southern Junior Cup at Willow Point Golf and Country Club in Alexander City, Ala.
Alex Gentry and Greta Hinds - both of Helias High School - are among the 12 competitors from the state of Missouri competing in the two-day Ryder Cup-style tournament against golfers from Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi.
Each state is fielding six boys and six girls on its team. Today's competition will consist of four-ball matches in the morning round and foursome matches in the afternoon. Each state will have six pairings total, featuring one boy and one girl in each pairing.
Wednesday's competition will consist of individual matches.
Joining Gentry among the boys competitors from Missouri are: Case Englehart of Jackson, Christian Rischer of Columbia, Zach Unnerstall of Washington, Thomas Henson of Hermann and Clayton Kaiser of Monett.
Joining Hinds among the girls competitors from Missouri are: Audrey Rischer of Columbia, Nicole Rallo and Mia Rallo of Wentzville, Kaydi Rhodes of Jackson and Claire Solovic of Imperial.
Missouri's team was selected based on a points standings system, where the top four boys and top four girls automatically made the team. The remaining two boys and two girls were captains picks.
Golfers played a practice round Monday, and pairings were drawn later that evening.
In the four-ball matches, Hinds will be paired Unnerstall, and they will face Alabama's Austin Coggin and Lauren Gilchrist. They tee off at 8:10 a.m.
Gentry will tee off at 8 a.m. with Nicole Rallo, and they are paired against Mississippi's Connor McKelroy and Ella Cress.
In the foursome matches, Gentry and Nicole Rallo tee off at 1:24 p.m. against Alabama's Jones Free and Michaela Morard, while Hinds and Unnerstall tee off next at 1:36 p.m. against Alabama's Harrison Davis and Erika Allen.
Alabama has won the Southern Junior Cup each of the past three summers.