It's in the genes for Latrobe's Wears
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Will Wears of Greater Latrobe High School finished 15th in the PIAA championship tournament. Wears is a grandson of golfing legend Arnold Palmer.
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Will Wears regularly travels around the country to play in some national-caliber junior golf tournaments, be they part of the International Junior Golf Tour, the Future Collegians World Tour, the American Junior Golf Association or others.
But Wears, a sophomore at Greater Latrobe High School, said that nothing quite matches the experience of qualifying for and participating in the PIAA boys' golf championships.
"I can't say enough about how good this tournament is," Wears said. "It's as good as any tournament in the country, certainly against any other state's tournament. Without a doubt, and you'll hear that anywhere.
"With the quality of players and the difficulty just to get to it, there's no question that this is as good a tournament as I play in, and I look forward to it as much as I do playing in any tournament."
Wears shot a 7-over-par 149 over two days of the two-round PIAA championship Monday and Tuesday at Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York.
That placed him in a tie for 15th among a field of the state's top 48 high school golfers.
The performance in York was the culmination of a postseason for Wears that had him the low scorer for the Wildcats' WPIAL runner-up team, place in a tie for ninth at the WPIAL individual championships and in 12th at the PIAA Western Regional earlier this month.
"It's a tough, grueling process just to get to that point," Latrobe coach Scott Reaugh said of the PIAA finals. "We talked about it on the drive home that I think his game is right there with the best of them in the state.
"Next year and the year after, I think our goal is to be in that final pairing on Tuesday, to be there and have a shot to win it all."
Wears, who last season was among the top 11 in the WPIAL and part of a WPIAL championship team as a freshman, is among the longest hitters in the state for a player his age.
Strong from tee to green, like most golfers, he strives to improve his putting to lower significantly his average score, which was in the 36-37 range this season per nine-hole round for Latrobe.
First Published October 29, 2010 12:00 am
