Jarred Texter will be at the 56th annual Lanco Janney Montgomery Scott Amateur golf championship Friday and Saturday, June 27-28, at Bent Creek Country Club.
Jarred Texter is a three-time winner of the Lanco Amateur.
But he'll be watching, and not defending the championship he's won the past two years and three times overall.
Texter, who graduated from UNLV this spring, started his professional career last month, and thus is ineligible for the Lanco or any other amateur tournament.
Texter cashed his first pro check last week, earning $913.33 in the Tarheel Tour's Spring Creek Classic Wedneday through Friday in Gordonsville, Va.
He shot 71-73-77 for a 5-over-par 221, tied for 50th.
Texter, a Penn Manor graduate, is playing his best golf of the year, which comes as a bit of relief after a disappointing senior season at UNLV.
He was an honorable-mention All-American as a junior, but decided to make some changes in his swing after not playing well in his final tournament last fall.
So, he went to the Butch Harmon School of Golf in Las Vegas to make over his swing.
"They were great," he said, "but [the swing] was too technical for me. I thought it would make me better, but it just made things worse."
After struggling throughout the spring, Texter decided to go back to his old, more natural swing.
When he returned to Millersville after graduation, he took a few lessons from Scott Vandegrift, the head pro at Crossgates Golf Club and the only swing coach Texter had ever had.
It took only three or four sessions for Texter to feel comfortable again.
"We went back to the basics," he said. "We really got after it for a few days."
The work paid off immediately, with two solid rounds and his first pro paycheck last week in Virginia.
The Tarheel Tour has 20 events from March to October in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Last week's tournament had a total purse of $124,500, with $20,000 to the winner.
Zack Amole, a Cocalico graduate who now lives in Myrtle Beach, S.C., is also playing on the Tarheel.
Texter's next Tarheel tournament is the Pete Dye Classic at the Pete Dye River Course in Radford, Va. The tournament is Tuesday through Thursday.
Texter, whose degree is in public relations and advertising, plans to play on the Tarheel Tour the rest of the summer. He also hopes to play in some Nationwide Tour qualifiers, then compete in the PGA Tour Q-School in the fall.
But next weekend, he'll be at Bent Creek, watching the Lanco and, as last year's champion, participating in Saturday's awards ceremony.
As of Saturday, nine former champions, including eight-time champion King Knox, had entered the 36-hole tournament. Other former champions entered are Ken Phillips and Marlin Detweiler, both three-time champions; two-time champion Dave Richards; and Brian Groff, Jerry Janeski, Mark Leaman, Andy Tompos and Jeff Wintersteen.
A total of 116 players had entered the tournament by Saturday afternoon, according to Jerry Clark, president of the Lancaster County Golf Association. He expects a final field of about 125-130 by Monday's deadline for entries.
While golf participation has declined nationally, that hasn't been the case for local tournaments.
"Lanco events are trending upward," Clark said.
Jim Hersh is sports editor of the Sunday News. E-mail him at jhersh@lnpnews.com.
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