Alaythia Hinds won the 2023 Mack Champ Invitational at The Club at Carlton Woods.
Alaythia Hinds, the 2023 Mack Champ Invitational winner, was one of two Black golfers in the field at the 2024 U.S Women’s Amateur Four-Ball at Oak Hills Country Club in San Antonio.
Hinds and her four-ball partner, Erica Villegas, missed the cut at Oak Hills after shooting even par in the stroke-play competition on May 11 and 12, but Hinds still has lots to look forward to this summer, including trying to qualify for the U.S. Girls’ Junior and U.S. Women’s Amateur and heading off to a college career at Howard University.
The USGA recently wrote about Hinds, her history with the Cameron Champ Foundation, her 2023 victory at the Mack Champ Invitational, and her upcoming college career. You can read the article on the USGA’s website.
Evan Pena had six birdies and no bogeys in the second round.
Evan Pena shot a tournament-record 66 in the second round to win the rain-shortened 2024 Mack Champ Invitational for Boys at Memorial Park Golf Course in Houston.
Pena, a member of the class of 2026 from Puerto Rico, was 6-under for the tournament, three shots clear of Joseph Gutierrez (2026) from Whittier, CA, and Aadi Parmar (2027) from Selma, TX.
Storms led to several delays during the tournament and the cancelation of Sunday’s final round.
In the 12-and-under division, Andrew Ayuso from Cypress, TX, was the winner at 9-over. His brother Blake shot 74 on Saturday to finish 12-over for the tournament and take the 10-and-under title.
Lydia Portlock and Kayla Jackson with Cameron after their victories.
Two new champions were crowned at the fourth annual Mack Champ Invitational for Girls, which was played April 12 and 13 at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, TX.
Lydia Portlock, a high school junior from San Antonio who has committed to play college golf at Texas, edged 2022 champ Alona Avery in the over-13 division, and Kayla Jackson, a 5th grader from Charlotte, won the 12-and-under division.
Jayden Lizama hitting his opening tee shot at the APGA Tour Farmers Insurance Invitational.
When Jayden Lizama and Staci Pla won the 2023 Cisco Junior Series presented by the APGA and the Cameron Champ Foundation last summer, they also punched their tickets to Torrey Pines.
Lizama is one of two amateurs playing in the APGA Tour Farmers Insurance Invitational this weekend, and Pla played a pro-am round for the PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open with Collin Morikawa and Alex Morgan, an amazing opportunity captured in the video below.
The girls tournament is returning to The Club at Carlton Woods, site of The Chevron Championship, from April 11-13. The boys will be back at Memorial Park Golf Course in Houston from May 2-5.
Tournament invitations will go out February 2nd for the girls and March 4th for the boys. To be considered for the tournament, join our junior golf database.
The MCI, inspired by the memory of Mack Champ, was created not only to provide an elite competitive experience for junior golfers of diverse backgrounds, but also to serve as a springboard into top-tier tournaments and college scholarships while creating an environment where players and families can build relationships that last a lifetime.
Cameron Champ returned to the place where he learned to love golf in order to share that love with youth from all over the Sacramento area.
Cameron hosted the clinic on Sept. 9 at Foothill Golf Course, where he learned the game from his grandfather Mack. The Champ family now runs the course, which also serves as home base for our foundation, which is committed to diversifying the game and unlocking the potential in youth from underserved and underrepresented communities.
Some of the kids at the clinic were avid golfers looking for tips and inspiration, and others were learning about the game for the first time, but one message was clear to all of them: just like Cameron, you too can achieve great things in the world through hard work and determination.
Many of the juniors in attendance were members of Youth on Course, a national organization that allows youth to pay just $5 for a round of golf at more than 2,000 partner courses. Foothill Golf Course is the home of the Youth on Course Cameron Champ Junior Club and allows YOC members to play unlimited rounds for just $5 per day. Cameron himself was a YOC member and has credited the organization with making the game more affordable when he was a junior golfer.
The foundation’s local efforts include the Cameron Champ Golf Academy at Foothill, which offers affordable junior golf programs (and scholarships for those who can’t afford them); STEM education initiatives; and holiday toy and food drives. The foundation hosts the annual Mack Champ Invitational in Houston, where Cameron now lives. The MCI is the premier tournament for junior golfers from diverse backgrounds, drawing top players from all over the country as well as Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas.
The foundation’s college scholarship program awards more than 20 scholarships annually, including the Chevron | Charlie Sifford Scholarship, which goes to a student from the Sacramento area who demonstrates academic achievement, leadership, financial need, community service, and golf ability.
The PGA Tour’s Fortinet Championship, which will be played this week at Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa Valley, supported the clinic. Cameron won the event at Silverado in 2019, an emotional victory that he dedicated to Mack, who was gravely ill with cancer at the time. Cameron is competing in the tournament again this week.
Alaythia Hinds won the 2023 Mack Champ Invitational at The Club at Carlton Woods, which was set up for The Chevron Open, the first major of the LPGA Tour season.
This is a Sacramento story with a Houston highlight and many more plot developments to come.
Back in 2017, Alaythia Hinds and her father, Lamar, followed Cameron Champ in the Safeway Open at Silverado Resort in Napa. It was the second professional tournament for Cameron, who was still at Texas A&M and played on a sponsor’s exemption. Alaythia, now a 17-year-old rising senior at Pleasant Grove High School in Elk Grove, CA, got to meet Cameron that week and was inspired to see a fellow Sacramento-area native playing at the game’s highest level.
“It was cool being able to connect with someone from the area, seeing how they’ve grown and how they’re succeeding in golf,” she said.
Alaythia with Cameron in 2018.
Alaythia’s relationship with the Cameron Champ Foundation has deepened over the years as she has volunteered at foundation-sponsored junior events at Foothill Golf Course and has traveled to Houston to play in all three Mack Champ Invitationals. After finishing 9th in 2021 and 15th in 2022, Alaythia shot even par (73-71) to take first place at this year’s MCI, which was significantly different from the first two iterations of the tournament. For the first time, the tournament was separate from the boys’ event, and it moved to a new course, The Club at Carlton Woods, site of The Chevron Championship, the first major of the LPGA Tour season.
But despite these changes, one thing remained the same: the MCI provided a unique environment for juniors from diverse backgrounds (and their families) to form lasting bonds.
“For all the years I’ve gone to the Mack Champ, I’ve definitely appreciated the experience of meeting a lot of people,” she said. “I get to interact with a lot of the players, more than I do at other tournaments, and I still keep in touch with some of them.”
Lamar contrasted the MCI experience with other junior events.
“It’s great to meet and see other families who are in the same boat you are, who are also trying to navigate the junior golf thing,” he said. “Typically she is the only African American golfer in a tournament. We just did a USGA qualifier, and out of 80 girls, she was the only African American in the field. So the MCI is completely different from our normal tournaments.”
Alaythia Hinds in the final round of the 2023 Mack Champ Invitational.
But the MCI is not only about relationships. Alaythia’s victory this year has opened many competitive doors, including the chance to play in the John Shippen National Invitational (June 5-7, Grand Rapids, MI) and exemptions into the IMG Academy Junior World Championship (July 11-13, San Diego) and the Junior PGA Championship (Aug. 1-4, Hot Springs, AR).
“You have to be ranked really high to play in these tournaments,” she said. “Thanks to the opportunity that the Mack Champ Invitational has given me, I am able to compete.”
Closer to home, Alaythia is heading to Stanford for the First Tee National Championship in July and is looking forward to the high school golf season later this year, where she hopes to help Pleasant Grove improve on its fourth-place finish at the 2022 CIF State Girls Golf Championships. Alaythia tied for seventh in the individual standings.
Alaythia still has time to figure out what happens after high school, and though it seems certain golf will continue to take her places, she also excels in the classroom and as a musician. She is a 4.0 student and a violinist who plays with the Sacramento Youth Symphony.
“I do hope to play Division I golf in college,” she said, “and I’m excited to see what opportunities come next.”
Golf Digest documented the 2023 Mack Champ Invitational for Girls with this video series, which features an overview of the tournament and profiles of Haven Ward and Afi Amezado.
On April 13-15 at The Club at Carlton Woods, 47 young women from all over the world competed in front of family, friends and college coaches. From aces and playoffs to high-fives and hugs, the event offered several days of great golf and an abundance of inspiration.
Episode 2: Haven Ward
Haven Ward, the daughter of a single mother, has greatly benefited from the Mack Champ Invitational. Through exemptions and opportunities provided by Jeff Champ and the competitive atmosphere of the tournaments he has organized the last three years, the Atlanta native caught the attention of college coaches, and in fall 2023, she will be attending the University of Denver on a full golf scholarship.
Episode 3: Afi Amezado
Afi Amezado, a 14-year-old from an impoverished pocket of Accra, Ghana, boarded a plane bound for America on Wednesday, April 12, played a practice round at Carlton Woods in Houston on Thursday afternoon, and then competed in the Mack Champ Invitational on Friday and Saturday. She did it all with style, grace, humility and plenty of smiles.
You must be logged in to post a comment.