It’s about more than golf at the annual Jay Don Blake Border War team golf event between Utah and Southern Nevada junior golfers. But there is always a champion and Team Utah earned a hard-fought victory 326-322 while Team Southern Nevada put on a nice showing in the 18 singles matches, winning that session. The matches were played at Southern Highlands Golf Club, home of the UNLV men’s golf team, and TPC Summerlin, the host course for the PGA Tour’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. –By Brian Hurlburt, Las Vegas Golf Insider.

“Golf is really individual and so kind of getting and playing with a team and trying to not let the team down is something, you take extra pride in it,” said Team Southern Nevada player Andrew Hawk. “That’s what I really liked about it.”

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Team Utah jumped out to a solid lead by winning both the team fourball sessions at Southern Highlands before team Southern Nevada won the overall singles matches 168.5 to one 155.5, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Utah’s lead. Utah now leads the overall series 6-1.

“Yeah, it’s a victory, but the victory really is the event itself,” said Team Utah captain Jeff Thurman. “I feel like I’m getting to know some of the kids from Nevada as well as I know some of my kids.”

Team Utah’s Berlin Long appreciates the competition and the courses–and the fun.

“This one is always really fun and they always do a really good job,” said Long. “It’s fun to be able to play match play because we don’t get to do it very often and we’re able to play awesome golf courses. So it was really fun.”

Team Southern Nevada captain Billy Harvey believes his players had a chance heading into the singles, but just couldn’t quite make up the deficit.

“We kept it close enough,” Harvey said. “I told the whole team that I thought that if we were within 20 points or less, we had a great shot in singles cause we typically bring it back in singles. And that’s what happened. Today was an amazing day.”

Harvey was impressed with the level of play on both sides.

“They still played well, even under the pressure  of knowing that they don’t want to let their team down,” Harvey said. And none of them did everybody played great, whether they lost the last few holes or won the first few holes, you know, like I think everyone for the most part played awesome today.”

A special thanks to Jay Don Blake for his ongoing support of junior golf and to the ownership and membership of both Southern Highlands and TPC Summerlin for hosting this prestigious event. And congratulations to all players involved. And we’ll see you next year.