The Inaugural Great Hearts Invitational Tournament was a Triumph on the Greens
Great Hearts Academies June 11, 2024 -
Great Hearts hosted its inaugural Great Hearts Invitational Tournament of Cup Champions (TOCC), a private 18-hole golf event where top golfers from Great Hearts academies competed at Talking Stick Golf Resort for the prestigious Navy-Blue Great Hearts TOCC Jacket. Ty Pennypacker, the 2024 Scottsdale Prep Cup Champion, claimed victory in the tournament.
Roland Bennett, known to his student golfers as Coach Ro, is the head golf coach at Cicero Prep. He conceived the idea for the tournament and organized the private event, which was sanctioned by Great Hearts and not affiliated with AIA. “We decided that as long as a Great Hearts academy has a varsity golf team and the school is running the cup standings and adhering to the cup standings and measurement guidelines, their cup winner and runner-up will each win a trophy and get a special invite to the Great Hearts Invitational Tournament of Cup Champions, where they will get a chance to win the Navy Jacket,” explained Bennett.
The tournament included six Great Hearts Arizona academies, making up twelve participants: the cup winner and runner-up from each academy. The players were:
- Ty Pennypacker, 2024 Scottsdale Prep Cup Champion
- Andrew Duke, 2024 Scottsdale Prep Cup Runner-Up
- Kennedy Ritzman, 2024 Glendale Prep Cup Champion
- Ethan Smith, 2024 Glendale Prep Cup Runner-Up
- Owen Glass, 2024 Veritas Prep Cup Champion
- Mason Twist, 2024 Veritas Prep Cup Runner-Up
- Devin Brown, 2024 Trivium Prep Cup Champion
- Shaun Sanchez, 2024 Trivium Prep Cup Runner-Up
- Blake Bakken, 2024 Great Hearts Anthem Cup Champion
- Nathan Anthony, 2024 Great Hearts Anthem Cup Runner-Up
- Kieran Walsh, 2024 Cicero Prep Cup Champion
- Jake Walsh, 2024 Cicero Prep Cup Runner-Up
Bennett hopes to expand the tournament to include more Arizona academies and make this a national event in future years, incorporating academies from Great Hearts Texas, Great Hearts Louisiana, and the upcoming Great Hearts Florida. This would be the first singular athletic event to bring together all of the Great Hearts regions.
One unique aspect of this tournament is that players are invited to bring along a caddy. The only requirement for the caddies is that they are also students of the player’s academy and have a good knowledge of the game. Coach and parent input is not allowed during the entire 18 holes. “It’s only down to the player and their caddy,” said Bennett. “To see these high school kids hand the club off to the caddy to wipe it clean after they make the shot and to see the caddies reading the player’s putt with them and discussing it – it looked like a mini-PGA Tour, and it was so cool.”
The highlight of the tournament was the dramatic ending. Cicero Prep’s Cup Champion, sophomore Kieran Walsh, was two strokes behind the leader, Scottsdale Prep’s Cup Champion, senior Ty Pennypacker. Walsh birdied the 16th and 17th holes to tie with Pennypacker on the 18th tee box. “So, we’ve got two players tied for the lead on the last hole, and they both hit the fairway. Ty hits his shot onto the green, landing about 15-16 feet from the hole. Kieran’s shot comes up just short of the green on the low side. He decides to use his putter from off the green and almost makes the putt for birdie, leaving the ball in tap-in range. He taps in for par. Now, Ty Pennypacker is the last to play on the final hole, tied for the lead. He needs two putts to force a playoff or one putt to win,” recalled Bennett.
By this time, all the other players had finished and were watching from the gallery behind the green along with the coaches as Pennypacker contemplated his next move, circling the ball and talking it over with his caddy. “It was not an easy putt,” explained Bennett. “I mean, it was a 15-footer downhill breaker.” Pennypacker sunk the putt, and he and his caddy immediately burst into celebration on the green.
The first inaugural Great Hearts Invitational Tournament of Cup Champions came down to the best player in the field being forced to make a birdie on the 18th hole to win the jacket—and he did it! “It was so dramatic and so cool,” said Bennett.
Pennypacker received the coveted Navy Jacket at an awards ceremony later that night. Bennett hopes to have more participants at the next TOCC and wants to see this private invitational tournament catch the eyes of student golfers who will see it as another benefit of attending a Great Hearts academy.
“It was so cool to see it come from an idea, to paper, to an actual tournament,” said Bennett. “It can only get better from here.” Contact your academy or a Great Hearts academy near you to find out how your student could be the next champion to put on the Great Hearts Invitational TOCC Navy Jacket.
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