Briery Country Club (BCC) hosted the Piedmont Junior Golf Tournament on Thursday with many golfers taking advantage of getting to play on their home course.

Leading the way among the BCC and local golfers was Evan Mason, who won the boys 16- to 17-year-old division.

BCC President Larry Dunn said he typically has more golfers on the younger end of the age range for Piedmont events, which were created for boys and girls ages 7 to 17.

“Some years you have more younger ones and fewer older ones, but we’ve got a good group of 14 through 17 (year olds) coming through now,” he said.

The evidence of that was clear in the division Mason won, as BCC golfers were all over the leaderboard, including Matthew Myers, who placed second, George Sandridge, who place fourth, and Gunnar Lacks, who tied for fifth. Nathan Towery, of Charlotte County, placed third.

The strong showing from BCC golfers was a successful product of Dunn’s efforts with young golfers in the Piedmont program.

“That’s what we try to do is try to start them early and by the time they get old enough to get in middle school and high school, they really start developing their skills,” he said. “The high school team has typically had real good success, part of which is from, I think, this little program.”

Other elder BCC golfers to place in Thursday’s tourney were Emily Arrington and Maggie Adams, who placed third and fifth, respectively, in the girls 14- to 17-year-old division.

Among boys 14 to 15 years old, BCC golfer Larkin Jackson placed fifth, and Dalton Lockridge, of BCC, placed fourth in the boys 12- to 13-year-old division.

In the girls 11- to 13-year-old division, Lindsey Towery, of Charlotte County, finished as runner-up, and Jordan Colbert, of Charlotte County, placed third.

Dunn was pleased with the tournament, which featured 60 participants.

“It went really well,” he said. “We’ve been doing this for more than 20 years, so we host one about every year or every other year, anyway.”

There are seven Piedmont Junior Golf Tournament held each year and 11 courses that send teams to participate in them.

The tournaments are learning experiences in and of themselves for younger golfers, but Dunn provides a clinic each Tuesday prior to the Thursday tournament for training purposes.

“It’s more or less a learning process that we try to put them through so that they can go right and play most any course and use proper rules and proper etiquette,” he said. “So, that’s sort of the goal of it.”

Golfers who are able to participate in three of the first six tournaments are eligible to compete in the championship.

The championship will be held Thursday at Lunenburg Country Club in Kenbridge.

Dunn expects to have at least a dozen BCC golfers competing in the championship.