Root and Bayer notch MOVJGA victories

WAVERLY - Parkersburg South High School freshman-to-be Austin Root capped a four-day golf junket Thursday with a win in the 13-15 year-old division of the Mid-Ohio Valley Junior Golf Association event at the Golf Club of West Virginia.

Kevin Bayer, who will be a junior at South this fall, captured the 16-18 division of Thursday's play at GCWV, the fifth stop on the nine-course 2008 MOVJGA tour.

Root has had a busy week with Top Flite Junior Tour victories Monday at Oglebay in Wheeling and Tuesday at Moundsville Country Club, then finished third in Wednesday's MOVJGA tournament at Lakeside Golf Course in Beverly, Ohio, before coming out on top of the 13-15 field Thursday with a 73 on the extremely-rolling 5,568-yard, par-70 GCWV layout.

''It was the first time I've won on Top Flite,'' said Root of his triumphs on back-to-back days in his third year on the tour. ''I played pretty good at Oglebay - shot a 74 there. I didn't make any birdies. But just hit the greens and make putts there, and you've got it.'' The next day at Moundsville, ''in pouring down rain, I still managed to shoot a 75,'' said Root, who admitted he even ''surprised'' himself with the consecutive Top Flite wins.

Only taking up the game four years ago, Root was inspired to do so by his father, Warren, a former collegiate golfer at Auburn who played on the pro tour for several years. ''He's my coach,'' said Root, and Warren was there intently watching his son play Thursday.

Root said the best part of game right now is ''probably my putting,'' and indicated he needs ''to work on my short game a little more.''

On Thursday at GCWV, ''I started off battling the back nine with a double-bogey on (No.) 10, but kept it together,'' said Root.

He has two more Top Flite events to play in at Pipestem and Parkersburg Country Club and three more MOVJGA stops at Worthington, Oxbow and Northfork prior to the Top Flite tournament the end of July for the top 24 golfers in each of three age groups.

Bayer first played in MOVJGA events in the nine-hole, 12-and-under division, ''but this is my first year since then,'' he said. ''The course here (at GCWV) is pretty short, so it played to my length since I'm not that big of a real long hitter. And I hit a lot of greens, so it was pretty easy to get par most of the time. The challenge was just to make the putts. It was a challenging course today, but for the most part, just hit the green and two-putt, and you were pretty good.''

Good enough to better his ''usual 77 to 75 on a good day'' with a 73. ''So today, I played pretty solid,'' said Bayer, whose best previous MOVJGA finish before Thursday was a tie for second at Arrowhead in Beverly.

Bayer, on the golf team at South since he was a freshman, started playing golf at 12, but ''got serious about it around 13,'' he said.