Turowski wins WPGA Boys Championship
By Mike Dudurich • June 15, 2021
Mike is a freelance writer and host of The Golf Show on 93.7 The Fan Saturday mornings from 7-8 AM. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeDudurich.
Winning a golf tournament by seven shots is by all definitions a rout.
And the West Penn Boys Championship at Grove City Country Club on Monday, was definitely that. Nicholas Turowski, a sophomore-to-be at Penn-Trafford High School, was definitely the man on this occasion.
He was the only player to break par in what started out being an 11-man field that shrunk to 9 due to a couple withdrawals. But the third straight win in the West Penn Boys Championship was anything but boring.
“We had a 520-yard par five and I hit my drive pretty well, but it found the right rough and I had 225 left to the pin,” Turowski, 15, said. “I hit 5-iron to 20 feet and just as we got onto the green, they blew the horn (because of weather). We waited at least a half hour and then went back out and I made the putt for eagle. We had three weather delays total.”
Turowski’s one-under round of 71 included three birdies and the eagle and four bogeys.
Trevor Dodd of Indiana Country Club finished the day at 6 over and David Fuhrer of Oakmont Country Club was 7 over to complete the day as Turowski’s closest pursuers.
“Nick is just such a great kid,” said Hannastown Golf Club professional Craig Mankins. “He has unbelievable talent, and he works hard just like the other great players we have.”
He’s benefitted a great deal by having been taken under the wing of Mark Goetz, last year’s West Penn Open champion. Turowski joined at Hannastown in the last year.
“Mark told me he’d be happy to help, and it’s been great learning from him,” Turowski said.
Even at the tender time of nearly a sophomore in high school, Turowski knows exactly what he wants to be when he “grows up.”
“I definitely want to play Division I golf when I get out of high school,” he said. What he didn’t say was that he’d like to continue that golf tourney even further than college.
He’s played a lot of different sports growing up: Dek Hockey, Inline Hockey, basketball, baseball and tennis. And there he was Monday even playing some tennis after getting home from Grove City.
Turowski and his older brother Alex led the Penn-Trafford boys golf team to a second-place finish in regular-season play and won a match before bowing out.
“It was cool to be on the same team as my brother,” he said.
And he’s had a good year in summer golf as well.
Earlier this month he won a Hurricane Junior event in State College by a dozen shots and qualified for the PGA Junior championship.
He and Central Catholic sophomore Rocco Salvatti qualified from the same event.
Onward and upward is the game plan for this 15-year-old and there are no plans for that journey to stop.
About the WPGA
Founded in 1899, the Western Pennsylvania Golf Association is the steward of amateur golf in the region. Started by five Member Clubs, the association now has nearly 200 Member Clubs and 33,000 members. The WPGA conducts 14 individual competitions and 10 team events, and administers the WPGA Scholarship Fund.