High school students competed Monday for a chance to play in an upcoming Ladies Professional Golf Association tournament.
The North Texas LPGA Shootout begins Thursday at the Las Colinas Country Club.
Eighteen of the best high school golfers in the region tested their skills alongside LPGA pros. The top two scoring teens will play in the 72-hole tournament.
Maddie Szeryk, a junior at Allen High School, said playing a game with an LPGA Tour pro is a dream come true.
"It was so awesome," she said. "Even if I don't get to qualify, it's still awesome to play with them and see how they go around the course."
Two-time LPGA champion Laura Diaz said it was refreshing to mentor her younger counterparts.
"I think it's always nice to get a new perspective on things sometimes, you know," she said. "As we get older and we tend to get a little more stressed out, I think it's kind of nice to come back down to how it used to be when we were kids."
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Rob Neal, tournament director, said it is possible for one of the teen qualifiers to win the professional event.
"There are younger and younger players doing so well on the LPGA this year," he said. "Lexi Thompson is a full member of the tour, and she's 17 years old, for instance, so it can happen."
Neal said the North Texas LPGA Shootout is the first tournament of its kind. He said he is excited that North Texas will host its first LPGA tournament in more than a couple of decades.
"To have 49 of the top 50 players in the world come here to Irving, Texas, is really tremendous," he said.
The 72-hole tournament with a purse of $1.3 million will last four days.
