Lydia Portlock is the first Texan to win the Mack Champ Invitational for Girls and a fitting champion for a tournament with deep Texas roots.
The tournament’s namesake, Mack Champ, was a Texas native, and Cameron Champ played at Texas A&M before settling in the Houston area. Portlock, a high school junior from San Antonio, has already committed to play her college golf at Texas.
For the second year consecutive year, the MCI for Girls was played at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, TX, site of next week’s Chevron Championship, the first major of the LPGA season.
Portlock got off to a hot start in the final round, pairing a 2-under 34 on the front nine with a 1-under 35 on the back. She was 1-under for the tournament, two shots clear of Alona Avery, a senior from Riverside, CA, who was trying to become the tournament’s first two-time winner.
Avery, the 2022 MCI winner, started the day with a three-shot lead after shooting 71 on Friday, but her 74 on Saturday was not enough.
Avery will join the golf team at UC Irvine next year. Her older sister, Amari, won the inaugural MCI in 2021 and is now a star on the golf team at USC.
Emerson Roychoudhury, a freshman from Leesburg, VA, and Blayne Brown, a junior from Riverside, CA, shot 5-over for the tournament to tie for third place.
In the 12-and-under division, Kayla Jackson, a 5th grader from Charlotte, won by nine shots after shooting 82-75. Zara Staley, a 6th grader from Sarasota, FL, was second, and Alaina Villarreal, a 4th grader from Richmond, TX, was third.
The MCI, inspired by the memory of Mack Champ, was created not only to provide an elite competitive experience for junior golfers of diverse backgrounds, but also to serve as a springboard into top-tier tournaments and college scholarships while creating an environment where players and families can build relationships that last a lifetime.
The Mack Champ Invitational for boys will return to Memorial Park Golf Course in Houston from May 2-5.
