Burly Hildreth, age 12, won the Western Washington Open for both the 11-12 and 13-14 age divisions.

Hildreth played from the blue tees and outscored his competition by one stroke. Given his age, the tournament representatives originally questioned Hildreth’s desire to play from the much harder back tees. At the end of the first day, all doubts were put to rest as he led both age divisions in scoring. When asked about playing from the back tees, he commented that he had a lot of fun crushing the ball with his driver and fairway woods.

Hildreth gave a shout out to his coach, Jeff Coston, for encouraging him to continually “smoke” the golf ball. He couldn’t wait to get back home and tell the gang at the Orcas Island Golf Course.