Louisiana Golf, 177 Alice Street, Natchitoches, LA (2026)

08/11/2026

There is a version of this story where Shane Fontenot walks off the 7th green on Sunday and the tournament is over for him. He had just made double bogey. He was five shots behind defending champion John Humphries. All of this took place at the 34th Louisiana Mid Amateur, a LGA championship, Shane was slipping away at Graywood Golf Club b, and it was happening in front of a hometown crowd.

That is until Shane started to rewrite his story. Fontenot played the next eleven holes in a way that turned a five shot deficit into a five shot lead, closed with a 7 under 65, and finished the week at 15 under par to win a state title in his own backyard. (Swipe the carousel to keep reading 👉)

Most players will tell you a double bogey in a final round is where things start to unravel. Fontenot says it did the opposite for him. “After the double bogey it kinda settled me in, I feel. I knew the back 9 I could turn it on and put pressure on the leader.”

He had already had a taste of frustration the day before. Saturday was a round that should have been better than the 70 he signed for. “I was 4 under through 16 and made two bogeys to finish the round which hurt, but I knew I was still in it with only being 2 shots back going into the final day.”

So Sunday, five behind with eleven to play, he was not panicking. He was waiting.

If you want a single moment where this championship turned, it happened on the ninth green. “My approach shot into 9’s green was the spark. I hit my best iron shot of the week on that hole to a tough pin location and made the putt. (Swipe the carousel to keep reading 👉)

Humphries made bogey on the same hole. Five back became three back, and the back nine was still in front of him.

“After that I hit a bunch of great iron shots on the back 9 and the putter got hot. I made a bunch of great birdie putts and I was seeing the line. My confidence in my putter went through the roof.”

What followed was four birdies in a row. Nine, ten, eleven, twelve. Humphries bogeyed again on 12, and Fontenot had the lead. He just did not know how big it was. “After that point I didn’t know how much of a lead I had until going to 18 tee. I was j

08/04/2026

Nick Kelsey only checked the leaderboard once all weekend.

It was Sunday at Bayou Oaks at City Park, somewhere around the turn, right after he rolled in back to back birdies at 9 and 10. He glanced up, saw a couple of names at 6 under and Niel Phillips at 7, and knew the back nine was going to be a fight. Then he put his head back down and went and won the 2026 Mackel New Orleans Metro Championship.

The Covington native finished at 7 under 137 to win by one, becoming the 33rd New Orleans Metropolitan Champion in an event that traces all the way back to Frank Mackel in 1993.

None of it came easy. Saturday brought heat near 100 degrees and wind gusting past 30, and Kelsey answered with a 6 under 66 to share the lead with defending champion Pat Blaum, a fellow Covington guy. The Rees Jones layout demanded commitment on every shot, and Kelsey stayed aggressive when the smart play might have been to hide.

The week was built on his wedges and his putter. He spent the days before the tournament grinding course management and camping out on the putting green, and it paid off in the stat that tells the whole story. Thirty six holes in that wind, on greens that quick, and not a single three putt.

Sunday tested all of it. Jonathan Jeter caught fire early with a 4 under front nine to pull even, and Kelsey never saw it happen. He didn’t need to. He figured somebody behind him would make a run, so his plan never changed, stay one step ahead and keep the pace.

The 16th is where he took the tournament back. Driver had been hot all week, so he hit it again and found the right rough, 80 yards out. That number was exactly where he wanted to be. He had been waiting all week for a wedge to get close, and this one finally did, setting up the putt that made up two shots on Phillips in one hole.

He walked onto the 18th green with 15 feet for birdie, and that’s where word finally reached him. Par wins. He lagged it to a couple of inches, tapped in, and joined a list of champions he had been thinking about all week. That list, he says, is one of the best parts of the event, a chance to be part of the history and stand alongside the past champs forever.

Kelsey learned the game at

07/28/2026

TPC Louisiana is hosting the inaugural APGA Michael Eaves Classic and Celebrity Pro Am, 36 holes today July 28 and 29, put together by ESPN SportsCenter anchor and longtime APGA supporter Michael Eaves. 46 pros are playing for a $25,000 purse with $8,000 to the winner. The APGA has been running since 2010 as a nonprofit built to open the game up to more people, and getting the first one of these in Louisiana is big for the state. Swipe to see who showed up ➡️ and let us know who you got in the comments! ⚜️👇🏼

J.R. Smith Two time NBA champion who went back to college and played golf at North Carolina A&T after his playing days. This is his APGA Tour debut, and he went off at 9:10am this morning.

Ryan Clark Louisiana native, LSU product and Super Bowl champion with the Steelers. Now an NFL analyst at ESPN.

Alexis Belton Three time World Long Drive champion and one of the longest hitters in the game.

Stan Verrett New Orleans native and St. Augustine grad who spent 25 years anchoring SportsCenter. He hosts the Saints pregame show now.

Nikki Blades Golfer and media personality, host of the No Chaser Podcast and founder of Blades Golf Club.

Torii Hunter Five time All Star, nine time Gold Glove winner and two time Silver Slugger over 19 years with the Twins, Angels and Tigers.

Matt Kemp Three time All Star, two time Gold Glove and two time Silver Slugger across 15 years with the Dodgers, Padres, Braves, Rockies and Reds.

Nischelle Turner Host of Entertainment Tonight with 11 Emmys to her name.

Dorell Wright NBA champion who won it with Miami in 2006 and has become a serious stick since.

Jemele Hill Emmy winning sports journalist, host of the Spolitics podcast and a contributor at The Atlantic.

07/26/2026

Sydney Moss had heard her name called on a first tee a hundred times. Junior tournaments. High school state finals. College events across three different conferences. It always ended the same way.

Sydney Moss, from Shreveport, Louisiana.

So when the starter at Patrick Farms Golf Club in Pearl announced her as Sydney Moss from Ridgeland, Mississippi, she froze for a beat.

“I almost didn’t even walk up,” she said.

Three days later she was the Mississippi Women’s Amateur champion. Which makes her something rare in this part of the country — a state amateur champion in two states, and the second one still can’t quite say the first one’s name right. (Swipe to read more!)👉

Before any of this, Moss was a Shreveport kid who went to C.E. Byrd and beat everybody. Two Louisiana Girls’ Junior Amateur titles, in 2020 and 2022. The LHSAA Division I 5A individual state championship in 2021, runner-up the next year. Shreveport Times Girls’ Golfer of the Year.

Golf was the family business. Her dad, Perry Moss, played at LSU and made it to the PGA Tour. Ask around the club and people will tell you about his ball striking.
His daughter thinks they’re missing something.
“They seem to underestimate his short game ability,” she said. “My dad used to whip my butt in chipping and putting contests as a kid, and it made me better. But now when we have those same contests, I usually beat him.”
(Swipe to read more!)👉

The first state am didn’t look like a coronation. Moss shot 81 in stroke play qualifying at the 94th Louisiana Women’s Amateur and squeaked into the match play bracket as the 15 seed — the second-to-last player in the field of 16.

Her opening match against Liza Lapeyre went sideways immediately. Three down through four holes.

Then she flipped the switch. She clawed the match back level by the 13th and won it on the 22nd hole. She didn’t trail again in the entire championship until the final, and when she did, she erased it with a birdie and never looked back. She closed out the title 4 and 3.

On her bag that week was Meredith Duncan — her high school coach at Byrd, and an LPGA player in her own right. Remember her too.

Moss went to Memphis. Then Stephen F. Austin.

07/21/2026

How did a course in Monroe, Louisiana end up with an Augusta National connection? It starts in 1948.

The club takes its name from Bayou DeSiard, the water that runs right along the course. It opened Labor Day 1948 as a 9-hole layout on land donated by the Biedenharn family — charter members donated their own time, equipment, and materials to get it built.

Then in 1950, the club brought in Perry Maxwell to design the second nine and rework the original holes. Maxwell partnered with Alister MacKenzie on Augusta National and left his fingerprints on some of the greatest courses in America, including renovation work at Pine Valley. His trademark? Big, rolling, undulating greens carved out of the natural landscape — golfers still call them “Maxwell rolls.”

The full 18 officially opened September 1951, and a 2009 restoration by Ron Prichard brought the course back to Maxwell’s original design. So when you play Bayou DeSiard today, you’re dodging bayou water on the same vision as the man who helped shape Augusta.

Not bad for Monroe, Louisiana. 🐊⛳️

📍 Monroe, LA

07/19/2026

If you don’t know Jack Smith’s story yet, it’s one of the best in golf. The Loyola College Prep grad was applying to medical school when a conversation with fellow Shreveport legend Hal Sutton pointed him toward long drive, a sport he didn’t even know existed at the time.
He won his first three amateur events and never looked back.

Rookie of the Year in 2023, a World Long Drive Tour championship finalist that same season, and by last summer he’d climbed all the way to #1 in the world.

The numbers are stupid. 228 mph ball speed. Nearly 390 yards per swing in competition. A 432-yard bomb at the Duel in the Desert.

From med school applications to the longest hitters on the planet and he’s repping Louisiana every step of the way.

Tune in tonight. 9pm CST. ESPN2 Let’s go Jack! ⚜️

07/19/2026

If you don’t know Jack’s story yet, it’s one of the best in golf. The Loyola College Prep grad was applying to medical school when a conversation with fellow Shreveport legend Hal Sutton pointed him toward long drive, a sport he didn’t even know existed at the time. He won his first three amateur events and never looked back. Rookie of the Year in 2023, a World Long Drive Tour championship finalist that same season, and by last summer he’d climbed all the way to #1 in the world.

The numbers are stupid. 228 mph ball speed. Nearly 390 yards per swing in competition. A 432-yard bomb at the Duel in the Desert.

From med school applications to the longest hitters on the planet and he’s repping Louisiana every step of the way.

Tune in tonight. 9pm CST. ESPN2 Let’s go Jack! ⚜️🏆

07/19/2026

Heartbreak at Birkdale. Sam Burns takes a 2-shot lead into Sunday and finishes solo 3rd at The Open after a final round 72. Two weeks after his daughter was born, the Shreveport native almost didn’t even make the trip — then went out and shot 62-65, the lowest back-to-back rounds in major championship history. Runner-up at Shinnecock last month, 3rd at Birkdale today. It’s coming. Keep making Louisiana proud Sam Burns ⚜️⛳️

07/18/2026

Shreveport’s own Sam Burns will sleep on the lead at the 154th Open Championship.

The former LSU Tiger followed up Friday’s 62 — tied for the lowest round in men’s major championship history — with a Saturday 65 at Royal Birkdale to take the lead into the final round.

18 holes stand between Burns and his first major. No Louisiana golfer has ever lifted the Claret Jug.

Tomorrow, that could change. 🐅⛳️

Louisiana Golf

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