BELLA VISTA -- Hanna Brauburger had a brief moment when she thought her biggest golf moment might have hurt the way her senior season would end.

Bentonville's all-state performer has received an invitation to play in this year's Nature Valley First Tee Open, which takes place Sept. 26-28 at Pebble Beach, Calif. But in the back of her mind, she wondered how could she do that, then get back in time to get back to play for the Lady Tigers at the Class 7A State Tournament, which takes place in West Memphis.

"At first, I didn't think it was going to work out," Brauburger said Thursday while practicing with Bentonville's girls golf team at Berksdale Golf Club. "I was told the state tournament was going to be on Monday and Tuesday, and I was like 'I'm not going to make it my senior year.' I was upset about it.

"It turns out that Monday is the practice round, so I'm going to fly out of Monterrey to West Memphis and have somebody pick me up at the airport. Hopefully, I'll have the time to see the course earlier by going up there some random Saturday or something. If not, I'll have to play to the best of my ability."

Brauburger, 17, will represent The First Tee of Northwest Arkansas at the event, which includes 81 junior golfers, 81 Champions Tour players and 162 amateur golfers as they play for the pro-junior title. Golfers will split their first two rounds at Pebble Beach Golf Links and Poppy Hills Golf Course, then the final round will be played that Sunday at Pebble Beach.

Brauburger, a participant at The First Tee of Northwest Arkansas from the beginning and now serves as a coach, was selected by a national panel of judges who evaluated playing ability and comprehension of the life skills and character education learned through their involvement with The First Tee. The application process included listing what tournaments a golfer had played, the scores at those tournaments and writing a number of essays.

"I'm really, really excited about it," she said. "My sister from Delaware is coming and will caddie for me. I'm just ready to have a blast and meet people like Ben Crenshaw, Bernhard Langer and the other people I've grown up watching on the seniors tour and were inspired by."

She had applied to play in last year's tournament, then began to work on her game more when she didn't make it. Since that time, she has lowered her handicap from an 8 to a 5.6. In addition to the high school season, Brauburger has been active in the Arkansas State Golf Association's junior girls circuit, where she's currently seventh in the junior girls rankings.

She won the girls 17-18 division by three strokes at the Burns Park Junior Stroke in June, as well as picked up points for her finishes in four other tournaments this summer.

"Hanna is just a very talented individual," Bentonville girls coach Lindsey Davis said. "She's very dedicated to golf and has played a number of tournaments all summer long, and I think that's what it takes in order to get those scores down.

"When she told me she had been invited, my heart sank because I knew it was close to the state tournament, but that was something you just can't pass up. I was excited, though, when I found out everything would fall into place."

Sports on 08/02/2014