Southwest Florida golf: Area top juniors part of Terra Cotta Invitational

The Terra Cotta Invitational has been played at Naples National Golf Club since 1996, and in its current stroke-play format since 2006.

Tour players such as Matt Kuchar, Justin Thomas, Bud Cauley, Emiliano Grillo and Peter Uihlein have all won it, but whenever there have been Southwest Florida golfers in the field, they haven't fared too well in general. Last year, though, Naples' Carl Santos-Ocampo, a former star at Community School and a Notre Dame golfer who earned his amateur status back, tied for ninth. Santos-Ocampo is back, and so are two area juniors who are Division I recruits -- 17-year-old David Morgan, a University of Virginia commit from Seacrest, and Will Thomson, 16, a former CSN golfer who is a University of Texas commit.

All three are hoping to put their name up with the bigger ones who have won the tournament, which will be played from May 5-7.

"I was happy to get a top 10 but I'm pushing for more this year,"  Santos-Ocampo, 29, said. "When you go to an event that has a lot of big names winning, it would be great to be up there among those players. Me being a mid-amateur, i'm not trying to be a professional golfer after this, but certainly I feel like my game is better than I was when I was playing professionally."

"To be able to test your game against some of the world's best amateurs to see where you stack up is pretty awesome and special," said Morgan, who was 56th last year.

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"Obviously this is a great tournament," said Thomson, who is taking online classes and is a sophomore and tied for 25th last year. "Right when you show up here, you see the clubhouse, you see the golf course -- it's in awesome shape. I've played in a couple of amateur tournaments (Thomson qualified for the U.S. Amateur when he was 13 to become the youngest ever) so it wasn't super-intimidating or anything but just getting to know the course the second time around, playing it more times -- I played OK last year, but I think this year will be a good time to get closer to the top."

Those three aren't the only ones from Southwest Florida. Former Gulf Coast golfer Matt Leiti, who won the Southwest Florida Men's Amateur,  former Naples High golfer Cody Olson also are in the field, along with a new Naples resident, former UCLA golfer Matt Hutchins, plus former CSN golfers E.J. Grimes of Stetson and Jake Marriott of Augusta University are playing too.

"We try to get some of the local kids here and we have ... the most we've ever had, which is really nice," tournament director Denny Glass said.

The field will be daunting for all of the locals -- and everyone else -- once again. 2015 champion Jorge Garcia, who plays for the University of Florida, will be returning. Tony Gil, who plays for the University of Houston, won it last year, but isn't playing this year. Hugo Bernard, the reigning Canadian Amateur champion, Rice Planters Amateur champion Philip Knowles and Chris Petefish, who just won the Azalae Amateur, are among the top names, which include 14 Rolex Junior All-Americans.

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"I always used to be the young guy playing in the events whether it was junior golf, amateur or professional," Santos-Ocampo said. "Now I feel like the older brother playing among these top junior golfers in the nation and college players.To take someone like David Morgan, who's 17 years old and going to the University of Virginia in two years, it's nice to give that kind of mentorship. It also keeps me young, being able to play matches against them outside of this tournament and be able to follow their careers. It works both ways."

The tournament moved to May this year while trying to avoid a conflict with a top junior event, but Glass probably won't have it stay at this time of year.

"We try to stay away from Easter and the Masters," he said. "This is the latest we've ever had it, and we ran into some issues with school testing for kids and U.S. Amateur qualifying and things like that. ... Next year, we're going to go back into April, though."

Terra Cotta Invitational

When: May 5-7

Where: Naples National Golf Club

Who: 75 top amateurs playing 54 holes of stroke play

Charity: Fran Cohen Youth Center

Admission: Free

Info: terracottainvitaitonal.com