They came to golf, but hung around to eat.
The two-day Roy Jones/BB&T Junior Golf Classic has drawn golfers under 18 from North and South Carolina. While junior golfers compete for age-division titles and improved ranks, they’ll recharge, eat and rest at various Kinston attractions, restaurants and hotels.
The 28th annual tournament began Tuesday at the Kinston Country Club, and more than 100 male and female golfers were in town. The tourney wraps up today.
“The majority of the tournament is made up of those that don’t have a driver’s license, so that means their parents have to come with them,” said Carl Beaman, the local club golf professional, who acknowledged the tournament boosts the city economy.
He added, “I really can’t put a dollar value on it.”
Beaman said the club golf shop sales increase. Golfers will already have big ticket items, such as clubs, but may have to shop around for smaller things.
“We did pick up sales just in general merchandise items like golf balls, gloves and tees,” Beaman said. “For the stuff they have to have, business does get better.”
With many families staying in Kinston overnight for the tournament, general business in the city may increase as well.
Marque Adkins — who drove down with her family from Raleigh for her son to play in his second Jones event — is staying at a local hotel.
“The hotel is very nice,” she said. “The tournament is very nice.”
She said her 12-year-old son competed in the classic last year.
“He loves it,” Adkins said. “Carl (Beaman) is a great ambassador of the town, so he makes it nice, and the volunteers are great.”
She visited a Kinston restaurant for dinner Tuesday after a long day at the country club.
Roy Jones, the tournament’s founder and sponsor, said a lot of money has been spent in the past 28 years.
“(The tournament) has brought a tremendous amount of hungry people,” said Jones, a Kinston Country Club member for 40 years. “They eat in a lot of restaurants, stay in a lot of hotels and buy a lot of golf equipment and so forth. I’d say over 28 years, there’s been many dollars spent.”
Tuesday, he carted around to watch golfers, impressed with many performances.
“Zach Brown is unreal for his age,” he said of one 11-year-old junior golfer. “We’ve had so many girls and boys that come through this tournament that really have gone on made their living in the PGA tour. (There has been) PGA pros (and) golf superintendents. We’ve had so many young people come through here that’s … made their livelihood out of it.”
He started the classic in 1985 after ENC golf professionals suggested a junior tournament. Jones worked with ECU golf coach Kevin Williams, then the assistant golf pro, to jumpstart the Roy Jones competition, with BB&T joining sponsorship 20 years ago.
“He jumped on it, helped me build it and it’s just kind of really took off,” Jones said. “Every year, we wanted to do something extra and it got a little bigger and a little bigger.”
Jones said the tournament draws the state’s top junior golfers.
“We started having some of the ranked players, the girls and boys, in the whole state come here to play,” he said. “I never dreamed that I’d be doing this 28 years.”
Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 or at jessika.morgan@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.
Day 2 of the Roy Jones/BB&T Junior Golf Classic
When: Tuesday and today
Where: Kinston Country Club
First tee-time: 8:30 a.m.
Free to public