One of the best stroke-play golf tournaments for the area's top high school and college players, the Young Guns will be held Aug. 12 at Southpointe Golf Club. A field of 21 golfers will compete in the 18-hole shootout.

This will be the 15th Young Guns event but the first held at Southpointe. The first 14 were played at Quicksilver Golf Club.

Last year's tournament was canceled because of problems with course availability and a lack of entrants. The move to the more easily accessible Southpointe course and a change in the entry format is expected to solve both problems.

Nine spots in the field will be reserved for automatic qualifiers. Each of the three local junior tours - Southwest Pa. Junior Golf Tour, Keystone Public Golf Association and Tri-State PGA/King's Junior Golf - will send their top three players to the Young Guns. The remaining nine spots will be filled through entries submitted to the Observer-Reporter. An entry form will be appearing in upcoming editions of the O-R.

Tournament organizers are hopeful that three of the spots in the field will go to girls.

Jimmy Ellis of Peters Township, a member of the Ohio University golf team this spring, won the last Young Guns, held in 2006.

Steve Wheatcroft, who is competing in this weekend's Nationwide Tour Players Cup in Bridgeport, W.Va., is a two-time Young Guns winner.

n The Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame will hold its induction ceremonies Nov. 1 during a banquet at the Holiday Inn Meadow Lands. Three of the inductees come for the Washington-Greene chapter and one from the Mid-Mon Valley chapter.

Langeloth's Barry Alvarez, who coached Wisconsin to three Rose Bowl victories and is currently the school's athletic director, will be inducted along with Trinity High School and Penn State track and field record holder Elaine Sobansky-Blackhurst and Minnesota Vikings kicker and Pitt standout Fred Cox. Doug Kotar, a Muse native and former Canon-McMillan and New York Giants running back, will be inducted posthumously.

The other inductees are Joe Pisarcik, Pete Vuckovich, Jim Mutscheller, Walt Hynoski, Dick Purnell, Robert Unger and Walter Harris. Butler Hennon also will be inducted posthumously.

n Outfielder Jim Gallagher, a Peters Township and Duke University product, is on a hitting tear in the Class A South Atlantic League. Gallagher is batting .267 for the Kannapolis Intimidators, an affiliate of the Chicago White Sox.

Gallagher has seven home runs, 39 RBI and four stolen bases in 84 games. Since his average dipped to a season-low .195 on May 23, Gallagher is batting .322 (58-for-180).

Sports editor Chris Dugan can be reached at dugan@observer-reporter.com

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