Frisco, TX – On the final day of the 2025 PGA Jr. League Championship, the Texas sky wouldn’t cooperate. Lightning sirens wailed, rain hammered the turf and the championship match against Team California kept slipping into pauses. The players were pulled off the course, then back on, then off again, waiting for that pesky Texas rain to move through. It was a stop-start, edge-of-your-seat kind of afternoon. But when the final putts fell and the match concluded at last, Team Ohio stood in second place, exhausted, soaking wet and somehow fuller for the experience.

And maybe fittingly, their final tally told a different kind of story: 79 birdies, each one pledged by supporters across the country. Each one worth real money for real people who may never know the names of the kids who made them. Veterans and under-served communities benefitted from Team Ohio’s inspired play. Everyone benefited from Team Ohio’s example.

“There are so many different ways to win and this is a huge win for our team and PGA REACH Southern Ohio,” said Coach Chris Yoder, PGA. “To raise funds to grow the game, for Veterans and underprivileged communities, to be able to pay it forward, is a huge win for everybody.”

Second place on the scoreboard. First place in impact.

That idea didn’t start with marketing meetings or donation drives. It came from who these kids already were.

When they weren’t competing, Team Ohio (or, Team Yoyo, after Coach Yoder’s collegiate golf nickname) was volunteering at Nationwide Children’s Hospital through Smiling Fore Life, an outreach program under the umbrella of PGA REACH Southern Ohio. Smiling Fore Life carries golf into places where childhood is often interrupted by treatment schedules and hospital machines. 

“Volunteering is very important to me and my team,” Yoder said. “Through Smiling Fore Life, we’re able to give the kids who are patients at the children’s hospital a distraction from all the challenging things they might be going through and just have fun.”

That word—fun—tends to orbit this group. Even under the pressure of a national championship, even with the weight of weather delays and the gravity of facing the country’s best, they kept the game light. No one had more fun in Texas than the Ohio boys.

“I’ve told the team that they’ll play in hundreds if not thousands of individual tournament rounds over their lifetimes,” said Yoder. “But the memories I hold the closest are the memories I made playing with a team.”

And now his players have theirs: waiting out storms together, vibes and high fives, grinding when it mattered and stacking up 79 birdies that will ripple into communities across Southern Ohio.

The trophy went elsewhere. But when the storms finally cleared, Team Ohio walked off the course knowing they had made the week matter, in ways that will last far longer than any trophy.

For a team that came to Texas with a mission, the scoreboard wasn’t the only place victory could live.

You can still help Team Ohio with their fundraising goal.

Click here to support Team Ohio and PGA REACH Southern Ohio.