WORLAND - Worland youth golfer Karsten Simmons traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada, Nov. 24-26 to defend his Rocky Mountain Junior Golf Tour Cup title from last season at Bear's Best.

Unfortunately, Simmons championship defense fell short but he did not leave Vegas empty-handed. Even though he missed a few early tournaments due to injury, Simmons was still named the RMJGT Wyoming player of the year.

The Wyoming winter cut into Simmons' practice time and at the start of the RMJGT Cup, it showed as he did not have the usual sharpness to his game.

"Karsten was a little bit rusty going into the tournament. Snow on the ground left no practice time outdoors. He showed a lot of good signs that his game was coming together the first two days but had some rough holes," said Karsten Simmons father Randy Simmons.

The first three holes in the first round for Simmons started well parring the first and third holes then picking up a birdie on the second. But the remainder of the round was when the struggles set in.

Simmons shot bogeys on the fourth, seventh, 10th and 12th holes and double bogeys on the fifth and sixth holes. For the round, Simmons finished at 79.

Things would not get better in the second round, in fact, it would become a little tougher. Simmons had a birdie on the 11th, but bogeys on the second, fourth, seventh, ninth and 14th and double bogeys on the first, 10th and 18th led him to shoot an 83 for the round.

One of the many things that makes Simmons the excellent golfer he is, is his ability to keep grinding and find a way to make things work in his favor.

That grit was on display during the third and final round of the RMJGT Cup. Simmons shook the rough start and ended the Cup shooting his tournament best of 75. The highlight of the round was Simmons stringing together three-straight birdies on the sixth, seventh and eighth holes.

"The final day of the tournament Karsten turned it up a notch on the front 9 shooting a 2 under 34. He made three birdies in a row and played outstanding through 12 holes," said Randy Simmons.

For the tournament, Simmons shot 20-over-par earning him fifth place out of 19 golfers.