Local golfer heads to Scotland for Junior Golf Invitational

by Leo Platero
Contributing Writer
Seventeen-year-old Navajo Wyatt Toney, who hails from Moab, along with nine other teenagers from across the U.S. have been selected to represent the United States in a Junior Golf Invitational in Scotland.
The group will play on five different courses and will go up against Scotland’s junior-age teenagers from Crail Golfing Society.
“It would be a great opportunity to play against top international competition in one of the most beautiful. settings for golf in the world,” said Toney. “Mostly I would like to visit and play on a course where golf originally started.”
Toney is a junior at Grand County High School. He placed third at the Utah State 3A Golf Tournament held in Richfield, earning First-Team All-State honors.
He recently carded scores of 70 and 73 to take first place in Grand Junction, Colorado on the Redland Mesa Golf Course. So far he has won 13 junior tournaments, five in Colorado and six in Utah. 
According to his father Ambrose Toney, Wyatt began golfing at  age of five and his dad has been his best coach. But he has also learned a lot from Robbie Jones, club pro at the Moab Golf Course. He has come down from a 3-handicap to being a scratch player.
Toney’s favorite golfers are Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. He uses Titleist equipment,  stands 5’11”, and weighs 175 pounds. He works at the Moab Golf Course and practices every day.
He will not only represent his school, Grand County High,  the Moab community, the Navajo Nation, and the United States. Lacking a major sponsor, the family obtained donation from the Moab community, friends and family. 
Toney’s parents are Ambrose and Lovina Toney. Lovina is from Bluff, in southeastern Utah on the Navajo Reservation.