OWASCO - After two days on the links at both Highland Golf and Country Club and Dutch Hollow, Eric Hlywa found himself the winner of the 2008 Bobby Hoey Junior Golf Tournament.

With a two day total of 152, Hlywa was clearly pleased with his performance out on the greens.

“I've never won anything like this before,” Hlywa said. “It feels pretty good.”

This marks one of the proudest accomplishments of the young golfer's career thus far. A career that began more than a decade ago.

“I started playing when I was four,” Hlywa said. “My dad, Tim, got me into playing. It is very relaxing and I really like always having something to do.”

Hlywa is also a dedicated soccer and basketball players, as well as spending time in the winter snowboarding. But he said that increasingly his focus has been on golf.

“Golf has kind of been becoming my main sport,” Hlywa said. “I've been taking lessons all summer with the new assistant coach at Highland, Kevin Murehead. He just took over and I've been working with his since he got there.”

Hlywa said that from a physical standpoint he has been able to develop a strong game and that Murehead has been helping him to develop the mental side of things lately.

“He knows that I have a decent swing,” Hlywa said. “He knows that a lot of the mistakes I make are mental and we've been working on that a lot lately.”

An aspect of things Hlywa made a real effort to focus on over the course of the Hoey Tournament.

“I've been playing in this for the last three or four years,” Hlywa said. “And I've always been in the top 10. This year I really focused on the mental aspect of things while I was out there on the course and it seemed to help.”

Last year, Hlywa also earned a place with the Central New York Junior PGA, which has allowed him the opportunity to play at a number of facilities all over the area, against numerous other young players.

“That has been good,” Hlywa said. “I've got to play a lot of course I wouldn't normally play and against a lot of players, a lot that are a lot better than I am. That has really helped me to become a better player and it has been a really good experience.”

While being a member of the CNYJPGA, allows Hlywa to compete in a variety of tournaments, he decided that he wanted to make a return to the Hoey Tournament this year.

“My friend Nick Shrimpton was going to be in it,” Hlywa said. “So he asked me to play, having him here made me want to play again this year. But each year I keep doing a little bit better every time, so that also made me want to come back this year and see how it went.”

Since he was in seventh grade, Hlywa has been a member of the Union Springs' varsity squad as well. From the beginning, Hlywa said he was fortunate, getting the opportunity to play in a couple of games during his first season. This year will mark his fourth varsity season, making him as a junior, one of the more seasoned members of the team. Hlywa said that he will be taking a great deal of experience with him to the varsity season this year, a lot of experience gained from this summer's tournaments like the Bobby Hoey.

“I've had a lot of really good experiences this summer,” Hlywa said. “I've met and played with some really good people and that has helped make me a better player. I think all of that will help and hopefully I'll have a really good year when varsity starts.”