Tanner Owen, a sophomore at Bishop McGuiness and one of the top-ranked junior golfers in the state, has committed to play at Wake Forest.
Owen was the Northwest 2-A/1-A golfer of the year last spring and had runner-up finishes in the NCHSAA Midwest 1-A Regional and 1-A state championships behind teammate Stanhope Johnson, a senior who has signed with N.C. State.
"It's been Tanner's dream to play at Wake Forest for a long time," Kevin Owen said of his son. "He's really excited about this opportunity and is looking forward to it."
Owen will be a part of coach Jerry Haas' 2014 recruiting class and will join top junior golfers Grayson Murray of Raleigh and Davis Womble of High Point in the program. Murray and Womble, both high-school seniors, signed with the Deacons in November.
"Tanner's played in several tournaments with Grayson and knows Davis really well, so that's going to be kind of neat when they are all on the same team," Kevin Owen said.
Owen is ranked No. 36 in the nation by Junior Golf Scoreboard and No. 3 in North Carolina by the Tarheel Youth Golf Association.
Coach Pearse Mahon of Bishop McGuiness said that Owen's maturity and ability to bounce back from a bad hole sets him apart.
"I can't say enough about how he conducts himself out on the course and just goes about his business," Mahon said.
Kevin Owen said that his son was being recruited by other schools but that he always had his heart set on Wake Forest.
"He's talked about nothing but wanting to be good enough to play at Wake Forest," Kevin said.
Andrew Winters of Houston also signed with Wake Forest in November, and Haas has a commitment from Danny Guise of Greenwich, Conn., for 2013.
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