WEST END, NC (6/21/10) -- Andy Knox of Cary, the 2009 champion, and Katherine Perry, also of Cary and the top-ranked girl in the Tar Heel State, will be among the favorites to post victories in the 43rd North Carolina Junior Championship, which will be played June 22-25 at Forest Oaks Country Club in Greensboro.

A year ago at Henderson Country Club, Knox defeated Payne McLeod of Reidsville, 3 and 2 in the championship match of this competition for golfers 18 and under. Perry, who was second in the recent N.C. Women's Amateur in Gastonia, won that title a year ago as well as the 2009 Vicki DiSantis Junior. Knox is currently ranked second among N.C. Junior Boys behind Grayson Murray of Raleigh, who is not entered, while Perry sits squarely atop the girls' rankings.

Knox will have plenty of worthy challengers as he seeks a repeat victory.

Among those entered this year's championship are Andrew Decker of Greenville, the No. 3-ranked junior boy in the Tar Heel state; Davis Womble, who is ranked No. 5; Chad Cox of Charlotte, ranked No. 7; Trevor Cone of Concord, ranked No. 9; and Gregory Bunner of Cherryville, No. 10 in the rankings.

A new champion will be crowned in the girls' division since Jessica Neese of Liberty, who won the title last year, has moved on to college. In addition to Perry, the girls hoping to succeed Neese as champion are Lizzie Bundy of Clayton, who fell in the 2009 title match by a 3 and 1 margin, and Kayla Sciupider of Etowah, last year's qualifying medalist. Nine of the top

15 in the N.C. Junior Girls' rankings are entered in this year's championship.

The CGA accepted 223 boys for the championship, with exemptions granted to those who finished among the top 32 in the boys' division at last year's championship, to the top four in the 2009 Boys' 13-and-under Championship, to the top 100 ranked players in the Tarheel Youth Golf Association rankings as of May 5, and to all 2010 N.C. High School State individual champions.

Forest Oaks CC, which hosted the Greater Greensboro Open from 1977 until 2007, will play 7,022 yards and have a par of 72 for the boys, while the girls will play it to a par of 72 at 6,007 yards.

The N.C. Junior is a match play competition, with an 18-hole qualifying round on June 22 determining the field for the head-to-head matches.

Click HERE for detailed information on this event.