Several Hillsborough County golfers will head to Palma Ceia Golf and Country Club on Wednesday for the Florida State Golf Association’s third Florida Junior Cup, a Ryder Cup format for the state’s top junior golfers in a North vs. South competition.

Jesuit senior Jack Twomey, Plant senior Doug Letson, Riverview junior Ian McConnell, Sickles sophomore Alexandra Irish and Durant senior Amy West are among the 20 players on this year’s North squad, which also includes former county standouts Chris Biuso (King) Rick Kittelstad (Blake), each of whom were 2008 graduates.

The two-day event will feature 54 holes. On Wednesday morning, each boy and girl will be paired with a partner to compete in a four-ball match. In that afternoon’s round, the boys and girls will be paired together to play mixed-foursomes matches. On Thursday, each player will play a singles match against a player from the opposing team. Points will be awarded to each match similarly to the Ryder Cup to determine the winning team.

The North team is the defending champion, having defeated the South 29-11 last summer. In 2006, the event ended in a tie.

“It’s really fun and it’s really competitive,” said Twomey, who played in the first Florida Junior Cup two years ago. “It’s pretty different because you actually got someone there to back you up on the first day. There is a little less pressure knowing if you don’t play as well as you can [that] you can still win a golf match.”

The high school golf regular season begins Aug. 25.