35 replies to this topic

[Mrstealurgurl6969]

Does anyone have any tips they could give me on my first ajga event. Any secrets I might not know. Thanks!

[minteq]

My son played in it the last 2 years, very well run, lots of help.  They do keep you moving fast, the biggest thing they stress is ready golf, which is good.

Be prepared for some hot heads, throwing clubs, stabbing putters in the green, etc, I saw it all.  Keep your focus, and remember to have fun, and you will do well.

[pinhigh27]

 minteq, on 11 November 2012 - 04:41 PM, said:

My son played in it the last 2 years, very well run, lots of help.  They do keep you moving fast, the biggest thing they stress is ready golf, which is good.

Be prepared for some hot heads, throwing clubs, stabbing putters in the green, etc, I saw it all.  Keep your focus, and remember to have fun, and you will do well.

This. I'd try to make as many connections as possible. The more often you play with better players, chances are you will improve. One of the best places to meet good players at is AJGAs.

[lilmike24]

I plan on playing AJGA's also. Maybe I'll get a chance to play with you.

I've heard about the hotheads too. Calling Scotty's cheap putters . throwing clubs, breaking tee markers, all while shooting 75.

[semi]

 lilmike24, on 11 November 2012 - 11:38 PM, said:

I plan on playing AJGA's also. Maybe I'll get a chance to play with you.

I've heard about the hotheads too. Calling Scotty's cheap putters . throwing clubs, breaking tee markers, all while shooting 75.

I see some of that too...don't get it, if their not enjoying it then why do it at all...are not most of the players at the AJGA tournaments trying to play for a college team? Isn't that what the college coaches don't want to see? I wonder if college players have these kind of fits at their tournaments too? What really cracks me up is some will hit an alright shot and make off like it's the worst shot they've ever hit, when the reality is - their not that good in the first place...

Just 2 cents worth

[minteq]

Yeah it was scary to watch.  I saw one kid, who was around scratch, miss a putt, and bury his putter in the green past the neck.  I informed an official about it.  Most of the trouble I saw is the biggest problem kids did not have parents with them, or the few that did, let them get away with it.  Don't get me wrong, there were a lot of really good, really well behaved players, but the few morons that did this stuff made it uncomfortable for everyone else.

My son hating playing with kids that threw clubs, wouldnt talk to anyone etc.  These kids need to be taught the proper etiquette now, or they will only get worse.

[sggreen]

Coming from a parent that had a son and a daughter played AJGA events.  You're right about the boys and their antics, girls are much better.  But don't forget about the parents.  There are as many crazy parents are they are kids...  The most important thing is to play ready golf.  It really gets in your head the first time they tell you that you're on the clock.  The new AJGA rule about the first person that putts out goes directly to the next tee while the others are still putting is disconcerning for some players.

[lilmike24]

 semi, on 12 November 2012 - 05:12 AM, said:

 lilmike24, on 11 November 2012 - 11:38 PM, said:

I plan on playing AJGA's also. Maybe I'll get a chance to play with you.

I've heard about the hotheads too. Calling Scotty's cheap putters . throwing clubs, breaking tee markers, all while shooting 75.

I see some of that too...don't get it, if their not enjoying it then why do it at all...are not most of the players at the AJGA tournaments trying to play for a college team? Isn't that what the college coaches don't want to see? I wonder if college players have these kind of fits at their tournaments too? What really cracks me up is some will hit an alright shot and make off like it's the worst shot they've ever hit, when the reality is - their not that good in the first place...

Just 2 cents worth

I went out to a college tournament (D2 and D3. Maybe one d1 team ) and even though I saw those same brats that were throwing those clubs. I didn't see it as much as I did in my smaller tournaments. I thinks it more of a maturity level than anything. The kids that were mad in college just seem more, deterred, gave more of a look of concession.

 minteq, on 12 November 2012 - 07:32 AM, said:

Yeah it was scary to watch.  I saw one kid, who was around scratch, miss a putt, and bury his putter in the green past the neck.  I informed an official about it.  Most of the trouble I saw is the biggest problem kids did not have parents with them, or the few that did, let them get away with it.  Don't get me wrong, there were a lot of really good, really well behaved players, but the few morons that did this stuff made it uncomfortable for everyone else.

My son hating playing with kids that threw clubs, wouldnt talk to anyone etc.  These kids need to be taught the proper etiquette now, or they will only get worse.

Yupp its always the kids who don't have the parents with them. One guy I was playing with in a tournament, was a bout +3 thru 12, we reached a short par three. He missed the green, yelled F*** , flicked the green off with moth hands, and proceeded to walk in to the clubhouse.

I was that same way when I first started playing golf, but I figured it doesnt help to beat yourself up. You HAVE to be your own friend out there.

[KILLEDBYASHANKEDWEDGE]

Luck to you in the 2013 tournaments, always strive to with  the best competition possible.Those guys that lose it are the entertainment, have a good laugh and play your game.  Keifer will be participating in the AJGA next year, grinding his way to the best finish he can , showing little to no emotion. Not showing emotion on the playing field is something he learned as a pitcher, guarding against showing up the Umps and keeping his focus. Turning anger into determination is useful in all sports.

[KILLEDBYASHANKEDWEDGE]

 sggreen, on 12 November 2012 - 08:20 AM, said:

Coming from a parent that had a son and a daughter played AJGA events.  You're right about the boys and their antics, girls are much better.  But don't forget about the parents.  There are as many crazy parents are they are kids...  The most important thing is to play ready golf.  It really gets in your head the first time they tell you that you're on the clock.  The new AJGA rule about the first person that putts out goes directly to the next tee while the others are still putting is disconcerning for some players.

The rule works great , the competitors will have to be reminded at first but will find it second nature after a short time.

[super7]

The AJGA is by far the most well run junior golf organization out there. If you are succeeding in other local and state junior tournaments, then the next progression is the AJGA. Here are a few tips I think may help.

Start as early as possible 12-15year olds. Study the performance based entry chart and play tournaments that will help you gain entry into AJGA sanctioned events. For young players the junior all-star program is a great option. The Gary Gilchrist Golf Academy Junior All-Star Series is a collection of events specifically designed for boys and girls ages 12 - 15. The competition provides an opportunity for younger members to develop their skills and earn entry into open tournaments. Play in qualifiers and build your resume on events that help with points.

The AJGA is somewhat more expensive than local or other smaller tournaments when you add in entry, room, food and travel for a 4 day event. However there are options like the AJGA’s ACE Grant program. The goal of the ACE Grant program is to give top-flight golf opportunities to young golfers regardless of financial resources. This program helps to fulfill the AJGA’s mission of developing young men and women who aspire to earn college golf scholarships through competitive junior golf. Also some state run junior programs offer grants and assistance. There is also sometimes host housing for kids that may travel alone.

Study the Polo golf rankings and get as highly ranked as possible. This is how you get into the invitational events that are crazy good!! Travel stipends are given for the invitationals this helps defer the cost. Plus the tee gifts are really good such as golf bags, polo shirts, pro v1’s, footjoy shoes and rain suits really nice stuff. Not to mention that the players in the invitational events are the best juniors in the country this can only help your game.

The pace-of-play rules are awesome. Yes it can be an adjustment at first but it is great especially for the parents. 4-hour rounds give you time to do other things besides spending 7 plus hours at the golf course. My son is in college now and its back to the 6 hour rounds, awful!

Code-of-conduct. Only played in a few of the Open events but all of the Invitationals, and I only saw one instance of bad behavior and penalty shots were assessed. I’m sure it goes on just didn’t see much of it myself.
My only regret with our experience with the AJGA is that we didn’t start earlier. My son had already committed to his college of choice before his first AJGA event. So I didn’t try to get him in those events because of the expense and I didn’t really see the need. I was dead wrong on that. The freinds, courses, contacts he made and the experiences he received by playing in the AJGA will last a lifetime. Plus it improved his game more than any one thing we ever did period!

[sggreen]

 KILLEDBYASHANKEDWEDGE, on 12 November 2012 - 11:36 AM, said:

 sggreen, on 12 November 2012 - 08:20 AM, said:

Coming from a parent that had a son and a daughter played AJGA events.  You're right about the boys and their antics, girls are much better.  But don't forget about the parents.  There are as many crazy parents are they are kids...  The most important thing is to play ready golf.  It really gets in your head the first time they tell you that you're on the clock.  The new AJGA rule about the first person that putts out goes directly to the next tee while the others are still putting is disconcerning for some players.

The rule works great , the competitors will have to be reminded at first but will find it second nature after a short time.

KilledBy, I agree wholeheartedly.  It was hard for my daughter to grasp at first, she felt she was being disrepectful to the others.  After a few holes it became second nature.  Also, when a group gets put on the clock it's usually one individual that's holding things up. Usually the officials can determine who the slow player is.

[Man In The Miura]

I just signed my daughter up for AJGA.  She's dropped her other sports in favor of golf, so we're supporting her decision to take golf more seriously.  As it turns out A LOT MORE seriously.  Living on the west coast in Washington, tournaments ain't exactly easy to get to.  Factor in the tournaments start on Friday, or in some cases Thursday, one has to consider the missed school.  I ran across a dad from my area who was passively bragging that he spent $33,000 in 2012 to support his daughter's travel and participation in AJGA.  Sure, she now has a scholarship to Notre Dame, but really?  We envy those living in golf hot spots for junior golf.  Here in WA, it's a bit of a dead zone it seems.  Anyway, it'll be an interesting 2013 for golf.

[wfurr]

I play in a lot of ajga's and there are not as many of those hotheads as you would think. My best advice is to not worried about the pace of play deal [unless your really slow]. The lady on charge of he tournaments told me that 1500 kids were warned about slow play and 3 of them got a penalty. Then the best thing to do is just have fun!

[KILLEDBYASHANKEDWEDGE]

 wfurr, on 26 November 2012 - 08:28 PM, said:

I play in a lot of ajga's and there are not as many of those hotheads as you would think. My best advice is to not worried about the pace of play deal [unless your really slow]. The lady on charge of he tournaments told me that 1500 kids were warned about slow play and 3 of them got a penalty. Then the best thing to do is just have fun!

Welcome to the forums. Look forward to you posting about your junior golf experiences and any advice you can give others.

[Man In The Miura]

Another thing we've recognized since looking at the AJGA website more carefully is that there are a lot more tournaments that reward performance stars than just those listed on the AJGA 2013 tournament schedule.  If you search by state many more tounaments come up.  The only problem is that you might have to join yet another organization to be eligible for them.  But at least there are other paths to becoming exempt for the AJGA open tournaments.

[TheMackDaddy]

 Man In The Miura, on 13 November 2012 - 09:02 AM, said:

I just signed my daughter up for AJGA.  She's dropped her other sports in favor of golf, so we're supporting her decision to take golf more seriously.  As it turns out A LOT MORE seriously.  Living on the west coast in Washington, tournaments ain't exactly easy to get to. Factor in the tournaments start on Friday, or in some cases Thursday, one has to consider the missed school.  I ran across a dad from my area who was passively bragging that he spent $33,000 in 2012 to support his daughter's travel and participation in AJGA.  Sure, she now has a scholarship to Notre Dame, but really?  We envy those living in golf hot spots for junior golf.  Here in WA, it's a bit of a dead zone it seems.  Anyway, it'll be an interesting 2013 for golf.

Bingo. Wa. State sucks for that reason. Plus its dark at 4 O' clock now.

On another note I think I may have  saw your daughters clubs last year at high school state. Does she play all Miura?

[LilSpeedline]

 Man In The Miura, on 13 November 2012 - 09:02 AM, said:

I just signed my daughter up for AJGA.  She's dropped her other sports in favor of golf, so we're supporting her decision to take golf more seriously.  As it turns out A LOT MORE seriously.  Living on the west coast in Washington, tournaments ain't exactly easy to get to.  Factor in the tournaments start on Friday, or in some cases Thursday, one has to consider the missed school.  I ran across a dad from my area who was passively bragging that he spent $33,000 in 2012 to support his daughter's travel and participation in AJGA.  Sure, she now has a scholarship to Notre Dame, but really?  We envy those living in golf hot spots for junior golf.  Here in WA, it's a bit of a dead zone it seems.  Anyway, it'll be an interesting 2013 for golf.

Hahahaha the girl you are talking about goes to my school!!!  She signed to Notre Dame a few weeks ago!  unless another girl from tacoma is going there...

[LilSpeedline]

 TheMackDaddy, on 26 November 2012 - 10:55 PM, said:

 Man In The Miura, on 13 November 2012 - 09:02 AM, said:

I just signed my daughter up for AJGA.  She's dropped her other sports in favor of golf, so we're supporting her decision to take golf more seriously.  As it turns out A LOT MORE seriously.  Living on the west coast in Washington, tournaments ain't exactly easy to get to. Factor in the tournaments start on Friday, or in some cases Thursday, one has to consider the missed school.  I ran across a dad from my area who was passively bragging that he spent $33,000 in 2012 to support his daughter's travel and participation in AJGA.  Sure, she now has a scholarship to Notre Dame, but really?  We envy those living in golf hot spots for junior golf.  Here in WA, it's a bit of a dead zone it seems.  Anyway, it'll be an interesting 2013 for golf.

Bingo. Wa. State sucks for that reason. Plus its dark at 4 O' clock now.

On another note I think I may have  saw your daughters clubs last year at high school state. Does she play all Miura?

I remember that! those clubs were sweet

[TheMackDaddy]

 LilSpeedline, on 26 November 2012 - 11:52 PM, said:

 Man In The Miura, on 13 November 2012 - 09:02 AM, said:

I just signed my daughter up for AJGA.  She's dropped her other sports in favor of golf, so we're supporting her decision to take golf more seriously.  As it turns out A LOT MORE seriously.  Living on the west coast in Washington, tournaments ain't exactly easy to get to.  Factor in the tournaments start on Friday, or in some cases Thursday, one has to consider the missed school.  I ran across a dad from my area who was passively bragging that he spent $33,000 in 2012 to support his daughter's travel and participation in AJGA.  Sure, she now has a scholarship to Notre Dame, but really?  We envy those living in golf hot spots for junior golf.  Here in WA, it's a bit of a dead zone it seems.  Anyway, it'll be an interesting 2013 for golf.

Hahahaha the girl you are talking about goes to my school!!!  She signed to Notre Dame a few weeks ago!  unless another girl from tacoma is going there...

[Man In The Miura]

She does play all Miura, from putter to driver, but she just entered the 9th grade so it wasn't her at high school state.  AJGA is really going to burn through the Alaska Airline miles.  I can see the bills adding up already.  A friend of mine advised to choose tournaments carefully, perhaps the less glamorous ones in the mid-west, for better chances of placing in the top.  He said the Cali or FL tournaments get crazy competitive with large factions of international players.

[super7]

This is what makes Junior Golf and the AJGA so great. this is a video of the final putt on #18 at Bay Hill in this years AJGA Wyndham Cup. This Ryder Cup format pits the top 20 boys and girls from the East against the top 20 from the West. After 3 Days of fierce competition the whole thing came down to the last match on the last hole with all 40 kids looking on. Cody Provoux sinks this putt to retain the cup. It's great to see juniors calibrate on the same green usually reserved for Tiger.



<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/46452427?badge=0" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/46452427">Final Putt of the 2012 Wyndham Cup</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/ajga">AJGA</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

[lefty_with a power fade]

i have a question about how to get into my first ajga tourney. i am from seattle wa and play all the washington junior tourneys but dont know how to qualify for the ajga tournament in portland. thanks

[BluehoseGolf]

 lefty_with a power fade, on 06 January 2013 - 02:56 AM, said:

i have a question about how to get into my first ajga tourney. i am from seattle wa and play all the washington junior tourneys but dont know how to qualify for the ajga tournament in portland. thanks

The AJGA has qualifiers before the tournament.  This is the only way not to get into the tournaments besides with the star system.  The only way to get stars is to have high finishes in the AJGA tournaments or their select tournaments that they will give you stars for finishing high in. All you do is go to their website and sign up for a membership, then sign up for the qualifier you want to play in.  The AJGA is great, but it is very expensive. Some of the competition is pretty good, but I would definitely recommend playing in your state junior over any "backyard AJGA" (non invitationals, or the bigger open tournaments like the Golf Pride JR classic etc.) I enjoyed the AJGA, but I played with a lot of really spoiled kids who threw clubs and honestly made themselves look like idiots.  I guarantee you that if a college coach sees you doing that they will think twice if they want you on their team.  If you do want to get recruited, do not look like an idiot out there cussing and throwing clubs.  This will help you in the long run.  Those tournaments are the most fun when you have a bunch of friends playing in them and you can go eat, play the practice round, or hang out together.  I only played in one where I didnt know my friends and I hated it. Good luck

[Mrstealurgurl6969]

Which states would you say would be the stouthearted and weakest competition. If you want to be recruited by d1, what year of highschool should you start winning qualifiers and invitationals?

[BluehoseGolf]

 Mrstealurgurl6969, on 08 January 2013 - 02:40 PM, said:

Which states would you say would be the stouthearted and weakest competition. If you want to be recruited by d1, what year of highschool should you start winning qualifiers and invitationals?

You don't HAVE to win the qualifiers you just need to finish in the top 10 or however many spots they have availible to play in the tournament. I personally never played in an invitational, would have loved too but I didnt play well enough to get into them.  You just need to shoot good numbers in the tournament to show the coaches your game.  Thats the bottom lines are the scores.  If you have a bad swing or whatever they dont care too much, just want to see you get the ball in the hole.  Also, they dont care if you hit it bad, they actually prefer it because it shows them how they score on the bad days because you arent going to hit it great every tournament you play in.

[semi]

Just wondering, typically, how long are the AJGA courses playing on an average?  Are they playing the back tees in these tournaments?

Thanks

[Mrstealurgurl6969]

I'm a highschool freshman and have neve played in an ajga tournament. How many tournaments (qualifiers) do you reccomend I play in this year, next year, and the following?

[BluehoseGolf]

 semi, on 08 January 2013 - 05:25 PM, said:

Just wondering, typically, how long are the AJGA courses playing on an average?  Are they playing the back tees in these tournaments?

Thanks

 Mrstealurgurl6969, on 08 January 2013 - 05:39 PM, said:

I'm a highschool freshman and have neve played in an ajga tournament. How many tournaments (qualifiers) do you reccomend I play in this year, next year, and the following?

@Semi They are normally around 7000 yards.  Something right around there They dont play too long but they are still challenging.

@Mrstealurgirl6969 It just depends how much money you want to spend.  I played 3 my junior year summer but the AJGA only allows you to play 5 Open tournaments and the invitationals dont count towards your total 5.  Like I said, its very expensive, but they are worth it if in your area they dont have much junior golf.  In VA, they had some junior golf, but not enough where I felt like I would get recognized.  If you dont have any stars you will have to qualify in order to get into the tournaments.  A lot of the stars stuff is explained on there website.  Just play as much tournament golf you can that is 36 holes or more.

Edited by BluehoseGolf, 08 January 2013 - 06:00 PM.

[Mrstealurgurl6969]

Would you reccomend me playing a schedule somewhat like this:
6-7 njpga junior events
2 ajga qualifiers