High school team vs competitive tournaments

What do you guys think would be better for me to do? I'm going to be in my sophomore year. I think I have the game to compete in AJGA tournaments and whatnot for sure, but I have very little competitive experience and they're more expensive and less frequent. What do you guys think I should be doing at this point?

[quote name='Eag1e' timestamp='1280522468' post='2608812']
What do you guys think would be better for me to do? I'm going to be in my sophomore year. I think I have the game to compete in AJGA tournaments and whatnot for sure, but I have very little competitive experience and they're more expensive and less frequent. What do you guys think I should be doing at this point?
[/quote]

What's your handicap? You know that competing in most AJGAs is several under par right? Unless your ready to be there in almost every tournament, you might as well play in high school.

Play in HS, and not get ahead of yourself. That will give you plenty of experience while honing your game.

[quote name='pinhigh27' timestamp='1280526922' post='2608939']
[quote name='Eag1e' timestamp='1280522468' post='2608812']
What do you guys think would be better for me to do? I'm going to be in my sophomore year. I think I have the game to compete in AJGA tournaments and whatnot for sure, but I have very little competitive experience and they're more expensive and less frequent. What do you guys think I should be doing at this point?
[/quote]

What's your handicap? You know that competing in most AJGAs is several under par right? Unless your ready to be there in almost every tournament, you might as well play in high school.
[/quote]

I definitely have the ability to shoot under par. But it goes back to what I was saying about competitive experience. I have no idea how my mental game will hold up if I know that I *have* to shoot under par, as opposed to shooting under par just widening my lead. That's what I'm worried about. I'll just give you some stats and you can tell me what you think. My home courses over the last month have been the Q-School finals courses in Orlando and these are my averaged stats on them so far:

Panther Lake: 7350/76.0/139, par 72
15 GIR, 29 putts per round, average score 70

Crooked Cat: 7493/76.6/139, par 72
13 GIR, 31 putts per round, average score 72

I think that based on this I might score better on the AJGA courses. My biggest scoring problem is that I'm *really* short, I only average 270 on my drives and my irons are even shorter relatively, my 150 yard club is my 7i. This leaves me with really few scoring opportunities on these longer courses. But from what I can tell most AJGA events are around 6900, some less. I think that'd give me a lot more scoring shots (6i or less) into greens tbh so I think I should be capable of consistently being sub-seventy in AJGA events. But I don't know how that'll come out when you mix in lack of tournament experience. And maybe I'm wrong in assuming that. What do you think? I mean, a 207 seems like it'd win a lot, if not most, of the AJGAs. Even if I couldn't muster out 3 69's consistently it seems like 208-209 would still win sometimes, even a 210.

I'm clueless right now. =[

[quote name='Eag1e' timestamp='1280528927' post='2608989']
[quote name='pinhigh27' timestamp='1280526922' post='2608939']
[quote name='Eag1e' timestamp='1280522468' post='2608812']
What do you guys think would be better for me to do? I'm going to be in my sophomore year. I think I have the game to compete in AJGA tournaments and whatnot for sure, but I have very little competitive experience and they're more expensive and less frequent. What do you guys think I should be doing at this point?
[/quote]

What's your handicap? You know that competing in most AJGAs is several under par right? Unless your ready to be there in almost every tournament, you might as well play in high school.
[/quote]

I definitely have the ability to shoot under par. But it goes back to what I was saying about competitive experience. I have no idea how my mental game will hold up if I know that I *have* to shoot under par, as opposed to shooting under par just widening my lead. That's what I'm worried about. I'll just give you some stats and you can tell me what you think. My home courses over the last month have been the Q-School finals courses in Orlando and these are my averaged stats on them so far:

Panther Lake: 7350/76.0/139, par 72
15 GIR, 29 putts per round, average score 70

Crooked Cat: 7493/76.6/139, par 72
13 GIR, 31 putts per round, average score 72

I think that based on this I might score better on the AJGA courses. My biggest scoring problem is that I'm *really* short, I only average 270 on my drives and my irons are even shorter relatively, my 150 yard club is my 7i. This leaves me with really few scoring opportunities on these longer courses. But from what I can tell most AJGA events are around 6900, some less. I think that'd give me a lot more scoring shots (6i or less) into greens tbh so I think I should be capable of consistently being sub-seventy in AJGA events. But I don't know how that'll come out when you mix in lack of tournament experience. And maybe I'm wrong in assuming that. What do you think? I mean, a 207 seems like it'd win a lot, if not most, of the AJGAs. Even if I couldn't muster out 3 69's consistently it seems like 208-209 would still win sometimes, even a 210.

I'm clueless right now. =[
[/quote]

Those are pretty strong stats, on really tough courses. I say go for it, or just play in one and see how you do.

Play high school for experience. Have fun with the other players on the team. I take it you live in FL, I would hit the Florida Junior Tour and get some experience. The have 15-20 event s each year. Starts in September and goes through July.

[url="http://www.floridajuniortour.org/tournaments/schedule.asp?y=2011"]http://www.floridaju...dule.asp?y=2011[/url]


Playing on courses you are familiar with and playing on courses set for AJGA aren't the same. Rule of thumb, you will most likely shoot 3 to 4 strokes higher.

Also, you can't just sign up for AJGA events. You would need to play qualifiers to get into events until you build up stars and exemptions.

You can earn AJGA exemptions by playing well on FJT:

[url="http://www.floridajuniortour.org/docs/ajga.asp"]http://www.floridajuniortour.org/docs/ajga.asp[/url]

You didn't say what your index is... Too many assumptions. Without tournament experience those numbers are no better then my numerous sub-par rounds from 6800++ yds.

[quote name='Pepperturbo' timestamp='1280530198' post='2609027']
You didn't say what your index is... Too many assumptions. Without tournament experience those numbers are no better then my numerous sub-par rounds from 6800++ yds.
[/quote]

I have no idea what my index is. I haven't kept one.

If you want a GHIN Index/handicap, talk to your club pro..college coach wil not be real concerened with your handicap..

More importantly, join and play FJT. Gives you shots at AJGA expemptions, gives you good experience/competition, gives you credible score for college coaches to look at, and gets you ranked on NJGS and Golfweek that some college coaches use to gather information on potential recruits.

Come back in the fall and let us know how it goes in on the FJT.