How to figure what tour to play

[tiger1873]

Trying to navigate the different tours is defiantly hard. There are so many tournaments and tours it hard to know what ones to play. I think as parent this was my number one reason to read these forums. Picking the correct tournaments is the difference between happy or kind of feeling like it was a wasted weekend. What sort of helped me lately is figuring out what the various tours intentions and goals are. I think sometimes we are so focused on scores and rankings we don't step back and think am I playing the correct tour for my kid.

 

This sort how I see the different levels. Now not everyone will agree and honestly there is a lot grey areas because there is overlap in a players development but I sort of learned the hard way the tournaments with the lowest scores are not always the best competition or ones you want to play for long term development.

 

Before everyone jumps on me I breaking this down in very general terms because honesty each the tours below could have and do have multiple threads on them. So don't assume there are not exceptions.

 

 

US Kids - This tours general goal is have kids play golf. In general the courses are poor and the rules are kind of loose. They have higher levels but the goal is just get kids to play. Some parents think if there kids win they got the next superstar. Generally speaking if you practice don't take it serious you will have a fun afternoon with you younger kid.

 

 

PGA Sectionals - Golf here starts to follow the rules much more or at least the players. You may or may not have caddies but the setup's are generally not extra hard. In some cases they cater to higher levels but you should expect some rules not in general the goal here is to get kids interested in golf. The competition always seems really good but you start to learn the rankings suck because they have easy pin placements and not very high ratings. Generally speaking this is middle and high school golf. You do this because you want to learn to play golf.

 

State level associations (state golf association) - These are usually very well run. In most cases the better juniors will play these. If they win they hope to move on to higher events. In some cases these have events or tournaments that may be very competitive. - The primary goal is teach kids to play high level golf.

 

National associations (AGJA,HJGT, IMG, FCT, IJGT and others) - Some these better then others with AGJA being the best example but generally speaking they all tours have a goal of developing better juniors. In many cases the setups are much harder and the scores may be higher but the courses are tougher- The primary goal is help play college golf.

 

Invitations - These are large tournaments that you get invited because you proved you played at a high level - You do this because you are that good.

 

Amateur Events.- You do this because you think you can compete at the highest levels but not good enough to go pro.

[wlm]

My two cents (and of course this varies by age and how much the junior wants to get out of the junior golf experience): the ultimate goal, for someone who wants to play at the college level, is to play against the best competition on tough setups. For boys, depending on age, I suggest focusing on building AJGA status. I think you will find that the other tours seem to have stronger fields when they offer better AJGA PBE. Focus on those, get the stars at the earliest reasonable age, as they carry over to the next year. Once a decent AJGA status is achieved, the next step is to try to become fully exempt. After that ... invitationals. Are you in Texas? If so, I like NTPGA/STPGA and to a lesser extent, US Kids, for 12 and under, then start building status around age 12-14. TLJT is a great tour. TJGT is good too. Review the STPGA and NTPGA websites to see which tournaments offer the best PBE. Since you never know when your junior is going to have the breakout tournament, you may as well enter them in tournaments that further their goal. Look at the AJGA website for "other ranked tournaments" to find the various independent events that are really good.

If you get into an invitational, play it.

For Amateur events, those are best for the older junior who is likely to play in college.

For girls, I don't really know. I think it is similar, but AJGA may not be as big of a deal. And for the creme of the crop, there seems to be an opportunity to possibly turn professional early.

[tiger1873]

> @wlm said:

> My two cents (and of course this varies by age and how much the junior wants to get out of the junior golf experience): the ultimate goal, for someone who wants to play at the college level, is to play against the best competition on tough setups. For boys, depending on age, I suggest focusing on building AJGA status. I think you will find that the other tours seem to have stronger fields when they offer better AJGA PBE. Focus on those, get the stars at the earliest reasonable age, as they carry over to the next year. Once a decent AJGA status is achieved, the next step is to try to become fully exempt. After that ... invitationals. Are you in Texas? If so, I like NTPGA/STPGA and to a lesser extent, US Kids, for 12 and under, then start building status around age 12-14. TLJT is a great tour. TJGT is good too. Review the STPGA and NTPGA websites to see which tournaments offer the best PBE. Since you never know when your junior is going to have the breakout tournament, you may as well enter them in tournaments that further their goal. Look at the AJGA website for "other ranked tournaments" to find the various independent events that are really good.

> If you get into an invitational, play it.

> For Amateur events, those are best for the older junior who is likely to play in college.

> For girls, I don't really know. I think it is similar, but AJGA may not be as big of a deal. And for the creme of the crop, there seems to be an opportunity to possibly turn professional early.

 

No don't live in Texas but very familiar with NTPGA/STPGA and I think a lot parents think there better competition then they really are. I know some of there tournaments are better then others but in general the scores are low but the setup/ courses are not as hard as what you would see with a HJGT. We played a few IMG, HJGT setups that we played on other tours and really noticed how much harder those setups are. This a big reason you can see higher scores.

 

The thing i noticed is some those kids who do well say in a NTPGA or SFLJPGA don't score so well on say the HJGT setups. Obviously everyone wants to play AGJA but until you have status your not going to be playing enough and playing similar setups is good development. The thing with golf I think a lot people forget is your playing against the course not everyone else. There is nothing stoping you from breaking par on a very hard course with a limited field.

 

Yes winning large events is nice too but that happens because you can score low.

[tiger1873]

I should add this is a typical setup I have seen play US Kids, South Florida and HGJT on a par 3 on the same course for girls

 

US Kids 87 yards

 

South Florida 125 yards

 

HJGT 169 yards

 

So even though the course is the same the course plays much different and then you have pin locations that in many cases are progressively harder as well.