Junior Golf Scoreboard

[kcap]

My $.02. .Hurricane Tour is a complete waste of time if you are actually serious about Junior golf as your child gets to the 12+.  Prior to 12, US Kids is better, so I do not see any reason to play Hurricane unless your goal in life is to play against weak fields and place 1st. 

The fact that the scoring average for the POY winner in the 14-15 is 80 - should tell you enough about the quality of the field.  An 80 scoring average at an AJGA will likely be at the bottom of the pack. 

We played a single Hurricane event last yr and did not even renew our membership for 2022.  It just seems like such a waste of time.  We have a really packed golf tournament schedule, between HS School, AJGA, local pga and trying for some other national jr tournaments that playing Hurricane is pointless.

We know some of the POY winners, and my reaction to my son questions about "Did you see XXX got POY in Hurricane, he would not even be  top 20 in the local tournament",  "Dude, who cares, anyone who is in Jr golf see through the IG posts, these post are for the non - golf folks."

 

- I hope i am right.

 

I dont also get this fixation with better courses.  After field, yardage, we focus on course rating.  He wants to play course with a higher rating.  I think it is easier to shoot 75 (par 72) on a 74 rated course than shooting 68 on par 70 (67 rated course).  Your scoring average is the same in both. 

 

[Golfingdawg19]

My daughter has played a couple of Hurricane events and I found them to be well run and on nice courses. Lots of staff every where and they provide water for the kids which is good. My main issue with them is they are very expensive but they do play better courses than most tours. We only did a couple of their events because the fields where we live (Georgia) are not strong so it wasn't worth the money. Most tours other than AJGA are developmental tours to some degree. Obviously some have better competition than others so that is something to consider. We play the SJGT tour and get in half a dozen events without having to travel far. This year we did the tournament of champions event on their tour and it was great. I mix in a few FJT events because we live near Fla and that gives my daughter some good competition. I've heard wonderful things about the PKB tour but they don't have many events near us. My daughter is in 8th grade and her coach told me the most critical grade for girls was 11th. So I have next 3-4 years to get her where she needs to be. What we are doing is perfect for her right now and within the next two years she should be ready to try some AJGA events. As a college head coach told me recently, golf is a race not a sprint. Its not where you are now but where you are at the finish.

[kekoa]

7 hours ago, BloctonGolf11 said:

No point in playing them here for same reasons Kekoa. If I am paying $300 for a tournament I better be playing more than 5 other kids. If you are paying and travelling to play less than 20 kids, unless it is special circumstances, it is obvious what your agenda is. The courses here are nothing special as they are mostly public and RTJs we can go play whenever we want to. 

Yup.  For this tournament, I was able to get 50% off the tournament so it was only like $150 on resort style course that costs $70-$90 for juniors to play.  We had about 10 kids in our field with most of them being 12 or 13 yrs old.  We normally play just 1 or 2 of these a year.  Don't ever plan on doing the membership though.

[chrissdc]

8 hours ago, Golfingdawg19 said:

My daughter has played a couple of Hurricane events and I found them to be well run and on nice courses. Lots of staff every where and they provide water for the kids which is good. My main issue with them is they are very expensive but they do play better courses than most tours. We only did a couple of their events because the fields where we live (Georgia) are not strong so it wasn't worth the money. Most tours other than AJGA are developmental tours to some degree. Obviously some have better competition than others so that is something to consider. We play the SJGT tour and get in half a dozen events without having to travel far. This year we did the tournament of champions event on their tour and it was great. I mix in a few FJT events because we live near Fla and that gives my daughter some good competition. I've heard wonderful things about the PKB tour but they don't have many events near us. My daughter is in 8th grade and her coach told me the most critical grade for girls was 11th. So I have next 3-4 years to get her where she needs to be. What we are doing is perfect for her right now and within the next two years she should be ready to try some AJGA events. As a college head coach told me recently, golf is a race not a sprint. Its not where you are now but where you are at the finish.

With regards to being recruited by colleges, I  believe the most important time for girls is the summer between 10th and 11th grade.

Do well during those summer tournaments and come Sept 1, and your kids email might have schools contacting her.

I don’t know if Sept 1 is still the day colleges can start contacting kids

[BloctonGolf11]

11 hours ago, chrissdc said:

With regards to being recruited by colleges, I  believe the most important time for girls is the summer between 10th and 11th grade.

Do well during those summer tournaments and come Sept 1, and your kids email might have schools contacting her.

I don’t know if Sept 1 is still the day colleges can start contacting kids

In all sports 9-11th grades are what matters. Before that can help but it doesn't make or break you. If you win Worlds at 10 years old and are shooting 95 when you are a Junior no college coaches are going to give a crap about your World Title. 

[heavy_hitter]

39 minutes ago, BloctonGolf11 said:

In all sports 9-11th grades are what matters. Before that can help but it doesn't make or break you. If you win Worlds at 10 years old and are shooting 95 when you are a Junior no college coaches are going to give a crap about your World Title. 

Local kid won USKG at 12.  Never did anything else.  After his Senior year of HS golf he hasn't played golf again.

[MB19]

On 12/17/2021 at 9:47 AM, BloctonGolf11 said:

In all sports 9-11th grades are what matters. Before that can help but it doesn't make or break you. If you win Worlds at 10 years old and are shooting 95 when you are a Junior no college coaches are going to give a crap about your World Title. 

Yeah man, I'm just glad junior golf isn't like D1 gymnastics.  My buddy's daughter had to commit to a school after her 9th grade year or else she would have been gambling for a spot down the road to open up.

[BloctonGolf11]

On 12/18/2021 at 6:44 PM, MB19 said:

Yeah man, I'm just glad junior golf isn't like D1 gymnastics.  My buddy's daughter had to commit to a school after her 9th grade year or else she would have been gambling for a spot down the road to open up.

Different world, their peak years are so young in gymnastics. It is such an odd sport. 

[leezer99]

1 hour ago, BloctonGolf11 said:

Different world, their peak years are so young in gymnastics. It is such an odd sport. 

My daughter is a level 6. Her meet scores from yesterday:

8.7 vault
9.05 floor
9.05 bars
9.5 beam

[RmoorePE]

On 12/17/2021 at 6:47 AM, BloctonGolf11 said:

In all sports 9-11th grades are what matters. Before that can help but it doesn't make or break you. If you win Worlds at 10 years old and are shooting 95 when you are a Junior no college coaches are going to give a crap about your World Title. 

 

Great statement as far as college recruitment goes, but it also underscores the point that the summer of their junior year and fall of their senior year is where you will find out if they will be a college athlete or not.

 

This is where I feel like you see their momentum either slow or increase. They have been grinding since 6th grade, got college recruited and the realization sets in that the grind is really only just starting for them. Parents and coaches can see it happening at this age and the writing is on the wall that they are not going to make it very long in the next level. 

 

I was at a high school basketball tournament this past weekend and it is kind of a social event, many former players from this school come to the town and there are after parties at houses and bars. I talked to lots of different former players. Some finished D1-D2 college in their sports, but most dropped out of their sport about 1 season into it. I had a long conversation with a young lady who is currently in her senior year of college. She went on a fast pitch scholarship to a lower level D2. She was recruited hard her junior year and had signed letter of intent the fall of her senior year.

 

She told me that after she signed the LOI, she felt this massive relief that she had accomplished her goal. She played her HS senior season, and told me that her intensity was lower than it had ever been, and she could not even figure out a way to ramp it up. Then she said that the college summer workout program and game schedule arrived in her email at the end of the school year and she burst into tears. She had lost the desire to grind anymore, and knew it, but she also knew she was going to try and honor her commitment. She made it about 2 miserable months and quit the team/forfeited the athletic scholarship.

 

The fastpitch industrial complex has soooo many tournaments, that by the time the kids are at college age they have played hundreds and hundreds of games. Everyone has at least one or two travel teams they play with, plus their school team. I asked her if she thought she would have been more apt to roll with college if she had not played so much between 7th and 11th grade. She said 100%, she wishes she was more choosy with her time. She said she could not figure out a way to love the sport anymore, like she did as a younger kid. 

 

 

 

[heavy_hitter]

56 minutes ago, RmoorePE said:

 

Great statement as far as college recruitment goes, but it also underscores the point that the summer of their junior year and fall of their senior year is where you will find out if they will be a college athlete or not.

 

This is where I feel like you see their momentum either slow or increase. They have been grinding since 6th grade, got college recruited and the realization sets in that the grind is really only just starting for them. Parents and coaches can see it happening at this age and the writing is on the wall that they are not going to make it very long in the next level. 

 

I was at a high school basketball tournament this past weekend and it is kind of a social event, many former players from this school come to the town and there are after parties at houses and bars. I talked to lots of different former players. Some finished D1-D2 college in their sports, but most dropped out of their sport about 1 season into it. I had a long conversation with a young lady who is currently in her senior year of college. She went on a fast pitch scholarship to a lower level D2. She was recruited hard her junior year and had signed letter of intent the fall of her senior year.

 

She told me that after she signed the LOI, she felt this massive relief that she had accomplished her goal. She played her HS senior season, and told me that her intensity was lower than it had ever been, and she could not even figure out a way to ramp it up. Then she said that the college summer workout program and game schedule arrived in her email at the end of the school year and she burst into tears. She had lost the desire to grind anymore, and knew it, but she also knew she was going to try and honor her commitment. She made it about 2 miserable months and quit the team/forfeited the athletic scholarship.

 

The fastpitch industrial complex has soooo many tournaments, that by the time the kids are at college age they have played hundreds and hundreds of games. Everyone has at least one or two travel teams they play with, plus their school team. I asked her if she thought she would have been more apt to roll with college if she had not played so much between 7th and 11th grade. She said 100%, she wishes she was more choosy with her time. She said she could not figure out a way to love the sport anymore, like she did as a younger kid. 

 

 

 

 

This, unfortunately, happens to a lot of female athletes.

[tiger1873]

3 hours ago, RmoorePE said:

 

Great statement as far as college recruitment goes, but it also underscores the point that the summer of their junior year and fall of their senior year is where you will find out if they will be a college athlete or not.

 

This is where I feel like you see their momentum either slow or increase. They have been grinding since 6th grade, got college recruited and the realization sets in that the grind is really only just starting for them. Parents and coaches can see it happening at this age and the writing is on the wall that they are not going to make it very long in the next level. 

 

I was at a high school basketball tournament this past weekend and it is kind of a social event, many former players from this school come to the town and there are after parties at houses and bars. I talked to lots of different former players. Some finished D1-D2 college in their sports, but most dropped out of their sport about 1 season into it. I had a long conversation with a young lady who is currently in her senior year of college. She went on a fast pitch scholarship to a lower level D2. She was recruited hard her junior year and had signed letter of intent the fall of her senior year.

 

She told me that after she signed the LOI, she felt this massive relief that she had accomplished her goal. She played her HS senior season, and told me that her intensity was lower than it had ever been, and she could not even figure out a way to ramp it up. Then she said that the college summer workout program and game schedule arrived in her email at the end of the school year and she burst into tears. She had lost the desire to grind anymore, and knew it, but she also knew she was going to try and honor her commitment. She made it about 2 miserable months and quit the team/forfeited the athletic scholarship.

 

The fastpitch industrial complex has soooo many tournaments, that by the time the kids are at college age they have played hundreds and hundreds of games. Everyone has at least one or two travel teams they play with, plus their school team. I asked her if she thought she would have been more apt to roll with college if she had not played so much between 7th and 11th grade. She said 100%, she wishes she was more choosy with her time. She said she could not figure out a way to love the sport anymore, like she did as a younger kid. 

 

 

 

Very common and why attitude is so important. Maybe even more then talent.

 

 

I think girls are told to play against their wishes more then boys.  I see a lot girls put into tournaments they have no business being in.  
 

Some kids love tournaments others really rather not play them. You have to figure out which one your kid is.

 

It gets frustrating to enter a tournament with a ton girls only to see a ton withdraw early and then more drop out during the tournament.  It gets really bad if the course is really tough.   
 

A tough but fair course should be a challenge not a reason to quit.  

 

 

 

 

[MB19]

4 hours ago, RmoorePE said:

 

I had a long conversation with a young lady who is currently in her senior year of college. She went on a fast pitch scholarship to a lower level D2. She was recruited hard her junior year and had signed letter of intent the fall of her senior year.

 

She told me that after she signed the LOI, she felt this massive relief that she had accomplished her goal. She played her HS senior season, and told me that her intensity was lower than it had ever been, and she could not even figure out a way to ramp it up. Then she said that the college summer workout program and game schedule arrived in her email at the end of the school year and she burst into tears. She had lost the desire to grind anymore, and knew it, but she also knew she was going to try and honor her commitment. She made it about 2 miserable months and quit the team/forfeited the athletic scholarship.

 

The fastpitch industrial complex has soooo many tournaments, that by the time the kids are at college age they have played hundreds and hundreds of games. Everyone has at least one or two travel teams they play with, plus their school team. I asked her if she thought she would have been more apt to roll with college if she had not played so much between 7th and 11th grade. She said 100%, she wishes she was more choosy with her time. She said she could not figure out a way to love the sport anymore, like she did as a younger kid. 

 

 

 

My sister turned down SEC and Big East scholarships to pitch and instead played at the local juco for a year before going to a DII in South Florida--all to stay close to her HS boyfriend.  She set the school record for wins and strikeouts her first year, but was eventually asked not to come back for her senior year because she such a hot mess (same boyfriend was the worst kind of bad news).  The fastpitch softball culture soured me so hard that I knew if I ever had a daughter she would not be going that route.  The more that I saw of travel baseball in FL the more I knew my son would also not be going down that path, as well.

[RmoorePE]

Its funny, with three daughters we live in a pretty fast pitch heavy area, and have lots of friends whos kids are full out in fast pitch. Having watched kids like the above story and knowing the investment in time and stress on the kids and families, we sort of pushed our kids out of it after they played a few years. Just subtly, saying how we could not surf or go on vacations if they are in fastpitch and so on. It worked and we actually have been accused of "pulling good players out of the system" by a High School coach. Pretty funny, but I can see their point.

 

We have a friend who's daughter is a pretty good golfer, she doesn't win a lot but is in the running at maybe half of her tournaments. She absolutely loves playing in tournaments, she likes talking with the other girls, the competition, the ice cream after, etc. My daughter gets excited for the tournament, usually has a blow up hole or two, freaks out, cries, scuffles, and gets somewhere between 2nd and 4th, and afterwards is ambivalent to playing another. I feel like she gets a lot of stress from them, and so I try to space them out quite a bit. I definitely do not want to burn her out.

[tiger1873]

8 minutes ago, RmoorePE said:

 

 

We have a friend who's daughter is a pretty good golfer, she doesn't win a lot but is in the running at maybe half of her tournaments. She absolutely loves playing in tournaments, she likes talking with the other girls, the competition, the ice cream after, etc. My daughter gets excited for the tournament, usually has a blow up hole or two, freaks out, cries, scuffles, and gets somewhere between 2nd and 4th, and afterwards is ambivalent to playing another. I feel like she gets a lot of stress from them, and so I try to space them out quite a bit. I definitely do not want to burn her out.

 

Something I have learned with my daughter.  Winning tournaments is great and they get addicted to that pretty quick. But she always tells me the best tournaments are the ones where she had a bad day. Usually it means something went very wrong and instead of being upset we now look at those as the learning experience to get better.

 

We just went though a tough tournament she did good overall. But a lot girls dropped out because they had tough days and higher than normal scores.  The next day a lot the girls were talking about kids who dropped out and how there not moving up anytime soon because they couldn't hack the course. 

 

I think as a parent you have to be concerned with burnout. But every kid is different Some can play 30-40 tournaments a year and it isn't enough while others might be happy playing 1 once a month when the weather is nice.  

 

The big key is listen and schedule time off for other things in life.  If they just want to play social golf and a few tournaments nothing wrong with that.  Junior golf can be a lot fun playing alongside future pro's and nice courses. If you kid wants to play everything make sure you spend some time doing other stuff especially if your traveling for tournaments.  Doing golf tournaments we seen a lot stuff on the side.