What a difference a day or two makes. v2.0

Good grief! Just when you think it is time to pull up the tent stakes....

Sean competed in the USGA Jr Am qualifier yesterday. He shot a 75 in the first round, earning a shot at competing in the full 36 hole qualifier. Which was something of a major goal in and of itself. Baby steps.

He then ended the day with a tidy 72.

His 147 total was unfortunately 6 strokes back of the playoff for the 5 qualifying spots.

But it was still a solid performance. He finished T17 in a 83 player field. Many of the competitors in this qualifier were the same boys who played in the state junior amateur, where he did not play so well.

This result is an affirmation that he can play with these kids, providing a good boost to his confidence. It helps prove to his mom and I that he belongs out here. I guess this puts us on top of the roller coaster again.

On a side note, I can't help but remark on how grueling a test these USGA events are. Sean was out of bed at 5:15 am, and at the course by 6:45 for a 7:30 tee time. The day was hot and humid and long, with two loops carrying a heavy load. He didn't complete his 2nd round until nearly 8 pm.

His first words when he got in the car were, "I can't believe how tired my brain is."

I came away completely impressed by the mental and physical challenge of a USGA event. High school golfers like Sean can take a lot of grief from their classmates about how golf is not a real sport. I invite them all to come out and grind out their best effort over a 12 to 13 hr middle of the summer day.

Bringing a Jr tour event on the home course?

Sean and I had discussed for a while how cool it would be to have our golf club host a 2 day Jr event run by our regional Jr tour. Sean has played in several of their events, and they do a really good job of it.

Sean will claim as his the idea of 'hosting' an event at our club. And he's probably right.

I finally got off my duff to do something about the issue. I had lunch today with the tour director, who was in town for an appointment of his own. We chatted about some of the issues involved.

The next step is to put together a package to present to my club's decision makers, to see if there is something we can do. Our membership is loath to give up their course to outsiders, if even for a day. They cherish their sanctuary, and rightly so.

However, I think we can come up with a proposal that will disrupt normal club activities minimally, and provide the club with both direct and indirect benefits.

Setting a schedule

The nicest thing about having exempt status for the AJGA Gilchrist events is that we can pretty well plan out his season well in advance. We'll have him play in 5 AJGA events, compete in our state Jr Am tournament, and try to qualify for a couple more events (US Jr Am and state Am). We'll also try to get him into a couple of qualifiers for AJGA open tournaments, and see if he can bank some performance stars for the next season.

Last year, the focus was to play as much tournament golf as possible. This year, the focus will be to learn how to prepare better for a more limited number of events.

The other big difference this year is that Sean will play high school golf rather than baseball this spring. Tryouts for the team will commence in another 3 weeks or so. Sean has a good shot at making the team, but hard to say whether he'll see a lot of tournament action. Either way, I think he'll have a lot of fun being on a team.