Tugu

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/45875355/stanford-hiring-former-nike-ceo-john-donahoe-ad Will this make a difference? In the short term, their team of "golf for college" kids will mostly still shoot over par and MC. But maybe there will be a plan for golf in this new era of pay for play? Or it'll be more over par scores via curated CV's from "golf for college" kids.

Don't hint bro. Let's have it.😇

Apologies if it's already been asked elsewhere, but for those who have seen the irons, are they able to be combo'd without too much fuss? Or are the lofts and distances just a bridge too far? Thanks in advance.

Does he share a surname with a prominent US Jnr am participant?🤣

Just to put things into perspective for those actively seeking rules that allow for the best fields, the girls Junior am may also need rules changed to allow the best players to participate. Of the last 32, here are the surnames of 20 Wu, Ly, Lin, Yen Lee, Singh, Ponomi, Kong, Chen, Takai, Xu, Feng, Lumpongpoung, Katchasanamee, Ahn, Rubrong, Deng, Liu, Sriwong and Feng. 15 of the winners in the last 25 years were non American. That's assuming one counts Rose Zhang, Yealimi Noh and Kristen Park as American. Anyone advocating for changes to allow the "best" players to participate in the girls jnr am? What would those rules look like?

A Vietnamese in the finals 50 years after his country was almost bombed into oblivion. People's Republic of China, a place beset by crippling poverty just 30 years ago, represented in the semis. Said player having recently won the Circle K on a tough track and gotten accepted into Notre Dame. A kid with Southern Asian roots in the quarters. Big names like Miles Russell and Luke Colton featuring down the stretch. I personally find it hard to nitpick the US Junior am. It is far and away the premier junior amateur event in the entire world. But then again, Korean and Japanese players have almost entirely ignored the event. Take a look at their representation on the PGA tour from a young age. If one wants to improve the field, finding a way for them to participate would be it.

Gimme a hot minute and I'll make one about ranked JGS players shooting similar at invitationals and then even more in college (if they can even make the line up). Nothing new about people taking what they can in life. Nothing new in mousetraps not being perfect in every way. Truly nothing new in people with nativist views finding small examples of minorities (minors on this occasion) and creating some kind of hue and cry, acting as if some kind of atrocity has been committed.

I can get behind everything you have just stated. Pay for play or using status to gain advantage is not something you care about. Noone says you have to think it an important issue. But at least you aren't attacking people who care about the above issues as being somehow inherently weak. From my perspective, 4 kids out of a few hundred is ho hum. JGS and the entire Invitational system where kids don't even need to break actual par or win to get low differentials is something I personally believe is alot more egregious than WAGR issues. But I won't attack you for seeing it another way.

Yes

Alot of state junior events are closed events. Meaning only for residents. But places like California, the state events are open to all. Is this fair? I don't know. But it definitely serves to protect certain people.

Yes. It's an obvious unequal process. As is paying for entry into invitationals or using ones station in life to get somewhere others need to earn. If people are up in arms, so be it. But some are fine with one set of inequity and not fine with others. That's the point of MY post.

If it were I'd be saying how weak it was to complain and that one should respond correctly and double down against life's inequities. Citing mission statements as reasons to rally against one inequity and allow other inequality that one finds palatable to slide is playing a game of poltics and semantics. So if WAGR's mission statement gave themselves a loophole, we'd all be good now?

That'd be one way to stop a Canadian Chinese beating a People's Republic of China based out of Singapore and a Filipino from winning the "US" Junior girls.😁

Weren't there voices that said that they loved the fact that Charlie Woods got exemptions to invitationals on the grounds that this represented "real life?" Similar voices were also OK with JGS #1 guy paying for entry because this again was replicating how real life functioned? Any protesting voices were put down with taunts of weakness for supposed unwillingness to go hard against the obvious differing standards. I do wonder why now the same voices dont pipe up and love how the current situation again replicates real life. Or are 4 (or maybe even more) possibly unworthy kids hardly the stuff gross inequity? Seems strange to me that some inequities are in fact positive and should be met with grit or resilience via some double down methodology; whilst other inequities need administrative oversight and intervention for remedy.

Kind of recently a decent name school's coach came to scout a kid I've known for years. Father was witnessed BY THE COACH kicking a errant ball back onto the fairway. A big hullabaloo ensued with the AJGA official when others who witnessed the incident reported the matter. The father protested that the ball struck him and rebounded. Kid never ever heard from the coach again. He ended up committing to a MUCH lesser school. Fast forward to couple of weeks ago and same kid went -4 and then +10, then promptly WD. Cheating is rampant in the sense that it happens in every tournament. But it's done by a small minority of kids.

They dunno what CCA is.

How many of these "top kids" have the coaches actually SEEN hit golf balls and/or play? Outside the top 20 or 30, JGS and lauded players with limited wins/few recorded rounds under par are a busted flush.

I'd love to know how college coaches "set their board." And when they do, how many golfers have they had actual eyeballs on? Very curious.

Tell him if he wins, that he can call himself a WORLD CHAMPION.🤣 Sad thing is I'm actually not kidding. Quick check of a couple of Socal IG accounts and you'll see exactly this. Fun? He needs to be thinking about recruitment, NOW! Check the strength of field immediately. Scoring only matters if it gets him into invitationals. Then he can basically stop playing altogether if he can beat the CCA and ride the strength of field bump. As for shots, be the parent that follows him around and videos and then posts every decent moment. Let him know you are there, so he knows not to f**k it up FOR YOU. Which at the end of the day is what it's all about. On a serious note, I coached a girl who was player of the month twice this year and ROTY in her conference. Her dad actually threatened to WD her repeatedly from AJGAs if she wouldn't listen to his strategy and club selection during rounds. Took her passport away so she couldn't get back to USA til he approved of her golf swing. Then finally took it one step too far by attempting to get the coach to force her to listen to his strategy. Funnily enough, she can't wait to quit golf. Sad thing is, she can really ball.

What about the guy whose family name adorns the basketball stadium of an IVY? Its a close race.😆

They always had guys whose family name adorn the basketball stadium at a IVY league school or dad willing to write a big cheque. But in Thorbjorsen, Villips and P Rogers et al , they had vaunted players that could break ACTUAL par. The current bunch rode the CCA to all kinds of accolades wothout winning much and have been found unable to break ACTUAL par when called upon to. One former all american this and accolade that even quit the program when he couldn't break 80 in sophomore year. The biggest differentiating factor imho is that the current crop are for the most part "golf for college" entry kids. If they had missed at Stanford, they'd be just as happy at Harvard or Princeton. Nothing wrong with golf for college entry kids, but for obvious reasons it doesn't make for elite performance "in golf." If one was to make MIT kids to devote themselves to golf over academics, their grades would accordingly suffer.

Asia is approximately 60% of the world's population and 30% of the earth's land area. What in your opinion would be the right amount or balance of Asian junior golfers? Do junior golf events like world juniors and say most California AJGA's have a lack of diversity issue in that there are simply "too much presence from all the Asia (Sic) junior golfers?