Monday, Oct. 26, 2009

Cyndi Evans Graham: Local golf tour offers unique opportunity for juniors

I spent another great Sunday afternoon watching a golf tournament at Black Bear in Longs. It was a beautiful day and a proud day for me as a large group of my junior players were competing. There were three girls in the 18-hole division and only two girls in the modified division.

Pendleton Bogache and Lia Farrar are two of my students and I was equally proud of both of these young women. Pendleton has a bit more playing experience than Lia, but both were out there doing their very best. Lia and I had a great lesson on Saturday and with that, she hit some very good shots during the tournament. The entire Farrar family plays golf and giving Lia the skills she needs to enjoy the game for her lifetime is my major goal. With more experience and confidence, she will become more tournament savvy. Right now, I want her to enjoy the game.

I would love to see more girls and boys from our area participate in this organization. The National Junior Golf Tour (NJGT) was started in 1999 and now has nearly 1,000 members. Many of the tournaments offer state rankings for players 14 and older (25 players needed in that age group) and two-day events can also earn rankings on National Junior Scoreboard. All these links are on the NJGT Web site: nationaljuniorgolftour.com.

There are several tours and this local chapter is called the SC Beach Tour. This chapter plans to host monthly two-day events in 2010. Several dates are already in the works and will be confirmed in the coming weeks and then posted on the Web site. Members of the NJGT can play any of the tour events and sign up through the Web site.

I was also told that a junior player is welcome to play in one event on this tour as a guest. In other words, they would not have to be a member of the NJGT before trying it out.

This was not the first time I had attended a tournament run by this organization and I can tell you it is first class. I know there may be many people who are not aware of this opportunity for their children, and the players that do participate, love it.

A couple of side notes:

Dunes Club junior Johnson Holliday won the overall with a 72 while James Mishoe was second with a 74.

My buddy, Holden Grigg won his age division, too.

These kids can play. If your aspiring junior golfer is not participating in the great organization, take the opportunity to enter them into one of the upcoming events.