Greetings!
All of us at the New Jersey PGA and New Jersey Golf Foundation would like to wish you a happy and healthy holiday season. Good luck to those of you that travel to warmer destinations over the winter to play competitively. Please forward me your results so we can publicize them in the next Junior Newsletter or on www.newjersey.pga.com. Warm Regards, Chris Hunt |
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College Corner
There is a section on our website under Junior Golf that is titled Junior Tour Alumni. Here you will find a list of where former Junior Tour Members played collegiate golf. We are proud to announce the recent signings for the class of 2012:
Louis Bodine - Rutgers University (pictured above - middle)
Jimmy Dengler Jr. - Loyola College
Scotland Preston - Kansas State University
Ryan Siegler - Towson University
Kelsey Solan - James Madison University
If you are a current Junior Tour Member who plans on playing collegiate golf, please let us know when you sign your official letter and we will update our website.
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Junior Tour Alumni
CRAIG SMITH - Chatham High School (2000)
Craig Smith had a very successful junior golf career that began when he was 12 years old. This far precedes the days of US Kids Golf and the only tournaments around for kids under 13 were 3 New Jersey PGA 9-hole Pee Wee Tournaments. Craig went on to win many junior tournaments, was selected to First Team All State in 1999 & 2000 and qualified for the 1999 US Junior Amateur. With all that he accomplished his fondest memory was the 1999 Philson Cup trip to Surrey, England. The event was only played for 2 years and Craig was also on the team in 2000 when the Surrey Team visited New Jersey. Team New Jersey won the cup both years and Craig played a large part in the success of both of those teams, which is saying a lot considering England's Ross McGowan (European Tour Winner) and James Heath (Former European Tour Member) were on that 1999 team.
Craig played his college golf at Seton Hall. After graduating college he moved to Florida and worked at Bear Lakes CC until 2008. Craig got his Class A PGA Membership and has been working as an Assistant Golf Professional at Trump National - Bedminster for the past 4 years. Craig is regarded as one of the better players on the NJPGA Assistant Professional Tour and has placed well in recent NJ State and MET area Open Championships.
Craig said, "there is no doubt in my mind that playing on the New Jersey PGA Junior Tour helped me prepare for tournament golf on a national level. I have a few students who play on the NJPGA Junior Tour now and it is great that they can stay local, which lowers the cost, and earn Junior Golf Scoreboard points." When Craig was a junior the AJGA only came to the tri-state area once in a while and there were hardly any multiple round tournaments to play in.
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Membership & Schedule
I will send an email out in January to let everyone know when the 2012 Junior Tour Membership will be activated.
The fees for all tournaments/membership will remain the same in 2012.
Events below in Red are not our association but many of you play in these tournaments so I have listed them to help with your schedule. Please be reminded that this schedule is tentative and subject to change.
SPRINGApril 21st - TBD April 28th - Fox Hollow GC May 12th - Twin Brooks CC SUMMERJune 19th - Stony Brook GC June 21st - US Jr Am Qualifier @ Peddie GCJune 28th - MGA Boys/Junior Qualifier @ Lake Mohawk GCJune 25 & 26 - National PGA Jr Championship Qualifier @ Rossmoor GC July 2nd & 3rd - Junior Masters @ Newton CC July 9th & 10th - Junior Open @ Basking Ridge CC July 16th - Ramsey G & CC July 17th-19th - MGA Jr Championship @ Nissequogue CCJuly 23rd-25th - NJSGA William Deer Jr Championship @ TBDJuly 18th & 19th - University Open @ Rutgers GC & Springdale CC July 25th & 26th - Shore Classic @ Suneagles July 26th & 27th - Rutgers University Girls Championship @ Rutgers GCJuly 30th - Aug 1st - Rutgers University Boys Championship @ Rutgers GC
August 1st - Carter Cup at Baltusrol (Invite only)
August 2nd - Old York CC
August 7th-9th - Junior Championship @ Royce Brook GC (East & West)
August 9th & 10th - MGA Boys Championship @ Gardiner's Bay GC
August 15th & 16th - Junior Challenge @ Architect's GC
August 20th - Fairmount CC
August 24th - Pritsch Cup @ TBD
August 27th - Essex County CC
August 30th - Junior Match Play @ Toms River CC
FALL
September 22 - Battleground CC
October 6th & 7th - Junior Fall Classic @ Black Oak GC
October 13th - Hollywood GC
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US Kids Golf Schedule
The New Jersey PGA runs the largest US Kids Golf Local Summer Tour in the country. The tour has over 225 members which consists of boys and girls ages 5 to 14. Below is the North Jersey Local Tour's tentative schedule for next summer. All registration is done through www.uskidsgolf.com.
June 26th @ Pine Barrens Golf Club
July 9th @ Eagle Ridge Golf Club
July 17th @ Flanders Valley Golf Course
July 23rd @ Galloping Hill Golf Course
August 8th @ Mattawang Golf Club
August 13th @ Panther Valley Golf & Country Club
August 20th @ Jumping Brook Country Club
August 22nd @ Fiddler's Elbow Country Club
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Junior Tour Spotlight
John Edler (Fair Haven) picked a great event to have one of his strongest finishes of the year in. John recently traveled to South Carolina to play in the 4th Annual Hank Haney Invitational @ Sea Pines Resort. The tournament took place over two days as everyone tried to tackle the Ocean Course and Harbor Town National. John was consistent and precise, firing two rounds of 74 on his was to a tie for second in the Boys 15-19 division, two shots off the winning score of 146.
With John's older brother Charlie off playing collegiate golf at Dartmouth, John will assume the roll of leader on the highly touted Rumson - Fair Haven High School Golf Team. He and fellow NJPGA Junior Tour Member Toby Ryan will try and take down Christian Brothers Academy as the shore area's top high school golf program.
Jared Mactas (Woodcliff Lakes) finished tied for 23rd and Matt Kraus (Essex Fells) finished tied for 53rd.
Long time US Kids Golf - North Jersey Local Tour Member Kyle Russo (Ringoes) finished 7th in the Boys 14 & under division. Kyle (class of 2017) will compete on the NJPGA Junior Tour for the first time in 2012.
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College Seminar
The 2nd Annual College Seminar will be held at Trump National - Bedminster on Saturday, February 25th from 9:00 - 11:00 AM. We will have college coaches representing different divisions to talk about the recruiting process. We will also have local PGA Professionals that attended colleges & universities that offer the Professional Golf Management Program. Those that graduate as PGA Members have 100% job placement in the golf industry. The seminar is very question and answer orientated. If you have questions that you would like answered but feel awkward asking them in front of an audience please feel free to email them to me in advance and I will try to ask the panelists as many of those questions as I can. At the conclusion of the seminar we will have break out sessions with some of the panelists to create a more intimate atmosphere which will allow some of you to ask even more questions in a smaller setting.
More information on this seminar will be posted on our website in January.
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The Rules of Golf
Changes to the Rules of Golf by the USGA and R&A are made and published every four years. The book pictured above is good through 2015. One of the four major changes deals with Rule 6-3a - Time of Starting. The Rules will be more forgiving to players who arrive late to the tee, but within 5 minutes of their starting time. Going forward, only players who arrive more than 5 minutes after their starting time will be disqualified. The NJPGA always added the Local Rule exception to this rule but going forward it will be used during all golf competitions sanctioned by the USGA, PGA, NCAA and NJSIAA events.
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Coming Soon....... In an effort to try and fill a void in local competitive golf, the New Jersey PGA is experimenting with the idea of adding a College Division each summer for those players that are too old to play junior golf and may not have the means or time to play in other competitive tournaments in the area.
These events would not be part of the NJPGA's Junior Golf Schedule but rather the NJPGA Assistant Golf Professional's Association. The NJAPGA play on Monday's throughout the summer and adding an amateur College Division is in the works.
Details on the schedule, eligibility & pricing are being discussed and we hope to have more on this in early 2012.
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Allied Associations
The New Jersey PGA Junior Tour and the AJGA continue to strengthen their relationship. The AJGA is currently reviewing our results from 2011 and we hope to add to the list of events that will be recognized by the AJGA in 2012.
For those of you that may not be aware, the AJGA recently announced a change in their PBE's (Performance Based Exemptions) and moving forward they will no longer award automatic exemptions based on how a player finishes in an allied association's tournament. Each player will only receive stars based on their finish in a recognized event. For further details on the AJGA please visit www.ajga.org
Beginning in 2010, the New Jersey PGA and the International Junior Golf Tour (IJGT) created an partnership to help elevate our Junior Tour. Each year the 4 Player of the Year winners receive a free IJGT Fall Membership Please click on the link below to read the announcement from IJGT Director of Player Services, Jordan Schneider. Article
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