Let's Go Play!
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Experience is what counts.
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(We spend many hours on the phone with
parents and players talking about this topic.
Hope it helps you.)
Junior players and their parents make decisions
frequently about choosing which tournament to
play in. Factors such as dates of the event,
entry fee, travel distance, reputation of the
tournament, etc are all important. However, in
our opinion, there is one factor that should
never enter in to the decision-making
process.
The effect on a player's standing in any
ranking system should never be a consideration
for choosing an event, and that includes our
system here at the Junior Golf Scoreboard.
Getting better in this sport requires one
constant: experience. And experience does not
come from sitting on a couch and missing an
opportunity to compete. Missing an opportunity
to play, shoot lower scores, and build a base
of competitive experiences to draw on for the
future is not what the college bound player
should be doing. And, put quite frankly, if you
don't play, you can't win, and if you don't
play no one will see you.
In two surveys, one done by the AJGA and one by
us, college coaches consistently put rankings
as the 7th or 8th most important factor in
their interest in an athlete. Scoring was the
first and most important criteria. Simply put,
the less you play the more you hurt your
chances to post numbers that will be noticed.
There is no quick solution or work around to
this, scoring counts. So, trying to maneuver a
playing schedule, to "work" the rankings or to
be ranked here or there is counter productive
for 99% of junior players.
Our best advice to parents and
players: Let's go play golf!
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