AJGA Schedule Expansion

Thanks Bean, it is important that all the junior who play golf know they are special and it is a gift at whatever level. Golf teaches so many life skills and offers many opportunities. It is what you do with the gift that is important. So someday we as golfers should always pass it on..........

Thank you to everyone for their comments. To touch on the original thread topic, the 2009 AJGA schedule is a reflection of the feedback we received from our membership at tournaments, through surveys, over the phone, etc. We try to give our members numerous opportunities throughout the year to give us structured feedback to help us improve.
 
First and foremost, the AJGA is a service organization. Our top priority will always be to serve our membership and stay true to our Mission Statement. One consistent comment we have heard from our members the past several years is that they wanted more AJGA opportunities outside of the summer season. We felt it would be best to take advantage of some holiday weekends to provide these opportunities. This led to the creation of The PING Invitational in October (Columbus Day), The ANNIKA Invitational in January (MLK Jr. Day) and the Houston Boys Invitational in February (Presidents’ Day).
 
Similarly, another piece of consistent feedback we received is that players wanted a more objective process for the AJGA to determine its Rolex Junior All-America Teams. The Polo Golf Rankings were created to provide a transparent system to determine those honors as well as our AJGA Invitational fields and Canon Cup teams. Players now know exactly where they stand at anytime as it relates to Rolex Junior All-America honors and Invitationals.
 
In regards to coaches and recruiting, as several posters have already mentioned, the number of coaches at an event can vary based upon many factors, including strength of field, field size, date, location and type of tournament. Competing in an AJGA event will provide a player exposure to coaches throughout the country, especially those not at that event. Coaches have access to detailed AJGA tournaments summaries that gives them insight into the weather, course conditions, green speed, etc, to help them best interpret the results.
 
In 2008, 94 percent of AJGA members who applied at least once participated in a tournament or qualifier and received the exposure that went along with it. While some people still view AJGA tournaments as difficult to get in, there is a lot of incorrect information out there and we do everything we can to help educate parents and players on the AJGA and maximizing their playing opportunities with us. At the very top of our Web site (ajga.org) you will see a banner “New to the AJGA? Get Started Here!” This gives new and prospective members a good overview of the opportunities available with the AJGA and a few tips to help them along the way. It also has our contact information for those who still may have questions.

txjrgolfmom, you need to relax and appreciate some of the comments made by Rob Jansen of the AJGA.  He did a good job in trying to describe the goals of the AJGA.  The greener grass of the FCWT, TJGT, and IJGT will not necessarily make your life any better.  Coaches are interested in the scores that the junior player shoots as the first priority.  The strength of the field is stronger with the AJGA than any of the other junior events.  The AJGA has been going out of there way to provide numerous qualifying events for juniors to move up and participate in stronger events.  The IJGT is the most expensve entry fee of any of the junior tournaments with the AJGA willing to help with housing (if possible) and lower tournament fees.  The TJGT is one of the better state run tournaments and certainly is a start. 

  There are many, many golf events for juniors offered and the college coaches do see the results from the events. The AJGA can only do so much, same for the other tours. It is the primary responsibility of a player to market themselves in the best way possible that they can afford. I get many calls for letters of reference for players seeking to play college golf. I send letters for the players I know and work with in hope that the coach will take a minute to read about this junior. Get on the coaches radar by playing period. The coaches know what they are looking for year to year. The AJGA is the largest association and they are giving opportunities to other events by the PBE entry for players to gain entry. Look in your area for these events if you can not get to qualifiers etc.

  Well, here we go again....sorry Txjrgolf mom....but this is a no brainer, if you are good enough to play AJGA's and have moderate success, then this is the route your child should go...i can only see using the winter tours for one purpose...to keep your game sharp..so you can play well at Doral, Orange Bowl and especially Polo, also Jr. Heritage. making AJGA All Amer. is an enormous honor. I would imagine it would look VERY impressive on a resume some day. When a kid is lucky, wait rephrase that, when a kid is good enough to qualify for an AJGA major ....you have to understand your playing against the next Tiger or Phil. Except now their names are Uihlein , Fowler, and Whitsett, and so on. Anthony Kim was a fantastic AJGA player, Hunter Mahan the same. In the world of jr. golf the AJGA is the 800lb gorilla!