Tag: AJGA

Avery Zweig, 13, crosses off another milestone with AJGA Annika Invitational win

Thirteen-year-old Avery Zweig added the Annika Invitational – her first AJGA title – to a growing list of achievements on Monday.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – It’s easier than you might imagine to lose a golf bag at a junior golf event – particularly if it’s a red bag, the coveted sign of an AJGA Open or Junior All-Star winner.

Avery Zweig explains that this has happened to a friend of hers. Zweig, however, need not worry because before her post-round interview at the Annika Invitational was even complete on Monday afternoon, her clubs had already been transferred into the new blue and white bag – the kind carried by winners of AJGA Invitationals. Meanwhile, an elegant cut-glass trophy rested safely on the table next to the 13-year-old, who tried to put both in perspective in terms of hours invested.

“This is like a physical symbol of that,” she said of her first AJGA win.

The experience with which Zweig backs up this milestone win is mind-blowing. She’s a player who can give a cavalier start to an acceptance speech (“Well I’d say this was a pretty good day”), draw applause for her age and as a kicker, remind the crowd that she’s going to be back four more times to defend.

“You guys may be sick of me,” she joked.

Despite being only 13, Zweig has made four USGA starts (with a fifth coming in April at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball) and holds a handful of USGA age records. She also appeared in the 2013 junior-golf documentary “The Short Game.”

Scores: AJGA Annika Invitational

It’s both remarkable she won an AJGA invitational at this young age and surprising it took her this long.

Entering a clear, chilly day at the Slammer & Squire course at World Golf Village, Zweig, in the graduating class of 2025, trailed high school senior Kendall Todd by a single shot. Birdies at Nos. 2 and 6 kept her in the game as Todd played the first seven holes in 2 under. But when Zweig birdied the par-5 eighth and then dropped a 35-footer for birdie on the ninth, she seemed to pick up a pep in her step.

“I told myself at the beginning of the day, or at least this is how I comforted my nerves, no matter what happened today, I knew I was going to get something out of it,” Zweig said, referencing the experienced players in her group. “I told myself I wasn’t going to play tentative and if I was going to lose, I wasn’t going to lose with fear.”

Annika Invitational golf bag
The golf bag and trophy awarded to Avery Zweig as winner of the AJGA’s Annika Invitational. (AJGA photo)

For Zweig, birdies at Nos. 10 and 12 followed. At the 300-yard par-4 14th, Todd and 16-year-old Ganne, the third member of the final group, pulled driver to go for the green. Zweig laid up with a fairway wood and walked away with par.

It occurred to Zweig that tournament directors were rotating tee boxes and massaging yardages to make contenders’ rounds interesting – to make her round interesting. Zweig lost a shot on No. 14 with driver in the first round, when the tee was back, but birdied it after a layup on the second day.

“We go over my notes, and I have a specific gameplan that I have to follow,” she said. “Part of it was laying up on 14 if the tee was front or back.”

Zweig navigated the back nine in 1 under for a closing 68, the low round of the day. At 7 under, she was four ahead of Todd and six ahead of Ganne, who spent the day laughing at Zweig’s jokes and commentary while marveling at her swing.

“She’s so sweet and polite and respectful and funny,” Ganne said. “She was so nice to play with.”

Annika Invitational
Top finishers at the Annika Invitational. (AJGA photo)

Ivan Zweig was a half step ahead of his daughter – or a half step behind, to the side, at the right angle – for the duration of the round. He deftly videoed every one of his daughter’s shots, often holding his iPhone with his right hand while drumming the fingers of his left hand with paternal nervous energy.

Ivan, a self-described entrepreneur who works primarily in IT, has gotten quite adept at editing together swing footage the more tournament experience his daughter racks up.

Ivan started videoing Avery in competition when she was 5, and has massive amounts of swing shots on iCloud. Sometimes he and Avery will look through the video together after a round and sometimes he simply edits the clips together to post. Avery has grown a large following on her Facebook page, to the tune of 24,000 followers, and also has a dedicated YouTube channel.

“It’s invaluable,” he said. “It’s like football film study.”

Many aspects of Avery’s golf style are symbolic. She wears all black in the final round as a nod to Johnny Cash. Avery’s favorite Cash song is “Man in Black,” and the running family joke is that she’s going to her opponents’ funeral.

Her initials are also built into a logo designed by a friend of Ivan’s. The AZ sits on top of a tiny lit bomb, an insignia embroidered onto the back collar of the black shirt Avery wore in the final round of the Annika.

“We really just copied Tiger Woods,” Ivan said of the logo placement. “When it doubt, copy Tiger Woods.”

Avery Zweig, Annika Invitational
Avery Zweig with her dad Ivan at the Annika Invitational. (AJGA photo)

Notably, Avery’s 2021 has also included a top-20 at last week’s Sally Amateur 60 miles south in Ormond Beach, Florida. Between those two tournaments, she returned to her McKinney, Texas, home where she attends eighth grade at Spring Creek Academy.

Before the Sally, Avery and Ivan played a practice round at World Golf Village. They discovered that Avery was at a major disadvantage with her long irons. Feeling like Avery was losing too many shots from the 160 to 185 yard range, the Zweigs called Callaway to see about an equipment update.

Avery subbed out her 5- and 6-irons in place of a 5- and 6-hybrid, and knows it made all the difference. She and Ivan went back to that decision over and over again as being key in the Annika Invitational win.

Equipment is just one part of the equation and a small part of the team that brings all the pieces together. Avery credits work with a physical trainer, swing coach and short-game coach as being instrumental – an unusually large team for a 13-year-old.

Next week, Avery turns 14. There still isn’t a lot you can do to celebrate a birthday in a lingering pandemic, but she imagines she’ll do dinner with friends. It’s too early in the year to have much of a goal sheet drafted out, but the Annika title will certainly open a few doors.

“Winning an invitational and having that experience, it’s essential in my development,” she said. “I think my goal is to become a more consistent player overall.”

Asked what she’d like to accomplish next, Avery listed the Junior Solheim and Junior Ryder Cup.

A national-team bag would vault her to a whole new level.

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Williams: Phone interviews and high-school golf were sanity-saving in a year of contingency plans

What the professional tours did to bring back golf was totally impressive, but don’t discount the efforts in junior and amateur golf.

Covering golf, at every level and on every tour, in 2020 was unlike anything our writers have experienced. Through the end of the year, our staff is looking back on what will forever stand out from the season of COVID – a season during which every aspect of the game we love was impacted by a global pandemic. Read the whole series here.

I’ve spent eight months asking some version of the same question, and that’s the best way I know to sum up golf journalism in the year of COVID. Everyone has a story as we will ourselves toward 2021. For the most part, we all learned to adapt.

How did you go on despite a global pandemic? To hear that question answered is to get a lesson in the ingenuity behind a game that, at its heart, really needs no bells and whistles.

What the professional tours did to bring back golf was, without question, totally impressive. They threw their resources at getting their players back in the office, something especially important for players on the bottom rung – the ones who desperately needed the paycheck.

But I don’t cover golf at the professional level and thus, there was much more improvisation in my zip code, where the one-off junior and amateur events live.

For months, I’ve been going back to how Brian Fahey, Pinehurst’s director of tournament operations, broke this all down. In June, Fahey spoke of record entry numbers for the North & South Amateur and Women’s Amateur (that tells you something of demand). He also explained how the events would be boiled down in 2020. Summer amateur season encompasses golf, but also dinners, social outings and host housing.

At many events, those extras simply went away in the name of preserving the golf.

“This was our communication to the players: This is going to be golf almost in its purest form,” Fahey said in summing it up.

Six months later, at the end of a mind-blowing 101-event COVID season, AJGA Executive Director Stephen Hamblin detailed a massive undertaking in his organization that saw the creation of an 18-page COVID playbook that guided the AJGA in revamping nearly every procedure it takes to run a summer full of junior tournaments all over the country.

I logged fewer miles in 2020 than any year since I started writing about golf in 2009. I’ve also maybe never spent more time on the phone. My summer and fall were spent scouring scoreboards, hitting refresh, tracking down phone numbers and listening closely to verbal highlight reels of rounds I couldn’t see in person. While I miss watching live golf on my beat (a sincere thank you, USGA, for primetime Bandon broadcasts during the U.S. Amateur – a true gift), realizing just how many people live to talk amateur golf was comforting. I didn’t encounter one person who couldn’t find a few minutes to pick up the phone and talk.

John Yerger, co-chairman of the Sunnehanna Amateur, was one of the first people I called when trying to piece together what the summer amateur season was going to look like. Yerger & Co., carried on with a 100-man tournament, but I think he would have invited double or triple that number if it were possible.

“You can’t turn away a kid who has no place to play,” he said back in June.

In Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, Bruce Fleming, the tournament director of the Rice Planters Amateur, felt just as much responsibility to carry on with his slot on the summer calendar. Fleming labored over doing things right if he was going to do them at all.

“We have to do it in a manner that is appropriate and successful for what is going on.”

Ah, the unsung heroes of amateur golf.

I had some unexpected down time in 2020. Didn’t we all? I played more rounds – walking, bag on back – than I have since graduating college. My handicap is as low as it’s ever been.

In my little Florida beach town, our 27-hole muni only closed for a week in July. But in April, when the pro shop started closing early, word spread quickly. Shortly after 5 p.m., the parking lot was packed. But with the cart barn locked, it was all foot traffic from there. There was also no formal tee sheet, but shockingly, the first tee never descended into a free-for-all. The place was full of families – kids, moms, strollers. For the first time in a long time, dusk golf became my favorite way to end a day.

The phenomenon continued all the way to August. This marked my fourth season coaching the local high school girls golf team, and attendance at summer practices (or “play days,” as I call them) is generally sporadic. Not this year.

I averaged 15 players on days we hit the driving range and 10 or 12 on days we played nine holes. I once interviewed a First Tee director who described her New England facility as “crawling with kids.” I’ve always wanted to describe my home course that way, and I’m happy to say we achieved it this summer. Something tells me it wasn’t just us.

Of course, by the time our season rolled around, every one of the precious few matches the school district allowed us to play required at least three phone calls as COVID regulations changed, reversed and changed again. We wore our masks when we gathered, did everything in squads of no more than six and started every practice with temperature checks. Life went on.

We had to celebrate our senior night on an outdoor porch in the middle of a wicked thunderstorm, rethink the way we “broke it down” before and after matches and instead of a Homecoming pep rally, we were asked to film a hype video for our team. At the end of the season, a senior told me this was maybe her favorite year yet on the golf team. I had just been relieved to see it through but hearing that changed everything about the way I’ll look back on this COVID season.

I fought so hard to keep every high school match on the schedule because I heard so many veteran college coaches stress how important it was for their players to keep competing, keep grinding, keep getting tournament reps, even if college golf was canceled for the forseeable future.

At Golfweek, we scraped and strategized to help solve that problem. Our fall college series is usually one of my favorite parts of the year, but with so many teams unable to compete in the first half of the season, that series transformed into eight new individual events.

I was on-hand for half of them, and I’ll never forget how grateful those players were. I’ll also never forget how many questions we’d get from college coaches if players didn’t keep up with live-scoring input.

That tells you something about how college coaches spent the fall, too. Refresh, refresh, refresh.

As empty as my beat felt on March 13 – the day NCAA postseason was canceled for all spring sports, golf included – my golf life on Dec. 27 feels pretty full. I know I’ve said it a hundred times in 2020, but this is a year I’ll never forget.

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What powered the AJGA’s 101-event COVID season? A giant question-and-answer effort.

The AJGA thought through every possible COVID scenario to create a playbook for a June restart. It allowed them to salvage the 2020 season.

A successful reboot of the American Junior Golf Association’s competition schedule in June started with questions. Pages and pages of questions.

AJGA executive director Stephen Hamblin’s first directive to his staff was to come up with every uncertainty in every scenario. Reducing touchpoints and field sizes – to 78 players – in the name of safety was the guiding principle, but the finer points of how, exactly, to make it work needed mush hashing out.

“I told them OK, get every question that you have – every doubt, every worry – put it on paper,” he said. “And they did. And then I told them, now answer all these questions. You answer them as to what you would do.”

Three hundred questions got 300 answers. And 300 answers allowed the AJGA to conduct 97 tournaments from a June 7 restart to the time the Rolex Tournament of Champions closed the season on Thanksgiving weekend.

Hamblin often refers to the document that resulted from a massive AJGA problem-solving effort as the COVID playbook. It’s nearly 20 pages long, but it held up through a season that continued despite a global pandemic. Key in the document’s effectiveness was that the AJGA never abandoned it.

“No matter what happens, no matter if (COVID is) subsiding, we’re going to stick with it,” Hamblin said. “Other tournaments, by the end of summer, were allowing kids to touch a flagstick and touch rakes and we didn’t.”

Looking back on 2020, it’s somewhat remarkable what the AJGA was able to accomplish in the second half of the year. The organization ran 101 events in 2020.

David Ford won the AJGA Invitational at Sedgefield, the first AJGA event after the COVID lockdown. (AJGA photo)

The AJGA veered off its normal course mid-February after the AJGA Simplify Boys Championship – what amounts to an AJGA “major” – was conducted. The schedule went dark for the next 12 weeks, but the gears were still turning at AJGA headquarters in Braselton, Georgia. A task force made up of tournament operations officials got to work

Nearly every aspect of the way the AJGA operates got a COVID makeover. Instead of writing thank-you notes at the end of each event, players filmed thank-you videos. Meals were all grab and go. Scoring went digital.

Hamblin thinks the latter two are elements that improved AJGA operations. Those modifications will stay, post-COVID.

The AJGA model depends heavily on people. As meticulous as the COVID playbook was, a successful summer depended on buy-in from everyone involved in tournament operations. Staff could not let their guard down, and to Hamblin, that “was the big question mark” at the beginning of the summer. He need not have worried.

“Yes, protocols,” Hamblin said is summing up the season,” but I guarantee you, there’s some luck involved in this as well. I love (Ben) Hogan’s comment, ‘The harder I work, the luckier I get.’ I get that’s kind of part of it.”

Since the beginning of Hamblin’s nearly 40-year tenure at the AJGA, the organization’s intern structure has been paramount to its operations. Seven traveling teams of seven interns were the backbone of the summer tournament schedule in 2020, as always.

Hamblin & Co., run potential interns – the AJGA receives upwards of 1,500 applications for the position – through the ringer to find the right fit. Hamblin won’t hire an individual for a full-time position if he or she didn’t complete the internship.

The AJGA did intern training in six sessions in 2020. But by June, anyone who was going to be a part of tournament operations made the trip to Greensboro for at least a day as a way of ripping off the bandaid for the restart.

Mark Brazil, tournament director for the Wyndham Championship and tournament chair of the AJGA Invitational at Sedgefield, was there waiting. Brazil had looked at the AJGA’s COVID protocols from a PGA Tour perspective and knew they were solid.

“I’d been dealing with the PGA Tour on all of theirs too and so it just felt to me like we could do it,” he said of being in the AJGA lead-off position. “Keep everybody outside. Park your car, get your shoes on, you go play golf. If you want to grab a sandwich, you grab a sandwich.”

“They put it all together and it was a success.”

While COVID protocols were being drafted and enacted, Jason Ross, the AJGA’s Chief Tournament Business Officer, was helping lay out the roadmap for the second half of the year. Ross found that in talking to tournament venues, volunteers and sponsors, the AJGA’s safety plan inspired a lot of confidence.

Ross and his team navigated 150 schedule changes from mid-March on to pull off 101 tournaments. At the start of the year, the AJGA was aiming for about 124 tournaments – a standard number for a normal season.

Roughly 38 tournaments canceled for various reasons. The final schedule also included 23 added events or replacement venues, plus four events added in what Ross calls the double model – adding an open championship, a qualifier event or a preview event at an existing host venue.

“It was a way to get back a lot of the events that we lost in the spring,” Ross said.

In the process of talking to venues and local health departments, Ross found he would often have something to contribute to AJGA protocols. It was an ever-evolving document.

Ross logged hours on the phone navigating the schedule before getting in the field for the first time at the beginning of July for the KJ Choi Foundation Texas Junior Championship in Plano, Texas.

His first thought?

“I felt safe,” he said. “Everyone, the kids and the parents, were following the protocols, our staff was executing the protocols. It was neat to see.

“It was different than what you’re used to. We knew that going in. The field might not be the same without the social and the interaction. Our operations department came up with an unbelievable plan and it worked.”

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AJGA ends a non-traditional 2020 by taking ‘Greatest Night in Junior Golf’ virtual

The Greatest Night in Junior Golf was broadcast on Facebook live on Friday evening to end the 2020 junior golf season.

A year of improvising continued for the American Junior Golf Association on Friday night as the junior golf organization took its annual end-of-year banquet virtual. The banquet, dubbed “The Greatest Night in Junior Golf,” generally takes place during the season finale, the Rolex Tournament of Champions at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

This year, the show aired a week later on Facebook Live. The hour-long presentation included taped segments with the nation’s top juniors, AJGA leadership and a few cameos from AJGA alumni – including at the start of the show. Justin Thomas started things off with a welcome message. Jordan Spieth and Lexi Thompson appeared later.

“It would have been easy not to do this evening,” AJGA Executive Director Stephen Hamblin said at the start of the show.

Add it to the list of things the AJGA salvaged in a year challenged by a global pandemic. Like many golf organizations, the AJGA shut down mid-spring, relaunching its schedule in June and completing more than 100 events from that point to last week’s finale at PGA National.

The program played out much as the live version of the banquet typically does. Allie Kantor and Jackson Van Paris were recognized at the start of the program for winning the Jerry Cole Sportsmanship Award, annually presented since 1978 to a junior golfer who best promotes integrity and sportsmanship.

Kantor and Van Paris, who both spoke during the program, to date have raised nearly $40,000 for charity. Kantor, who was diagnosed with scoliosis when she was 13, has raised money for other kids facing that diagnosis. Van Paris took over the Carolina Cup in 2017, an event that has raised $250,000 in four years on behalf of the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation and the ACE Grant. Van Paris alone has raised more than $32,000 during his involvement in the event.

As is tradition at the Greatest Night in Junior Golf, the AJGA’s Scholastic Junior All-Americans were recognized. Each player who received AJGA Rolex All-America honors also was named. Golf Channel’s Lisa Cornwell and Fox broadcaster Joe Buck emceed that portion of the show.

With outgoing AJGA player representatives Van Paris and Amanda Sambach acting as hosts – both guided the program sitting on camera in a pair of director’s chairs – Rolex Players of the Year Kelly Chinn and Rose Zhang also spoke about their seasons.

The banquet told the story of 2020, from honoring players’ on-course achievements to recognizing scholarship efforts through the ACE Grant to social-media presence to a focus on inclusion. It was played out similarly to previous banquets while also being nothing like previous banquets – a fitting end to 2020.

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Rose Zhang, David Ford end 2020 by winning AJGA Rolex Tournament of Champions

Rose Zhang and David Ford ended 2020 by topping their respective fields at the prestigious Rolex Tournament of Champions and PGA National.

Rose Zhang just keeps adding titles to her 2020 collection. The 17-year-old defended her AJGA Rolex Tournament of Champions crown on Nov. 28, winning the season finale on the AJGA calendar. Zhang has now won three AJGA invitational titles – the TOC joins her Rolex Girls Junior and Ping Invitational triumphs. Those go along with her U.S. Women’s Amateur crown as well as a third-place finish at this year’s ANNIKA Invitational.

Zhang was named the AJGA’s Rolex Player of the Year for the second year in a row. She is also the top-ranked player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.

Zhang, an Irvine, California, resident who is committed to play for Stanford next fall, led by three shots entering the final round of the event at PGA National in Pam Beach Gardens, Florida, after opening rounds of 70-67-69. She started the final round calmly enough with four pars and made her first birdie on the par-3 fifth hole. Zhang pieced together five birdies on the back for a closing 66.

Scores: AJGA Rolex Tournament of Champions

Remarkably, Zhang only had two bogeys in 72 holes and didn’t make another one after the sixth hole of her second round.

Zhang finished ahead of fellow Class of 2021 player Xin (Cindy) Kou, who was four back at 12 under. Madison Hewlett, who also had a closing 66, and Megha Ganne tied for third at 6 under.

In the boys division of the Tournament of Champions, David Ford capped his 2020 in a similarly fitting way. The North Carolina commit from Peachtree Corners, Georgia, made the Tournament of Champions his third AJGA invitational title of the year after winning the AJGA Invitational at Sedgefield in June – the first event of the AJGA restart – and following that with the Junior Players Championship title two months later.

Related: Maxwell and David Ford battle it out in mirrored success

Interestingly, all three of Ford’s AJGA Invitational victories came at venues that host PGA Tour tournaments. Ford, No. 2 in the Golfweek Junior Rankings, entered the final round at PGA National with a seven-shot lead. He only had one bogey in a closing round of 68 and at 22 under for 72 holes, finished seven ahead of Bruce Murphy of Johns Creek, Georgia.

Sean-Karl Dobson of Austin, Texas, was third. Ford’s twin brother Maxwell finished T-26.

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Junior golfers Maxwell and David Ford battle it out in mirrored success

Brothers Maxwell and David Ford have a healthy rivalry in junior golf, and they’re about to take it to the college level.

Before identical twins David and Maxwell Ford became forces in junior golf circles, their mom used to dress David in blue and Maxwell in red, and for good reason.

“I did it so the neighbors could tell them apart at the bus stop,” Karen Ford said with a chuckle.

To Maxwell, it’s more than mere coincidence that his brother signed to wear Carolina Blue at University of North Carolina next fall while he is headed to wear red at Georgia. 

It’s hard enough to raise one American Junior Golf Association star; the Ford brothers of Peachtree Corners, Georgia, are both ranked highly in the Golfweek Junior Rankings – David is second, Maxwell 12th – and theirs is a healthy rivalry. When they play a tournament, the first goal is to beat one another and the next is to beat the field. For as long as Chris Moore, Atlanta Athletic Club’s junior golf leader, has known the boys, they have preferred to be paired in back-to-back groups, which helps their parents’ spectating and allows the brothers to keep an eye on each other.

“I try to think of him as just another guy on the golf course, but it can get a little more personal than that because he’s my brother,” David said. “I think we push each other a lot because we hate losing to each other, so it makes us practice harder and more efficiently.”

Maxwell Ford (Courtesy of the Ford family)

“People compare us, naturally,” Maxwell said. “It’s a struggle, but I’ve been doing it all my life and I’m getting better at it. I’m trying to get better at it anyway. He’s been beating me and telling me he’s beating me, and it’s getting in my head.”

Until recently, Maxwell outperformed his brother. At two AJGA events in 2018, the brothers swept the qualifiers and tournaments: David won the qualifier and Maxwell the tournament at the 2018 Evitt Foundation RTC Junior All-Star, and the brothers flip-flopped results at the 2018 AJGA Junior All-Star at Butte Creek. 

College golf signing day: Class of 2021 signees

Maxwell pulled ahead by winning the 2018 AJGA Junior All-Stars at Cooks Creek and the prestigious Jones Cup Junior Invitational in December but hasn’t recorded a top-10 finish this calendar year as he’s experienced a six-inch growth spurt that has proved to be a bigger adjustment to his swing than anticipated. 

Meanwhile, David put on a ballstriking clinic to claim the AJGA Invitational at Sedgefield in June, then in September shot 66 in the final round to rally from seven strokes back and win the Junior Players Championship at the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. At the trophy ceremony at Sedgefield, home of the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship, David credited his brother for pushing him to greater heights. Well, sort of.

David Ford (Courtesy of the Ford family)

“I was walking off the podium and one of my friends said, ‘Really? You’re not going to thank your brother.’ I was like, ‘Wait everybody, I have to thank my brother. He beats me a lot, so I want to thank him for that.’” 

“He really doesn’t like losing to me,” Maxwell confirmed. “He’s had some blowups.”

None more so than when playing Ping-Pong. The Ford brothers are known to pack their own paddles when traveling in hopes a game breaks out during downtime at golf tournaments. Maxwell concedes his brother is better than him at table tennis, but there was a day where Maxwell beat him five times in a row and David smashed his paddle.

“I don’t think I’ve ever gotten that mad,” David said. “Ping-Pong has this way of exaggerating the emotions on the golf course.”

These 17-year-old mirror twins – David swings left-handed while Maxwell is a righty – are actually triplets. Sister Abigail popped out first and is the oldest by two minutes, weighing 3 pounds 7 ounces, followed by Maxwell at 2 pounds 14 ounces, and finally David, who tipped the scales at all of 2 pounds 7 ounces. If David had been chasing Maxwell in the rankings for the last few years, the roles have reversed and now it is Maxwell being pushed by David in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.

While most teenage brothers are wont to sleep in and lounge around playing video games on the weekend, the Ford brothers are a different breed. 

David, Abigail and Maxwell Ford
David (left) and Maxwell Ford flank their sister Abigail.

“That’s not David Ford. He’s up and beating everyone to the golf course and stays until dark,” Moore said. “I can’t coach him to take a day off. He’s got an energy and desire to be a champion, and that’s the stuff you can’t coach.”

It’s not uncommon for Maxwell, the more analytical of the two, to wake up, realize his brother already has left for the course and conclude he better get there, too. Especially after David ended Maxwell’s two-year reign as AAC’s men’s champion with a 54-hole club record 19-under par aggregate (two rounds played at Highlands Course, one at Riverside Course), including a final-round 63. But it was what David said and did in the aftermath of his victory that most impressed Moore.

“He said, ‘I’ve got to get on the putting green. I missed some putts today that I should’ve made.’ That was after a 63,” Moore said. “That’s his mentality.”

That’s the way these brothers roll. After all, they’re built Ford tough.

This story initially appeared in Issue 5 of Golfweek magazine.

Ford brothers of junior golf
A Ping-Pong match with Matt Kuchar.

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AJGA standout Cindy Kou keeps rising in junior golf by balancing the grind

After winning two AJGA events to begin her 2020 season, Cindy Kou is proving that she’s ready to take her golf game to the next level.

For Cindy Kou, golf is a family affair.

Kou, who also goes by her Chinese given name Xin, is the daughter of two avid golfers. Her mom, Haiyan Wu, is involved with the sport, but it’s her dad, Liguo Kou, who owns most of the hardware. Liguo has won numerous amateur tournaments back home in China and has a well-stocked trophy case to show for his efforts.

In China, there are noticeably fewer players at all levels of the game than there are in the U.S. There are also fewer coaches and practice facilities to go around. Golf is costly and thus reserved for families who are relatively well off. Despite all of that, China is the birthplace of Kou’s passion for the sport.

“That (my father’s career) kind of inspired me to win a lot of tournaments and get a bunch of trophies,” she revealed.

So far, the 17-year old is off to a flying start.

Kou, who speaks both Mandarin and English, moved to the United States eight years ago with her mother. One important reason they moved was so she could find the type of high-caliber coaching that is rare in China.

Kou started out at the IMG Academy, a well-known sports training ground in Bradenton, Florida, before moving to Orlando and more recently to Whittier, California. She displayed flashes of potential in 2019 with three top-10 finishes, including a win at the ANA Junior Inspiration last March.

And then, COVID-19 put the world on pause.

“I think it’s a very special year for all of us,” Kou said over the phone. “Last year, I wanted to take an off-season just to get fresh again, which I did. And I was getting ready for my tournaments in the beginning of the year, like February, March, but then, those got canceled.”

Undeterred, Kou continued to put in work, both stateside and back home in China. She feels that taking time off helped to renew her body and mind, enabling her to return to practice at full capacity. She also credits her parents, especially her mom, for instilling a relentless work ethic that pushed her through these unusual times.

“They’re very … they’re Asians, and that’s really a big impact on who I am,” Kou admitted. “My practice schedule, it would be more like, heartbreaking, long hours, compared to some other players my age.”

Indeed it was. According to her fitness trainer, Josh Loyo, Kou once practiced golf for at least eight hours a day on top of her homework and exercise regimens. Her workload simply wasn’t sustainable, and it took a toll on her physical and mental health.

Kou’s performance improved dramatically once she accepted Loyo’s wisdom about the importance of rest and recovery. She doesn’t juggle as many balls anymore, at least not in the way she used to. As a result, she is fresher, stronger and much less prone to burnout, and her new approach is already paying dividends.

Xin (Cindy) Kou - AJGA Girls Invitational at Stanford - 2020
Cindy Kou tees off at the AJGA Girls Invitational at Stanford in early September 2020. Courtesy of the AJGA

Kou Ascending

The Stanford Golf Course is no walk in the park. It is known as a tight setup that punishes mistakes off the tee. Miss a fairway, and you’ll find yourself well off-course.

Kou tackled Stanford for the first time last August at the Swinging Skirts AJGA Invitational. She finished T-7 that weekend 2-over 212, learning valuable lessons along the way. And as things turned out, Kou’s 2020 season began Sept. 4-7 with the AJGA Girls Invitational at — where else — Stanford.

“I was actually really nervous on the first hole because I haven’t played in a year and I just didn’t really know how it would turn out,” Kou admitted. “But, after I hit the first shot, everything just kind of came back to me.”

This time, the Beijing native was ready. She’s always hit it straight with her driver and used it to find fairways time and again. She was also locked in on many of her approach shots and estimates that she hit around 15 greens per day. Kou carded a 9-under 204, earning a slim one-shot victory over runner-up Brooke Biermann. Third-place finisher Lucy Yuan was all the way back at 2 under.

Kou kept things rolling last weekend in Mesa, Arizona at the AJGA Longbow Golf Club Open, where she took command in decisive fashion. Rounds of 63 and 66 catapulted her to a blistering 13 under over 36 holes, eight shots ahead of second-place Kelly Xu. Only three other girls managed to finish under par.

Even Aidan Tran, winner of the boys’ side of the tournament, could manage no better than 8 under: five shots back of Kou.

“The fact that she dominated the field out there is quite impressive,” Loyo remarked. “She’s just a grinder. She puts in the work. She complains a little bit, you know, but that’s normal.

“She’s honest, she’s upfront, she’s genuine. I appreciate that she wants to put in the work outside of just golf and realizes the importance of her (physical fitness) as well.”

Xin (Cindy) Kou - Awards Ceremony - AJGA Girls Invitational at Stanford (23)
Cindy Kou raises her trophy at the 2020 AJGA Girls Invitational at Stanford. Courtesy of the AJGA

Onward and Upward

With an 11th victory under her belt, Kou is now T-7 for most career individual wins by a female AJGA competitor. In all likelihood, she is just getting started, and she’s got a solid team behind her.

In addition to Loyo, Kou is mentored by South Korea’s Charlie Wi, a former ski instructor and PGA Tour golfer with 21 top-10 finishes to his name. A great all-round athlete, Wi has developed and maintained his flexibility through martial arts, and Kou credits him with helping her improve her form.

“In the past month, he’s really helped me with understanding my own swing, which I struggled with in the past,” she admitted.

Currently a high school senior, Kou will graduate next year and plans to attend USC. She’s not yet sure what major she will take, although business is a possibility. After that, though, Kou’s goals are clear. She aims to turn professional and become one of the best players on the LPGA Tour.

Kou names Sung Hyun Park and Lydia Ko as two of her favorite golfers. If all goes according to plan, she may very well be joining them on the world stage in a few years.

“With her dedication to her game right now, it’s inevitable,” Loyo opined. “As long as she is able to keep her head on and keep doing what she’s doing, she’s going to get there no matter what.”

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Play hard, kids: AJGA represents a corner of the game where fun is key, even in a pandemic

The AJGA’s mission statement extends past simply developing high-level junior golfers. It’s about overall development, and fun is key.

There has been at least one call over the radio in Stephen Hamblin’s career that he’ll never forget.

Years ago, Hamblin, executive director of the American Junior Golf Association, recalls when players removed various items from their condos while competing at Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Florida, and placed them around the golf course. Hamblin will never forget the ironing board, complete with the iron, standing on the putting green and the clothes dryer stuck in a bunker.

“The call came across from a person setting up the golf course, ‘Hey, is a dryer a loose impediment or a (temporary moveable obstruction)?’” he remembered.

This has been Hamblin’s career in junior golf, a corner of the game uniquely suited for, well, fun. The AJGA’s mission statement extends past simply developing high-level golfers. It’s about overall development, and fun is key.

Around AJGA competitions, there are care-for-the-course parties, long-drive contests and banquets. Players write thank you notes, but also play speed golf, throw water balloons and engage in dry heaving contests (a shot over water with the threat of push-ups) at a tournament in Arizona.

“When you would watch kids on the practice putting green, they’re not putting that much, they’re just kind of hanging out,” Hamblin said. That inspired the concept of social events.

Hamblin often goes back to something Earl Woods, Tiger’s father, told him when Tiger played the AJGA circuit in the early 1990s.

“I remember when Tiger got off the golf course, he never went to the range and beat balls afterward,” Hamblin said. “He’d go play ping pong and he’d play for hours and Earl’s comment was, he just grinded for four and a half hours and competed in a stressful environment, now it’s his time to be a kid.’”

Chief among the details that allowed the AJGA to chart a successful return to competition in 2020 amid a pandemic was a limited on-site presence. Tournament fields and on-site spectators were reduced. Normal social gatherings weren’t practical this year amid safety concerns, but social media allowed AJGA staff members to preserve some of the fun.

Communications assistant Dana Brown learned the AJGA ropes as an intern in 2019, so she knew how much of the AJGA’s DNA was in the social aspect when she returned this summer for a second AJGA stint.

“They’re there to play a golf tournament but so much of what I think it great about the AJGA is our juniors become friends with each other,” she said.

Adding TikTok, a video-sharing social network, helped staff engage with players more than anything else.

Teams of twentysomething interns were challenged to post at least one TikTok video from each event. There are swing videos and trophy shots on the AJGA’s social media platforms, which includes Twitter and Instagram, but there are also one-offs like a video of an AJGA player using a putter to play an entire par 5. It was the first to go viral mid-summer with over 100,000 views, but other such videos have since exceeded that.

Communications intern Sadie Gruntmeir only knows what it’s like to work for the AJGA in a post-COVID world, which has elevated the importance of social media.

“It did make it more important to me that we were showcasing the juniors as best as possible on Instagram,” Gruntmeir said. “We can’t have as many people here and we also can’t have coaches out here watching the juniors.”

Gruntmeir and fellow communications intern Kevin Kennedy master-minded a “This is SportsCenter” parody. The two filmed various scenes during play and pumped in crowd sounds in unexpected ways: wild cheers for a missed birdie putt, laughter while a player searches for his ball in the woods and sudden applause that spooked one player so much he tossed a full Coca-Cola can over his shoulder.

Rachel Heck - AJGA
Rachel Heck takes place in a “dry heave” contest. (Photo: AJGA)

“We spun it with the times as far as, there’s not a lot of spectators out, there’s not a lot of crowd noise that kids are used to,” Kennedy said.

Players are more than willing to participate.

“The more they knew us, the more they were comfortable with being in a video,” Kennedy said. “We found success walking up to a random group of kids and saying, here’s our idea, let’s do this.”

Long after Lauryn Nguyen, 17, has stopped playing AJGA events, she’ll remember things like that – and the GolfBoards. The memory of so many kids zooming around Longbow Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona, on the motorized, single-rider golf-mobiles at a past AJGA event (pre-COVID) always makes her laugh.

Nguyen will also remember the people, too – from opponents to the AJGA staff who met the challenge of keeping the summer of 2020 light-hearted.

“It was always so fun when I’m stopped during a practice round by an intern and asked if I could do a small video,” she said. “…Moments like those make me smile a lot.”

This story appeared in Issue 4 of Golfweek magazine.

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Rose Zhang follows up Women’s Amateur title by hitting an AJGA trifecta

Rose Zhang backed up the U.S. Women’s Amateur title she won barely two weeks ago with the AJGA Rolex Girls’ Invitational title.

When the golf is good, it’s good, and Rose Zhang’s game is strong right now. The 17-year-old backed up the U.S. Women’s Amateur title she won barely two weeks ago with another major accolade on Friday, winning the AJGA Rolex Girls’ Invitational.

As the story goes, Zhang almost didn’t even enter the Women’s Am earlier this month because of a wrist injury that flared up from over-practicing. She took nearly the whole week off in between the two tournaments to rest, but still nearly withdrew from the Rolex Girls’ after the third round, she said. The perseverance paid off.

“It’s good to take a break now and then,” she said of trying to rest the injury. “It’s not the best way to take a break but it has helped me clear my mindset a little bit.”

At the Rolex Girls, no other player got within six shots of Zhang, who fired rounds of 64-70-72-67 at Dalhousie Golf Club in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. She finished the week at 15 under, ahead of runners-up Leila Raines and Bohyun Park.

Scores: Rolex Girls’ Invitational

“On this course, it’s really rewarding for solid ballstrikers and when you get it close enough, if you’re a good putter, the course is all yours,” Zhang said.

Zhang coupled that with course management to pull away. She often feels that a layout requiring placement gives her the best chance of success.

Zhang’s win is particularly significant considering that it puts her in an elite category. Zhang now holds all three Rolex honors in the same AJGA season with her victory at the 2019 Rolex Tournament of Champions, 2019 Rolex Junior Player of the Year and 2020 Rolex Girls Junior Championship.

“I don’t think my head has wrapped around it yet,” she said. “Rolex is such a great sponsor, especially for junior golf and women’s golf. Just to be able to play these events is such an honor, let along win it. I’m super grateful.”

In her U.S. Women’s Amateur run at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Maryland, Zhang was the only junior among the eight quarterfinalists. She romped through a bracket of college talent, knocking off Power 5 players like Gabi Ruffels, Alyaa Abdulghany and Kaleigh Telfer, plus future Stanford teammate Rachel Heck, on the way to the title.

The regal Robert Cox trophy, the one she wins with the Women’s Am title, hasn’t shipped yet, and consequently Zhang isn’t quite sure where it will live for the next year.

Despite being a newly minted USGA champion, Zhang said she didn’t feel that different teeing it up this week at Dalhousie. There was just a lot of congratulating.

“I’m definitely proud of what I did at the U.S. Women’s Am,” she said. :It just gave me more confidence and freedom to keep playing well coming into this event. It’s very tiring coming back after a week of rest. For sure, it was another tester for this event.”

On the horizon for Zhang is next month’s ANA Inspiration, an LPGA major.

“That’s just another test to my game and I’m just going to try to see how well I can manage with these amazing pros.”

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#AGoodWalk: Once cringey, push carts are now cool

A push cart can save energy and promote better play versus a carry bag, and their popularity has surged in recent years.

(Editor’s note: All week long, Golfweek will celebrate the beautiful walk that makes this game great. We continue with a personal look at some of our favorite memories.)

Shauna Taylor remembers trying to convince Stacy Lewis to use a push cart 15 years ago after Lewis had a metal rod and five long screws implanted in her back. Lewis said something to the effect of no way, that’s not cool.

Last month Lewis sent the Arkansas coach a picture of the push cart she used at the Texas Women’s Open, just like old times. In college, Lewis was one of the few women in the country using a push cart, and she had the excuse of a massive surgery to correct scoliosis to silence any critics. Now the Razorback team has nine push carts in storage. A member of the men’s team reached out over the summer to ask Taylor if he could borrow one. 

“It’s like part of our pregame now,” Taylor said of the 30 minutes it usually takes to get the team’s carts in order at a tournament. 

Today’s push carts are smaller, lighter and easier to pack, and they come with seats, coolers and a spot for an umbrella. They are a enormous advantage in the rain. And in recent years the stigma of using a push cart is beginning to wash away, too. 

Push carts are no longer reserved for retired folk. Or the injured. Perfectly healthy twentysomething males are using them in record numbers. Kids, too.

North Carolina men’s coach Andrew DiBitetto said a turning point in his thoughts on the subject came last year when the team’s strength and conditioning coach, Erik Hernandez, traveled with them to a tournament in San Diego. After a 36-hole day, Hernandez asked why most of the Tar Heels carried their golf bags. 

“He said, ‘I think you’re crazy if you’re a golfer who carries your golf bag,’ ” said DiBitetto. “I was so shocked and so stunned I said, what do you mean? He took me through the biomechanics of it. He talked about fatigue and decompression, dehydration. Basically, once you put weight on your neck and shoulders, it impacts the rest of your body. Even the simple motion of turning your neck and head to have a conversation while having 20 pounds on your back impacts your body.”

Cindy Kou is among a growing trend of juniors using push carts at AJGA events. (Courtesy of the AJGA)

Three years ago everyone on the UNC men’s team was a bag carrier. Now it’s split 50-50. Sometimes the team even has a competition within a competition at tournaments – carriers vs. pushers.

Baylor coach Mike McGraw said the push cart stigma still exists on some level. Some guys are still going to razz their teammates about pushing. But for McGraw, the tough-guy barrier is gone. Push carts are simply part of the game now.

He likened it to when Oklahoma State became the first program to put a kickstand on a carry bag 30 years ago. Everyone looked on in shock. By the next fall, practically every team in the country had stand bags.

In 2007, AJGA chief operating officer Mark Oskarson and executive director Stephen Hamblin observed at the Junior Solheim Cup that every member of the European squad used a trolley while every American carried. The pair went home and researched the damage caused by overloaded backpacks on schoolkids.

The junior circuit was among the first groups to allow push carts from a health perspective in 2008 on a test basis for their youngest members, Junior All-Stars aged 12-15. The next year it was extended to all members. 

In 2009 only 16 percent of AJGA players used a push cart. About five years ago, those numbers started to dramatically change. In 2014, Stanford’s Cameron Wilson won the NCAA Championship (on television) while using a push cart – as did the majority of his teammates.

McGraw, like many, thought that visual was a turning point, though many on social media took the pushers to task. 

In 2019, 67 percent of all AJGA players used a push cart in competition (94 percent girls/52 percent boys). At the Junior All-Star level, 97 percent of girls used a push cart, and 70 percent of boys used one.

“I think every kid under age 18 ought to be pushing a cart to save their back,” said Dr. Neil Wolkodoff, medical program director at the Colorado Center for Health and Sport Science. 

It’s especially important for younger players, he said, given how much a golf bag weighs compared to their relative weight.

In 2010, Wolkodoff enlisted several volunteers to help conduct a study to look at the physical impact of playing golf three different ways: riding in a motorized cart, pushing a cart and carrying a bag. The subjects burned 450 calories per nine holes while riding in a cart. They burned more calories whether pushing or carrying the bag – about 750 per nine. And they shot lower scores with a push cart.

“One of the reasons I felt that people played better with the push cart was they burned the same number of calories as they did carrying the bag but 1) their heart didn’t go up into the anaerobic zone going up those hills and 2) there was a lot less stress on their shoulder and their core, so when they had to swing they were just a little bit more efficient.” 

And who wouldn’t want that?