Behind the Scenes - TGA Junior Tour

Well, the month of May has hit and the countdown begins to the first event in just 26 days. Wow, that will be here in no time. Membership numbers continue to increase and as today comes to a close we are right at the 900 mark which puts us on pace for our goals. I know I have said it before, but if this trend continues this year's Tour will be the best on record. Keep those application coming. 

Every member will be receiving an e-mail this afternoon concerning their member packets and I will give a brief run down of the situation. We have been putting the packets on hold in hopes of coming up with a more inexpensive way to get the packets out, but after a long debate (with myself) we are going to start mailing out the packets starting mid next week. We will start with the outer regions of the state and work our way in with the hopes of getting everyone their packet by the time the season begins. If you are located around Golf House in Franklin and want to pick up your packet, feel free to stop by and do so. We are usually in the office Monday-Friday from 8am to 5pm.

The Tri-Cities Chapter of the Tennessee Section PGA has announced this afternoon that will be conducting a 5 event Junior Series in June and July. The events will be hosted on the TGA Junior Tour BlueGolf server so the online capabilities will be very similar. These events are open to Boys and Girls ages 8-18 who are residents in the Tri-Cites area or a member at Tri-Cities Chapter member club. For more information on the series please visit www.golfhousetennessee.com and click on the Tri-Cities button on the left hand side of the homepage. 

Tour Talk

With Tiger on the sidelines it will open up this week PGA Tour for someone to make a statement. I expect many of the top players in the world to be on leaderboard at weekend's end. So far after a couple of rounds it looks like Anthony Kim is staying hot after his performance in Hilton Head and leads at 7 under par. Nashville's Brandt Snedeker is currently 2 over par and in jeopardy of missing the cut. Hopefully he can give us a couple of birdies coming in.

The event is being played at Quail Hollow GC in Charlotte, NC and it brings back alot of memories. I attended Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, NC (about an hour from Charlotte) and some friends and I would attend the event on a yearly basis. I remember back in 2003 watching Tiger on the range and being amazed at how he could work the ball in any direction that he liked. Many of the spectators would call out a shot (low fade) and Tiger would pull it off without a hitch.

Until Next Time,

Steve


 

Just one full week into open tournament registration we already have 9 events at its maximum capacity. Due to the popularity we have added three (3) events within the Middle Tennessee region. For their locations please visit the "Tournaments" section on www.tgajuniortour.com. As the demand continues to grow we will try to offer more opportunities as the schedule will permit. Stay tuned as more events may be added daily.

We are starting to receive some of the merchandise for the TMACS (TaylorMade/adidas Championship Series) events this summer and we know our members will not be disappointed. Those that compete in the TMACS events will receive a specific TaylorMade or adidas prize at each event. I will give you a hint, one of the prizes will help you comfortably walk the fairways this summer.

We have posted the yardages and course ratings for the tournaments on our website. If you look under the "Season-Ending Championships" section and click on your appropriate division you will see a link near the bottom of the page for this year's ratings. This will give you a good idea of which tees to play from when practicing for each event. Remember, these rating are preliminary and may change on the tournament day due to factors  unforeseen. For a definite rating please call the office after the event and we will indicate which rating has been used to determine you adjusted scoring average.

Tour Talk
With Masters week upon us it signals the start of golf for the year. I have been glued to the Golf Channel and their nightly coverage of this prestigious event. I have been looking forward to this week for quite awhile now and am anticipating a special weekend down in Augusta.
Our own Brandt Snedeker will be competing this week in Augusta. He will have the fortune of playing with former Masters Champion Tom Watson during the first two rounds. Be sure to root on our Nashvillian.

Until next time,

Steve

Regular tournament registration is set to open up next Tuesday, April 1st at 8 am CDT. With early registration opening this past Monday many of the tournaments are filling up quick so be sure to get signed on the morning of the 1st to guarantee your spot in the events.

Our numbers continues to grow as we are on the cusp of hitting 600 members. We are very delighted that our numbers are this high early in the registration process and the 2008 season is looking to be the strongest ever. One important number we are looking at this season is the retention rate of those from last season. Of the 581 current members, over 350 were also members in 2007. When you calculate that equation out, that is almost 60% of the membership retained from 2007. Our goal to start the year was 65% so we have a little work to do to make sure we get those members back from 2007. If you have some friends that played last year be sure to mention to them that the tournaments are filling up quick and it would be a good idea to get online and get signed up.

The schedule has been finalized for the 2008 season. We had a couple of courses that we needed to get everything situated with before we posted the information online, but as of this afternoon the schedule is final. If there are courses that you know of that would be willing to host an event please have them contact our office and we will see what we can do to get them on the schedule.

The pre-registration rules clinics were completed last Saturday and turned out to be a very successful venture. We had over 250 total attendees over the past month and they all got first shot at signing up for tournaments.  We will continue to offer more clinics in the coming years to be sure every member has an opportunity for rules education.

Tour Talk
Tiger's streak of 6 straight PGA Tour wins was stopped last week by Geoff Ogilvy. It was good to see that Tiger is still human and can make mistakes on the course. I have a feeling his 5th place finish put a bad taste in his mouth and he will come out charging at The Masters in a couple of weeks. 
Our own Brandt Snedeker has an ok showing at the event. He finished near the back of the pack, but his game was consistent throughout the week. I think once he gets in a groove and starts to make some birdies he will make his way back to the top of the leaderboard.

That is all for now. Be sure to get signed up for the Tour, tournaments are filling up quick.

Kind Regards,

Steve

Bobby Nichols, a decorated TPGA Professional from Cookeville, lost his battle with cancer last weekend at the age of 66. As the coach of both the Men's and Women's golf teams at Tennessee Tech, Bobby was extremely helpful to our Tour in that he directed many of his players to apply for internships within our organization. It is a true testament to Bobby's character that the individuals he suggested apply have been instrumental in making our Tour so successful over the past couple of years. I know the quality of our Tour could not be maintained without those dedicated Tennessee Tech golfers on our staff. Click here for more information. 

We are getting close to early tournament registration on March 24th. Our clinics the past couple of weeks have been relatively full and we are expecting some events to fill up rather quickly. There are still two opportunities for members to get in the early registration period. We will be hosting two clinics this upcoming Saturday; one in Memphis and one in Kingsport (East TN). Click here for more information.

I was able to get out and play a little bit of golf last week during my trip to Knoxville for one of our rules clinics. We hosted the clinic at Holston Hills and I was lucky enough to be able to play 9 holes that afternoon before I had to set up for the clinic. I had heard so many great things about the course that I was extremely excited to get out and test my luck. Well, it turned out I was a little too excited and I double bogeyed the first hole (not a good way to start, those Donald Ross greens are tricky). A made a couple more bogey's and ended up shooting 40 on the front nine. Not bad after the start, but you always wish you can play better. I look forward to when I can play the full 18 and get a better feeling of the history of Holston Hills. 

Tour Talk
What do you know, Tiger wins again. The putt he made on the 72nd hole sent chills up my spine, unbelievable how he seems to make the putt when it matters most. I consider myself very privileged to be able to live in the time period when Tiger is showing his dominance. Our hometown hero Brandt had another solid finish in the tournament as well. He finished tied for 14th at 3 under par.  So far in 2008 he has made 6 of 8 cuts and has a scoring average right around 70 strokes. It is good to see him represent Tennessee, and more importantly Nashville, well. 

The Tour is at Doral this week for another World Golf Championship. Tiger has dominated these events in the past and I wouldn't be surprised if he continues this week.

Until Next Time,

Steve

After four longs days at rules school in Atlanta the staff is primed and ready to get the junior golf season underway. The classes in Atlanta gave an extensive overview of every one of the 34 USGA Rules of Golf. The class is structured much like middle school or high school in that the teacher lectures for awhile and then at the end you take a test to see how much information you retained. I did not do as well on the test as I would have hoped, but it is a step in the right direction on where I want to be with my knowledge of the rules. These classes are open to the public and if you are interested in attending you can visit the rules section on www.usga.org and try to get signed up. I believe registration is nearing its end for 2008 so be sure to visit the website soon if you want to get involved. 

My instructor this year made the class very interesting. Both gentleman are on the Executive Committee which makes the final decision on items that might need to be changed in the book. It was interesting to hear their stories behind the changes for 2008 and the process it took to get them in the book. I will definitely look for the classes in the future where they are teaching because I feel I learned the most this year. 

The Match Play is this week on the PGA Tour. I am sure many of you saw Tiger's comeback against J.B. Holmes. It was one of the most amazing displays of golf I have ever seen. Tiger continues to amaze the public with the skill he has on the course. Will he ever make a mistake when the pressure is on? He hasn't done it many times in his career.  Our own Brandt Snedeker didn't fair too well this week, got knocked out in the first round. We will keep rooting for him to do well. 

Well that is all for now. Don't be afraid to say hello.

Kind Regards,

Steve McDonald
Director, TGA Junior Tour

We off to a good start on the membership registration sign-ups. Just one full week in, we are already up to 167 members on our Tour. It looks like we are on pace to have another full membership of over 1,100 for the 2008 season. Be sure to tell all your friends about our Tour so we can have as full a field possible for every tournament. 

The schedule is so close to being finalized. I am hoping that by early next week we will have it complete and posted on-line. There are still two TMACS events to be scheduled. One is in the Memphis area and one in the Tri-Cities area. Be sure to keep looking at the schedule because events are being added daily.

The Tennessee Golf Association will be out the office next week until Wednesday. We will be in Gatlinburg at our annual Staff Retreat. We are hoping to have positive discussions on ways we can improve our business. I will update everyone on its success when we return.

Tour Talk
The PGA Tour is at Pebble this week. Brandt Snedeker (Nashville) is coming off a Top-10 last week in Phoenix and I am hoping he has another good week. Through 2 rounds he is 1 over par and needs a good round on Saturday to make the cut. Be looking for him on the coverage tomorrow. I always like the Pro-Celebrity events on Tour. It shows that celebrities are just like us normal golfers, can't hit fairways, can't hit greens, and have too many putts. 

Have a good weekend. Don't be afraid to say hello.

Kind Regards,

Steve McDonald
Director, TGA Junior Tour