Post by philknj on Aug 31, 2019 4:29:39 GMT
I didn’t want to spend my whole day here, so I reached the Fiddler’s Elbow CC entrance in Bedminster, NJ around 1:30 PM. I had been here only once before (2011 USWO qualifier), so my memory of it was dim. They have three courses and fortunately they were using the River course where the back nine starts and ends near the clubhouse.
I had a printout of the last seven girl groups and the last five boy groups. I hung around the 18th green (at first, I thought it was the 9th green) and then started walking to intercept the last few groups on the back nine...spotted KJ Choi driving around in his own cart.
There must have been a heavy shower that came through the night before. The stream water between the 10th and 18th fairways was brown and puddles were in the deep rough. The fairways were cut short with noticeable bare patches...I saw a lot of white paint used (damage under repair).
I arrived at the par-3 14th green where the 3rd-to-last girl group putted out at 2:00 PM. They started at 10:50 AM...3 hours and 10 minutes for 14 holes...that’s pretty fast.
My one big complaint about this course is that it had no yardage markers in the tee boxes for the par-4s and par-5s. I know how long the holes were supposed to be, per the website, but had no way to confirm it. Maybe they moved the blocks each day. The alleged course distances were 5911 yards for the girls and 6974 for the boys (the Korn Ferry tour in Boise, ID that week was playing at 6808!).
I paced off some distances for second shots following a few GOOD drives, but I am skeptical of my results. For instance, NJ’s Katie Li drove it 211 on #16 and 267 on #18. They run in opposite directions, but I don’t think wind accounted for that much of a difference. Average the two and that’s probably a reasonable measurement of her ability...and she’s fun to watch; finished T-5 and what a vicious swing! NJ’s Sophia Bae (4th place) was in her group...a vanilla swing in contrast...unlike Li, did not hit any wild shots. She was wearing a Duke U. cap and should fit in there quite well starting in 2021.
I took a look at Kabin Choi...watched her swing from the behind the par-5 18th tee and she hit a high tight draw. She didn’t do anything spectacular on the last few holes, but didn’t need to as she had this one wrapped up from the start of the day.
The player that really impressed me was 3rd place finisher Brooke Rivers of Brampton, Ontario...class of ’23, which would make her 14, but she looked older than that. She looked like a tall, full-grown young lady. At #18 she hit a sweeping draw that started at the right tree line and finished on the left edge of the fairway. My math says she hit it 287...I don’t believe that, but she is long.
I talked with Rivers mom at the 15th and 17th holes. They drove down from the Toronto area for this event, but spend only half the year there...the other half is in the Turks & Caicos Islands. It was mom’s first time in NJ and she liked the sights of some of the small towns she encountered. Well, we were in horse country and she didn’t have to pass through Trenton and Camden to get here!
She said KJ brought in ten players (wearing “team” uniforms) from overseas. His foundation seems pretty serious about junior golf. A YouTube video has highlights of the KJ Choi winter camp that ran from Aug. 2018 thru Feb. 2019:
I was at the green as Rivers hit her tee shot at the par-3 17th. I looked behind me and saw the U. of Washington head coach Mary Lou Mulflur. I mentioned this to Rivers’ mom and she said MLM was following her group (w/ Kabin Choi and Xiaowen Yin of China) for all 18 holes. This field was definitely NOT the highest quality of juniors one could assemble, so I was really impressed that the big cheese of U. Wash., not one of her underlings, was scouting it herself. After 36 years in charge of that program, she must be a golf maniac.
BTW, I noticed two girls wearing skorts that were about four inches shorter in the front than the back (and I’m not complaining). I can’t recall an LPGA player wearing such an item...it may be a junior-only style. The AJGA has a dress code, but does anyone enforce it to the letter?
I stayed in the right fairway rough at #18 and could see Kabin Choi get a water bottle shower on the green from about 200 yards away...a four-shot win at -8. Then the boys came through and I kept track of the longest drives. Brian Xu of Canada reached the 218 mark, meaning he hit it 304...maybe! He was outdone by Gaven Lane and Hyun Joon Yoo in the last two groups at 312 each...maybe!
After the last boys group putted, there was no water bottle ceremony, so it was clear that a Korean did not win...and I didn’t know who did. I went to my car to change my shoes and returned to the players dining room for the 5 PM winner presentations. I passed by a large number of bags...the most exotic irons I spotted were Epon AF-705s...second place went to a bag of Yamaha RMX 116s
Via an interpreter (player Daniel Choi, KJ’s son), Kabin Choi said winning this event gives her the confidence that she can be an LPGAer one day. The boys’ winner was Gaven Lane (class of ’23) by four shots at -5. He said he had been trying to win an AJGA event for a long time...now he has one of those red winner stand bags. Hyun Joon Yoo and Jack Irons (great golfer name) finished T-2.
This is not surprising when one thinks about it, but KJ’s imports finished higher on the girls side than on the boys side. Daniel Choi finished T-18 at +8, which was better than everyone on Team KJ, except for HJ Yoon. Hmm, getting one-on-one instruction from The Legend must be useful.
Scores and details:
www.ajga.org/tournaments/2019/kj-choi-foundation-junior-championship-presented-by-sk-telecom
I had a printout of the last seven girl groups and the last five boy groups. I hung around the 18th green (at first, I thought it was the 9th green) and then started walking to intercept the last few groups on the back nine...spotted KJ Choi driving around in his own cart.
There must have been a heavy shower that came through the night before. The stream water between the 10th and 18th fairways was brown and puddles were in the deep rough. The fairways were cut short with noticeable bare patches...I saw a lot of white paint used (damage under repair).
I arrived at the par-3 14th green where the 3rd-to-last girl group putted out at 2:00 PM. They started at 10:50 AM...3 hours and 10 minutes for 14 holes...that’s pretty fast.
My one big complaint about this course is that it had no yardage markers in the tee boxes for the par-4s and par-5s. I know how long the holes were supposed to be, per the website, but had no way to confirm it. Maybe they moved the blocks each day. The alleged course distances were 5911 yards for the girls and 6974 for the boys (the Korn Ferry tour in Boise, ID that week was playing at 6808!).
I paced off some distances for second shots following a few GOOD drives, but I am skeptical of my results. For instance, NJ’s Katie Li drove it 211 on #16 and 267 on #18. They run in opposite directions, but I don’t think wind accounted for that much of a difference. Average the two and that’s probably a reasonable measurement of her ability...and she’s fun to watch; finished T-5 and what a vicious swing! NJ’s Sophia Bae (4th place) was in her group...a vanilla swing in contrast...unlike Li, did not hit any wild shots. She was wearing a Duke U. cap and should fit in there quite well starting in 2021.
I took a look at Kabin Choi...watched her swing from the behind the par-5 18th tee and she hit a high tight draw. She didn’t do anything spectacular on the last few holes, but didn’t need to as she had this one wrapped up from the start of the day.
The player that really impressed me was 3rd place finisher Brooke Rivers of Brampton, Ontario...class of ’23, which would make her 14, but she looked older than that. She looked like a tall, full-grown young lady. At #18 she hit a sweeping draw that started at the right tree line and finished on the left edge of the fairway. My math says she hit it 287...I don’t believe that, but she is long.
I talked with Rivers mom at the 15th and 17th holes. They drove down from the Toronto area for this event, but spend only half the year there...the other half is in the Turks & Caicos Islands. It was mom’s first time in NJ and she liked the sights of some of the small towns she encountered. Well, we were in horse country and she didn’t have to pass through Trenton and Camden to get here!
She said KJ brought in ten players (wearing “team” uniforms) from overseas. His foundation seems pretty serious about junior golf. A YouTube video has highlights of the KJ Choi winter camp that ran from Aug. 2018 thru Feb. 2019:
I was at the green as Rivers hit her tee shot at the par-3 17th. I looked behind me and saw the U. of Washington head coach Mary Lou Mulflur. I mentioned this to Rivers’ mom and she said MLM was following her group (w/ Kabin Choi and Xiaowen Yin of China) for all 18 holes. This field was definitely NOT the highest quality of juniors one could assemble, so I was really impressed that the big cheese of U. Wash., not one of her underlings, was scouting it herself. After 36 years in charge of that program, she must be a golf maniac.
BTW, I noticed two girls wearing skorts that were about four inches shorter in the front than the back (and I’m not complaining). I can’t recall an LPGA player wearing such an item...it may be a junior-only style. The AJGA has a dress code, but does anyone enforce it to the letter?
I stayed in the right fairway rough at #18 and could see Kabin Choi get a water bottle shower on the green from about 200 yards away...a four-shot win at -8. Then the boys came through and I kept track of the longest drives. Brian Xu of Canada reached the 218 mark, meaning he hit it 304...maybe! He was outdone by Gaven Lane and Hyun Joon Yoo in the last two groups at 312 each...maybe!
After the last boys group putted, there was no water bottle ceremony, so it was clear that a Korean did not win...and I didn’t know who did. I went to my car to change my shoes and returned to the players dining room for the 5 PM winner presentations. I passed by a large number of bags...the most exotic irons I spotted were Epon AF-705s...second place went to a bag of Yamaha RMX 116s
Via an interpreter (player Daniel Choi, KJ’s son), Kabin Choi said winning this event gives her the confidence that she can be an LPGAer one day. The boys’ winner was Gaven Lane (class of ’23) by four shots at -5. He said he had been trying to win an AJGA event for a long time...now he has one of those red winner stand bags. Hyun Joon Yoo and Jack Irons (great golfer name) finished T-2.
This is not surprising when one thinks about it, but KJ’s imports finished higher on the girls side than on the boys side. Daniel Choi finished T-18 at +8, which was better than everyone on Team KJ, except for HJ Yoon. Hmm, getting one-on-one instruction from The Legend must be useful.
Scores and details:
www.ajga.org/tournaments/2019/kj-choi-foundation-junior-championship-presented-by-sk-telecom