White Bucket Hats and Confidence - Part Two

Another factor in the development of the current young players on the PGA Tour, was the ability to compete in the same arena with young ladies at the junior level. The AJGA was not a single-gender school with a gated entry. Jetting around the country to compete against Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk and David Duval was incentive enough. But throw in Kelly Robbins, Vicki Goetze, Adele Moore, Christy Erb and Liza LaBelle competing on the same course. All of a sudden, the game's fascination was filled with one more distraction. Driving-range chatter was about more than just the day's score.

As the national junior game gathered momentum, college scholarships gave parents another reason for junior and sissy to pursue the sport. The AJGA and other junior Tournaments became an "investment." Could there be a quality return on the investment? Jetting to Tournaments in Tahoe, Denver, Palm Beach, Dallas and some remote areas like French Lick, Indiana, was costly. The economics of junior golf also limited the accessibility of the AJGA. Some families could simply not afford the exorbitant costs of travel.

At this time the NCAA was cutting back the number of scholarships afforded sports like football, and spring sports like golf benefited. At the NCAA Division I level, golf was being ruled by a small majority. Wake Forest, Houston, Texas, Florida, Ohio State and Oklahoma State dominated the competition. From 1962 to 1987, these six schools were college golf. Since the junior game gathered momentum (1988-1999), ten different schools have won the team title. Parity was quickly becoming the norm. "It was no longer a guessing game. More schools were able to locate the players and everyone benefited," said Blackmon. Mike Holder went from being the only college coach at AJGA events to one of more than a dozen of his contemporaries at select events. "When I was recruited to Oklahoma State, Mike Holder was easy to talk to because he was the only coach I remember seeing at the events. I knew exactly who I was talking to, but that was not the case for some of the other schools," said Harry Rudolph.

AJGA results quickly became the most important piece of mail (now electronic mail) for college coaches like Rick LaRose (Arizona), Steve Loy (Arizona State) and Wally Goodwin (Stanford).

Older coaches like George Hannon (Texas) and Jesse Haddock (Wake Forest) had coached players like Longhorns' Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw and Deamon Deacons' Lanny Wadkins and Curtis Strange. They recruited on the basis of their reputation. Being progressive in a changing game would soon be an issue athletic directors would have to meet head on. College golf continues to be a sport where the individual egos and games are packaged incongruously. It is like fitting a watermelon in a ball washer. Never has such an individual game been twisted to make it a team event, and coaching the individual personality is more important than coaching the swing. Coaching during the Tournament is reduced to a rugby scrum of coaches meeting on the back-nine par threes to educate their players on what club to hit.

As the junior and college games began to find their stance, the late 1980s brought on a new challenge. The AJGA was still searching for avenues to raise funds. Chris Haack, then the foundation director, decided to host a one-day Pro-junior Tournament at the AJGA’s host course and site of the Tournament of Champions, Horseshoe Bend Country Club. They asked current PGA Tour-playing AJGA alums to come back and play in a single-day event consisting of six-somes, one pro, four amateurs and a junior. This would be a six-hour round of golf in the spirit of raising money for junior golf Players such as Davis Love III, Brad Faxon, Sam Randolph, Willie Wood and Andrew Magee and LPGA player Kris Tschetter returned. The event was both a financial and public relations success. But, maybe more important was a call Love made to Chris Haack, the night before the outing. Love explained he would have to cancel, but he wanted to contribute to the junior program financially. Haack said, "I realized then that their time was maybe more important than anything. Their commitment to what we were doing was important, but not as important as the time they would take off to come in and play."

Following the event, Haack ran the idea of the PGA Tour players donating 1 percent of the annual earnings past then 20-something PGA Tour players Bob Tway and Willie Wood. The concept was simple. "This way they could help us out financially, and it hurt each player only incrementally based on the kind of year he would have," said Haack. Haack and AJGA board member Allen Layland cooperated in structuring the framework, which is still in place today, generating thousands each year for the development of the program. Haack remembers Tway's initial response. "I hope I write you a check for $10,000 each year." Even players such as Peter Jacobsen, who did not play in AJGA events, signed up. The I -percent club is the best club in the AJGA’s bag of fund-raising.

However, the growth of the AJGA came with some growing pains. In the early days of the AJGA, getting in Tournaments was a tough ticket for the boys. The AJGA’s most difficult task was objectively picking players for the Tournament field. Comparing r6sum6s of junior players from remote areas of the country was tough to do from a single-page entry form. Picking the fields for some of the more popular events was wrought with comparing unknown local Tournament from places like Minot, North Dakota, and Manchester, Vermont. The system wasn’t perfect and the parent phone calls came fast and furious. Some current PGA Tour players were not allowed to play in AJGA events because their r6sum6 was not up to par. Since the problem exacerbated itself, the AJGA added qualifiers to filter the unknowns through a pre-Tournament qualifier. The odds to make a field through the AJGA qualifiers are sometimes brutal, but it has become the fair way to handle objections.

Phil Mickelson, Justin Leonard, David Duval and Tiger Woods played in AJGA events growing up. It was a small arena of their development as golfers. They learned the rules, experienced the competition and came to understand the decorum of the game. They were exposed to some of the nation's best courses, places like the TPC Woodlands, English Turn and La Paloma. And they took their games to obscure corners of the golfing world like the Flint Elks Lodge 222 in Flint, Michigan, and Otter Creek in Columbus, Indiana. The national junior scene was not part of their summer vacation from school; it was their summer vacation. Their Tournament schedules in some ways were more concentrated than they are today. They have arrived at golf's defining level with the physical game and instinct for success. They were able to demonstrate a passion and drive for the game. But, mostly they were able to have fun.

When Phil Mickelson returned home from a summer of junior Tournaments his parents made him go straight to the calculator. They would say, "Add up every dime you spent." The Mickelsons did not want their teenage son to repay them. They wanted him to realize he was spending "real" money.

When Justin Leonard became a player representative for the AJGA he was supposed to be an ambassador for the players, giving board members a way to understand the mind set of the typical junior golfer.

David Duval was told that he couldn’t play in every junior event so he had to make choices based on economics. The game was not a summer free-for-all, it was a proving ground.

Earl and Kultida Woods pulled their son back several times and explained some of the barriers that exist in the game. The Charlie Siffords and the Lee Elders left the door slightly ajar, but there would be more than just golf that their son would have to deal with along the way to the PGA Tour.