Youth Is Served

We spend quite a bit of time slicing and dicing the professional game.  No apologies for that, as the skills on display are quite staggering, as are some of the outsized personalities.

But shall we devote a few pixels to some great accomplishments from those of more tender years?  In descending age order:

The College Beat - Remember the name Patrick Rodgers, as he'll be appearing in PGA Tour events

before we know it (though with the demise of Q-School he may be consigned to a year of indentured servitude on the web.com tour).  Rodgers led his Stanford team into the NCAA finals  by a single stroke at the Eugene, OR Regionals, but won medalist honors by a gaudy six shots.

AmateurGolf.com sums up his accomplishments this season:

The impressive season just keeps getting better for Stanford's Patrick Rodgers. 

Earlier this year, the junior became the world's top-ranked amateur golfer according to the World Amateur Golf Rankings. This past weekend, he tied Tiger Woods' school record for career victories. 

And on Sunday, Rodgers was officially named the 2014 Ben Hogan Award winner.

Rodgers tied the Stanford team record for most wins set by some kid named Woods, and in his last six events finished 1-1-1-2-1-1.  Shame about that off-week there.

The NCAA Finals will be held next week at Prairie Dunes Country Club, and Golf Channel will for the first time provide coverage.  Prairie Dunes is a Perry Maxwell classic located in Hutchinson, Kansas, built on rolling terrain and very reminiscent of the great heathland and Australian sandbelt courses.  It's well worth a lokk at the NCAA's just to appreciate Prairie Dunes.

The Tween Beat - Luci Li shot 74-68 at Half Moon Bay to qualify for the U.S. Women's Open at age 11. She's obviously got quite the career ahead of her, though not all that much behind her (if you get my drift).  She is the youngest woman (girl?) to ever qualify for the Open.  Li has become as famous as an 11-year old golfer can be, qualifying for last year's U.S. Women's Amateur Publinx at age 10, and winning the 10-11 year old age group at April's Drive,Chip and Putt competition at Augusta National. 

In further tween coverage, David Owen files a typically colorful post at Golf Digest's home page about his two favorite Irish golfers.  The first is a digression back to a normal adult male, a gentleman named Richard Murray, whom David met at County Louth Golf Club (better known in the trade as Baltray).  David was enamored of his efficient methodology for shagging range balls:

It does look to be easy on the back, always a consideration at our age.  On the downside, however, it would seem to require hand-eye coordination...

But David's actual favorite golfer is more in our target demo, as I'll let him explain:

I met my favorite Irish golfer two days later, at the Island Golf Club, in Donabete. She’s twelve years old. She was on the practice green, sinking ten-footers as though they were tap-ins. Her mother and father told me that golf is her favorite thing in the world. I got my camera and asked her if she could sink one more—and she did. Remember her name: Shannon Mohan.

Here's her moment of glory: