El Niguel Country Club

JUNIOR GOLF O ur junior golfers are all over the place. I mean that literally. We are experiencing something that I have never seen before. We have juniors playing in tournaments locally as well as nationally. The tours range from the Southern California PGA Junior Tour to the AJGA National Tour. Here's a quick look… Jason Bannister, 16, has been in Indiana building up his resume. This summer, he captured two first-place finishes – the first coming on a Donald Ross Course at French Lick Resort. Shooting a two-day total of 145, Jason fin- ished ahead of 40 players. His next victory in July was at Knollwood Country Club in Granada Hills. He shot a 1-under 70 to win against a field of 82 players. Hudson Vedder, 11, recently played at Pinehurst competing in the US Kids World Championship. Hudson has been a junior at El Niguel for four years. He is extremely active with golf and has developed into a player who can shoot even par. This kid is just an all-around star at every sport he plays. He is currently the ENCC Junior Club Champion for the 9-hole division. Speaking of rising stars, our All-Star Junior League team has been extremely exciting. Led by our very own Jerome "Romey" Thormann, we have four ENCC juniors on the team. In addition to Hudson, there's Quinn Kyle (who's also an all-star polo player), Nick Davis (a former all-star baseball player), and Sophia Wahlstrom, one of the most humble and talented players at our Club – and she is only 12. They will play in the coming weeks against other Southern California All-Star teams. If they continue to win, they will play at Grey- hawk in Scottsdale, Arizona, on a national stage. All of our juniors are doing great, and we're excited about the number of young players we see at the Club on a daily basis. NATIONAL PRIDE ■ ENCC JUNIOR GOLFERS ARE COMPETING ALL OVER THE COUNTRY • BY WADE WILSON, PGA AUGUST 2019 ❘ THE DIVOT ❘ 9

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