Allow me to introduce you to Zach Olsen. Zach just recently turned 15. On Wednesday Zach shot a 66 during a qualifying round for the Southern Amateur at Colonial Country Club in Cordova Tennessee. From the back tees. Is 66 a good round? Well. The St. Jude Classic, which has been a regular stop on the PGA Tour for over 50 years, was played at Colonial Country Club until 1989, when it moved to it's present location of TPC at Southwinds. In the last year it was played at Colonial Jodie Mudd won with rounds of 68, 68, 67 and 70. The year before that Curtis Strange won with rounds of 70, 68, 68 and 69. So yes, 66 is a good round. 66 is a good round for a professional golfer. 66 is a great score for a just-turned-15 year old.
Last year, as an eighth grader, Zach won the Tennessee State High School tournament.
Believe it or not ( and if you have spent any time in the golf world you will have no trouble believing it ) kids as young as Zach are already ranked nationally. See here. If you look on that page you will see you can select based on graduation year. If you pick 2013, you will see Zach at #10. With an asterisk noting he hasn’t played enough tournaments at the high school level to be ranked. Zach will be playing quite a few tournaments this summer, and everyone expects him to move quickly up the list.
Zach is one of many very good young golfers. Most of whom you never hear about at this stage of their lives. We here at The Household know about Zach because The Golfer’s Brother is a member of Colonial. And of course the membership keeps a close eye on Zach.
So here’s the thing. There is a kid who will graduate from high school in 2013 who at the age of 15 can score 66 on Colonial playing from the same tees the pros use. And if you look at that web page you will see a whole lot more kids just as good, or better. Boys and girls. You should keep an eye on these rankings. Remember the names. Google them and follow their progress through local/state/national tournaments. The names you see in those rankings are the names you will be seeing on the tops of leader boards in the years to come.
If Tiger plans to win more tournaments then Jack ( and he does of course ) he might want to get a move on. Because those kids he hears walking up the fairway behind him are GOOD.
By the way now as a ninth grader he is the 63 ranked jr golf nationally per golfweek,, this includes all of the 10th, 11th, and 12th graders in the country. He is the third ranked ninth grader.
Posted by: Randall | February 21, 2010 at 03:20 PM