Summer circuit honors top junior golfers
Broward association wraps up season with awards
Tamarac’s Jillian Bourdage had another stellar summer on the links as she captured the Junior Golf Association (JGA) of Broward County’s Carol Mann Award (lowest scoring average/girls) for a third straight year.
The 14-year-old has her sights set on making history next year. Only one person has won the Carol Mann four years in a row and that was Ellen Dunne from 1992-’95.
Former Nova Southeastern University women’s golf medalist Taylor Collins, the last one to win three years in a row (2005-’07), is now playing on the Semetra Tour.
Bourdage, who averaged 74 for the summer, hopes to play on the Ladies Professional Golf Association tour someday.
“It would be pretty important for me (to win the Carol Mann next year), but (even better) for another four years,” she said. “That would be seven titles in a row. We’ll see, there’s a lot of good up-and-coming talent out there. I will still have to work hard for it.”
Bourdage, who at age 12 became the youngest winner of the Carol Mann Award, has made continual strides in refining her game.
“It just shows that my game is progressing,” Bourdage said. “It is a real honor to win an award with her name on it. I think my putting has improved this year. I definitely feel a difference inmy game.”
Bourdage couldn’t be happier to be a member of the Junior Golf Association (JGA) of Broward County.
“The JGA is an organization that introduces a lot of golfers to the sport,” Bourdage said. “When I was younger, I always used to look up to the older girls. Now as I am becoming an older girl and becoming better as a player and as a person, I find myself becominga rolemodelfor a lot of the younger kids.”
Pompano Beach’s Isak Nilsson finished off his junior golf career with the association by winning the prestigious Julius Boros Trophy (lowest stroke average/boys). He averaged a 74.6 for the summer.
“(This is) really cool because I am really close with the whole Boros family,” said the18-year-oldNilsson, who also won a four-year grant (McKinney Scholarship) from the JGA. “Ever since I started playing in the JGA when I was 12, I always saw the big trophy being awarded to the big kids and that was something I always wanted to get.”
“Being paired with friends every week and being able to play on such great courses in Broward is also something I’ll always remember,” Nilsson said. “It was such a close knit group. The whole experience was marvelous.”
The Junior Golf Association of Broward County completed its 49th season andKenTate, who has been the executive director of the organization for the past eight years, was pleased with the turnout of nearly 300 players.
“We are very fortunate that the country clubs around the county support the Junior Golf Association of Broward County,” Tate said.
The Junior Golf Association (JGA) of Broward Countywas founded in1968 by Steve and Olga Purdo to provide their children with a positive and fun-filled Tamarac's Jillian Bourdage follows her putt during a Junior Golf Association of Broward County tour event this summer at Deer Creek Country Club in Deerfield Beach. Bourdage recently won the Carol Mann Trophy for the lowest stroke average for girls’ members, the third straight year she has achieved this honor.
activity during the summer months. Since the first event, the JGA has become one of the largest junior golf organizations in the United States.
Tate said one of the main draws of the Broward association is that it is not an age-based system so players will compete at their own skill levels.
“We are an ability based system,” Tate said. “They are paired based on how they play from week to week. Younger golfers who may be really good could
play all the way up to the championship flight. It also caters to newer, inexperienced golfers who learn to develop and hone their skills. It is an amazing thing to watch a 5-year-old progress throughout a 10-week season.”
Tate said the association takes pride in its “graduates” who have not only gone on to play in high school and college but also those who have turned professional.
Other top award winners included Thomas Mendez
(Ron Kesterson Trophy/ most improved boy), Olivia DeFabio (Founders Award/ most improved girl), J.D. Gregor (President’s Award; Citizenship and Sportsmanship Trophy); Makayla Chau (Fran Pau Award/assisting parent volunteers and board members); Sandy Price (Watson Trophy/ adult volunteer); Hailey Menkhus (Purdo Scholarship/highestGPAof graduating senior); Michaela White (Donald Dillion Memorial Scholarship) and Alan
Steinberg Fame).
Bedford Scholarship Award winners (final year in the association) included Luke Ashworth, Nicholas Badyna, Jaci Cruz, Matthew Galluzzo, Beau T. Goble, Iker E. Gorricho, Brittany Hakim, Amanda Leslie, Hailey Menkhus, Taylor Morgan, Bolivar Perez, Camila Sierra, Timothy Simpson, and Katie Williamson.
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