WORKS WONDERS
Commitment pays off for Spring-Ford senior Jaden Minter in PAC championship season
Jaden Minter could have easily gotten discouraged and quit when he started playing golf with friends who were much better at the game than he was. But that only encouraged him to get better ... and his rapid rise through the ranks began.
He started out on the SpringFord developmental squad as a freshman, moved up to the JV team as a sophomore and then to the varsity lineup as a junior. And as a senior, he proved that he could not only keep up with his friends and teammates on the golf course, but also with anybody in the area.
Minter won the Pioneer Athletic Conference individual tournament championship and helped his team to a second straight PAC team title. In the District 1-3A Tournament, his score was the best of any PAC competitor.
He was also named to the PAC All-Conference First Team. And all of those accomplishments have earned him the title of Mercury All-Area Boys Golf Player of the Year.
“Jaden is the story that I tell the kids at the beginning of every season,” Spring-Ford coach Jerry Hollingsworth said after Minter shot a 1-over 73 at Turtle Creek Golf Course to win the PAC title by two strokes over teammate and 2021 Player of the Year Luke Fazio.“He barely made the developmental team as a freshman, played JV as a sophomore and varsity as a junior. The kid was always on the range. He’s just always working to get better.”
“I saw my friends playing golf and I started playing with them in the summer,” said Minter. “I enjoyed getting better, just the little things. I had kids around me playing better than me. I wanted to get better.”
That desire turned into commitment.
“I play all the time. Hard work, not getting discouraged, just staying with my own game,” Minter said on his mentality. “I could easily have gotten discouraged. All the kids were better than me.”
Minter missed part of the season due to a hand injury. Then at the PAC championships, he had to recover from a slow start to win the title, knocking four strokes off his championship tournament score from 2021 when he finished in a three-way tie for 10th place.
“I don’t think I got off to the best start,” he said. “I had two
double bogeys on the first nine … no bogeys on the back nine. I just try not to get too high, too low . ... The wind was rough, but my approach shots were pretty good. I hit greens and that gave me a look at birdies.”
At the district tournament at Turtle Creek, he shot a 78 on the first day, missing the cut by one stroke.
But he carded a 72 on the second day while playing in the team competition and the Rams finished second, four strokes behind Downingtown West.
His two-day total of 150 was the eighth-best in the field and would have qualified him for the PIAA Tournament if not for his troubles during the first round.
He was one of seven Spring-Ford players who qualified for districts.
“It was awesome,” Minter said. “It was great competing against each other. It makes for a good competitive environment. It brings the group together. Us seniors, we all stepped up in different ways to lead our team.”
Minter is a member of Spring-Ford Country Club and works at Turtle Creek. After his junior year, he improved his overall game while taking lessons from Hugh Reilly at Performance Golf.
“There’s always something you can improve on,” he said. “It’s a new game every single day. The next day, I can have the worst game of my life. You ride the highs, knowing that the lows happen right when you think you have it down.”
“He is relentless,” said Hollingsworth. “He’s his hardest critic. He puts in the work that he needs to do and is super-competitive . ... Anybody you talk to has nothing but good things to say about him. You love having players like Jaden on your team.”
Minter will be attending Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, where he will play golf and major in international business.
And after that, there may be more golf on the horizon.
“It would be nice to keep playing,” Minter said.
“I’m excited to see where he goes from there,” said Hollingsworth.