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Jutanugarn repeats as Rolex Junior Player of the Year

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Ariya Jutanugarn of Bangkok, Thailand, was named the girls’ Rolex Junior Player of the Year for the second year in a row, the American Junior Golf Association announced Wednesday, Oct. 17.

Introduced by the AJGA in 1978, the Rolex Junior Player of the Year award recognizes one boy and one girl who had the most outstanding year in junior golf events at the national level. Past recipients have gone on to become some of the most esteemed players on the PGA and LPGA Tours, including Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Charles Howell III, Hunter Mahan, Scott Verplank, Cristie Kerr, Inbee Park, Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel.

Jutanugarn, 16, is the fifth girl to earn Rolex Junior Player of the Year honors in back-to-back seasons. She has been No. 1 in the Polo Golf Rankings since July 2, 2011, and won three junior tournaments in 2012. In all, Jutanugarn has seven national junior golf victories since she began competing in the United States in 2009.

Her accomplishments during the past season will be heralded Nov. 18 during the Rolex Junior All-America Awards Banquet at PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. The awards ceremony, dubbed “The Greatest Night in Junior Golf,” will also trumpet the achievements of the rest of golf’s next generation by means of the Rolex Junior All-America Teams, HP Scholastic Junior All-America Teams and Jerry Cole Sportsmanship Award.

 
About Ariya Jutanugarn’s 2012 Season
Jutanugarn, 16, has once again set herself on the junior golf pedestal in 2012. Since her debut on the American junior golf circuit in 2009, she has seven victories, five runner-up finishes and has finished outside the top 10 just three times. After being named Rolex Junior Player of the Year in 2011, she successfully defended two major junior titles in 2012 and earned junior golf’s highest honor for the second consecutive year.

Jutanugarn opened the season with a third-place showing at the Scott Robertson Memorial. She then notched her first win of the season at the Thunderbird International Junior, where she prevailed in a sudden-death playoff against Laura Sojo after the duo finished at 5-under-par.

She followed the win with a defense of her title at the Rolex Girls Junior Championship, where she set the AJGA girls’ 72-hole scoring record at 18-under-par 270, breaking the record she established in 2011.

A month later, she posted a T3 showing at the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, where she fell short in the semifinals against Minjee Lee, who went on to win the event. To close the season, she embodied her consistent performance at the Junior PGA Championship, becoming the first girls’ champion to notch back-to-back titles since AJGA alumna Inbee Park.

Ariya Jutanugarn – 2012 season results

Junior tournaments (ranked in Polo Golf Rankings)    
                                                                                                  
T34*Polo Golf Junior Classic78-75–153
3rdScott Robertson Memorial72-72-69–213
1st*Thunderbird International Junior
72-72-67–211
1st*Rolex Girls Junior Championship
70-65-68-67–270
12th*Rolex Tournament of Champions72-68-72-76–288
T3U.S. Girls' Junior Championship
71-71–142
1stJunior PGA Championship66-70-71-67–27

Other tournaments (not factored into Rolex Junior Player of the Year considerations)                                                                                                                     
T14Dixie Amateur72-67-77-75–291
2ndHarder Hall Invitational72-72-67-73–284
2ndSally Championship67-71-69-72–279
T12^LPGA Thailand Ladies Open
73-69-65–207
T22^Kraft Nabisco Championship73-69-65–207
1stWomen’s Western Amateur
71-68–139
1stCanadian  Amateur69-67-65-73–274
T3U.S. Women's Amateur
71-68–139
MC^CN Canadian Women’s Open77-76–153
T9^Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia
69-67-65-73–274

* Denotes AJGA event