By Chris Richards
Media Relations Coordinator

For a Rolex Junior Player of the Year, Peter Uihlein admits he handled a lot of self-induced adversity this season. In fact, it’s hard to realize all the good things he did in 2007 when he rattles off all the things he hopes to improve.

Poor driving. Handling intimidation. Practice routine.

But don’t let him fool you. Despite the self-criticism, Uihlein joins Tracy Phillips, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Brian Harman as the only repeat Players of the Year in the Boys Division, and becomes the first to win the award in non-consecutive years.

2007 Rolex Junior Player of the Year Peter Uihlein

“That’s real good company to be mentioned with guys like that and it’s definitely special,” said Uihlein, who also won the award in 2005. “I set my goal and got it done.”

Though the end result was the same as two years ago, Uihlein won the award in 2007 behind the strength of his fortitude. He finished tied for 46th at the PING Junior at The Woodlands to begin the calendar year, only to follow it up with top-five finishes in his next four events.

He then posted his eighth top-five finish in an AJGA Invitational at the Thunderbird International Junior, and entered the FootJoy Boys’ Invitational hoping to finally earn his first Invitational victory. However, after a 10 during the first round, Uihlein set himself up with more adversity.

“I just told myself it was only the ninth hole of the tournament and I still had 63 more holes left,” Uihlein said. “Everybody’s going to have a bad round in a four-round tournament, and I just figured I got mine out of the way first.”

Uihlein followed his opening-round 73 with a 10-under-par performance over the final 54 holes to win his first AJGA Invitational by one shot at 9-under-par 279.

“That’s the one event I wanted to win all year and I pretty much ranked it higher than any other event,” Uihlein said. “It’s definitely one of the biggest wins of my career.”

Following the win, Uihlein went on to finish tied for fifth at Rolex Tournament of Champions, and advanced to the quarterfinals at the U.S. Junior Amateur. However, he won’t acknowledge these high finishes without reminding himself of the low points of each tournament.

At Rolex, he went 6-over-par over a six-hole stretch in the first round. At the U.S. Junior Amateur, he carded a quadruple-bogey in the second round of stroke play and nearly missed qualifying for match play.

“I definitely learned that there are lots of highs and lows in a round, you just have to stay patient and stay steady and you can get it back,” Uihlein said. “I rebounded from every low moment in the summer with a high moment, so I feel like I handled them well.”

Peter signs a spectator's shirt after his victory at the FootJoy Boys Invitational in June.

And there are plenty of examples. At Rolex, he went 5-under-par over his final seven holes and recorded an opening-round 71, while at the U.S. Junior Amateur he finished the second round with two birdies, qualified for match play by four shots, and won three matches before losing in the quarterfinals to eventual runner-up Anthony Paolucci.

Though Uihlein reached success at the end of many of his low points, this was not always the case. With the pressure of Player of the Year mounting, he knew his performance at The PING Invitational would go a long way in deciding the award’s fate. A tie for 37th didn’t help his case, but his overall résumé was enough to carry him to Player of the Year honors.

“I’ll speak for myself but I think Morgan (Hoffmann) was the same way, and we just put a lot of pressure on ourselves because we both knew that whoever played better would probably win Player of the Year,” Uihlein said. “I know I was playing very intimidated and I’m definitely going to learn from it. That’s what happens when you get your head beat in, you learn from it.”

All things considered, Uihlein turned adversity into success during a “crazy year” and won his second Rolex Junior Player of the Year award playing in just 10 tournaments, seven fewer than he played in 2005.

“The way I look at it, two years ago I had 17 chances to win, but I also had 17 chances to screw up and not win the award,” Uihlein said. “This year I did tone it down a bit and played mostly the majors, but I wanted this summer to relax a bit and work on my game instead of just playing every week.”

With a full slate of amateur tournaments on his 2008 schedule, the future Oklahoma State Cowboy will take the winter to learn from his mistakes, with scorecards to remind him of his lows, and a Rolex Junior Player of the Year trophy to remind him of his highs.