By Steve Ethun and Greg Smith
AJGA Communications Department

A large part of offering the complete “AJGA Experience” is finding high quality host venues and tournament courses. The 2005 season is no exception with 75 tournaments to be held at some of the country’s top golf courses. Some are widely recognized, while others are hidden gems.

Here’s a small sampling of the venues featured on the 2005 schedule.

Redstone Golf Club playes host to the PGA TOUR's Shell Houston Open and welcomes the AJGA for the first time in 2005.

Redstone Golf Club – The Jacobsen Hardy Course
Humble, Texas
Home of the PGA TOUR’s Shell Houston Open, Redstone Golf Club will be hosting its first AJGA event in June. The course, designed by Peter Jacobsen and Jim Hardy, will provide players with a true test.

Juniors will have an opportunity to maneuver around the same track that Vijay Singh has conquered the past two years. Along with its length, Redstone features more than five acres of wetlands and lakes surrounding the course. The Jacobsen Hardy’s strategic bunkering makes hitting the fairway a necessity.

Tournament Players Club at Southwind
Memphis, Tenn.
Another newcomer to the AJGA schedule, the TPC at Southwind is another PGA TOUR venue. The course will play host to the True Temper/David Gossett Junior Championship July 18-21. The TPC at Southwind will be a real treat for the juniors, while providing amazing views and challenging shots.

“The TPC at Southwind is another example of the high-quality venues the AJGA is drawn to,” Tournament Director Walker Hill said. “The course continues to improve as the host of the FedEx St. Jude Classic, and we are looking forward to our event this summer,” he added.

The club was recently renovated and clubhouse improvements are planned for 2005. The venue continues to improve itself and has earned legitimacy on the PGA TOUR. The large bunkers which dot the course are only a small part of the challenge the TPC at Southwind will provide.

Rich Harvest Farms
Sugar Grove, Ill.
For the second consecutive year, Rich Harvest Farms will play host to an AJGA event. The Fidelity Investments Junior Shootout at Rich Harvest will take place July 26-29. The home of the 2009 Solheim Cup is one of the most unique courses on the AJGA schedule. Ranked No. 45 on Golf Digest’s list of “America’s100 Greatest Golf Courses,” Rich Harvest Farms offers an experience almost unlike any other.

The course offers a variety of wide-open and tightly-guarded holes. Once players reach the greens they will be tested by their depth and the tough hole locations. The course rewards those who play cautious and punishes those who do not.

“This is an amazing venue, where an errant shot can lead to a world of trouble,” AJGA Tournament Director Andrew Greenfield said.

Built in 1995 and designed by owner Jerry Rich, Rich Harvest Farms is another top-notch facility on the AJGA schedule.

The Bridgewater Club in Carmel, Ind., will host the 2005 PING Junior Solheim Cup this September.

The Bridgewater Club
Carmel, Ind.
An event as unique and special as the PING Junior Solheim Cup deserves a venue to match. This Pete Dye gem is unique primarily because of its location. The course was constructed on a tree farm and is the perfect combination of traditional designs with modern amenities. Tournament participants will not only be left breathless by the landscape before them, but will find comfort in the facilities around them.

The lakes and thousands of trees that shape the course are entangled with babbling brooks that provide a challenge from start to finish.

There are so many top-quality venues that it is hard to highlight them all. Other courses the AJGA will make trips to in 2005 include:

Trophy Lake Golf & Casting, Port Orchard, Wash.
The Legend at Brandybrook, Wales, Wis.
Long Cove Club, Hilton Head Island, S.C.
Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge, Orlando, Fla.
Capital City Club – Crabapple Course, Alpharetta, Ga.
Kansas City Country Club, Mission Hills, Kan.
Tournament Players Club of Louisiana, New Orleans, La.

Click here for a complete look at the 2005 schedule.

In addition to these outstanding courses, many top players from the 2004 season will be back this summer. Being named a first-team Rolex Junior All-American is one thing, but to repeat separates the good from the great in the history of junior golf. Below are the 2004 first-teamers who hope to find their name on the list again in 2005.

Jon Curran, Hopkinton, Mass.
Curran recently signed a National Letter of Intent to play at Vanderbilt University after compiling three AJGA victories, the most recent coming at The Greater Hartford Jaycees Junior presented by St. Paul Travelers. In 2004, he also won the Scott Robertson Memorial and made a run to the semifinals of the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship. Curran was named a second-team Rolex Junior All-American in 2003 and was an honorable mention in 2002.

Philip Francis will look to break into the winner's circle in 2005 after a number of near-misses last year.

Amanda Blumenherst, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Blumneherst’s first AJGA victory came in 2002. In the interim she added nine more wins, including four in 2004 alone. She’s participated in multiple Canon Cups and Solheim Cups, and won her first AJGA Invitational last year (McDonald’s Betsy Rawls Girls Championship). In 2005, she will be looking to make the first team for the third consecutive year. She has signed a National Letter of Intent with Duke University.

Philip Francis, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Although Francis did not win in 2004, he was lingering at the tops of leaderboards all season. He finished in the top three four times (Scott Robertson Memorial, 3rd; Western Junior Amateur, 2nd; FootJoy Boys Invitational, T2; PING Phoenix Junior Championship, 2nd).

Esther Choe, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Another Scottsdale resident, Choe followed up the 2003 season, in which she was named an honorable mention Rolex Junior All-American, with another strong year filled with top finishes. She finished four AJGA events by placing fifth or better and won her division in the British Junior Open Championships.

Paul Haley, Dallas, Texas
Haley continues his solid play and comes into this year looking to add to his already impressive career numbers. With his eighth-place finish at this year’s PING Junior at The Woodlands, Haley now has nine top-20 finishes to his credit. Last year, the 2004 first-team Rolex Junior All-American picked up wins at the Dunlop Carolina Junior Championship and the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail Junior.

Julieta Granada, Asuncion, Paraguay
Granada will look to make the first team for the third consecutive year in 2005. She was named the Rolex Junior Player of the Year in 2005. In her career, she has won six AJGA tournaments. In 2004, she was crowned champion at the Rolex Girls Junior Championship and U.S. Girls Junior Championship.

Brian Harman, Savannah, Ga.
Although it has been reported that Harman will forgo junior golf this summer in order to focus on amateur events and qualifying for the Walker Cup, if/when he plays junior golf, he is the man to beat. If he were to be named Rolex Player of the Year in 2005, he would be the only boy other than Phil Mickelson to have the distinction of winning the award three times.

Mallory Hetzel, Summerville, S.C.
Hetzel is a three-time Rolex Junior All-American with two career AJGA victories, one in 2001 and another in 2004. She has finished in the top-10 18 times in national junior golf events. Hetzel has signed a letter of intent with the University of Georgia

Rory Hie, Lakewood, Calif.
This first-team Rolex Junior All-American had a breakout season in 2004. Hie began the year with a victory at the Heather Farr Classic. He would go on to win the Lennar Junior at Mission Hills, and finish second at both the Las Vegas Founders Junior Golf Championship and the Family Toyota/Family Honda Junior.

Tiffany Joh • San Diego, Calif.
This first-team Rolex Junior All-American had a breakout year in 2004, winning three events. Joh did not finish outside the top six in 10 AJGA events in 2004 and 2005. She has finished in the top 10 19 times in her AJGA career. In 2004 she was named to the HP Scholastic Junior All-America team. At the 2005 Australian Ladies Masters, she fired a 63 in the second round, a round that included a double-eagle. She has signed a letter of intent to play at UCLA.

Jennie Lee has already claimed one AJGA title in 2005, teaming with James Lee to win the I.R.I. Arizona National Mixed Team Championship hosted by Annika Sorenstam and Jim Furyk

Jamie Lovemark, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.
Lovemark won both the Rolex Tournament of Champions and the 87th Annual Western Junior Amateur in 2004. His rounds of 70-70-68--208 earned him a tie for third at the Lennar Junior at Mission Hills. He also finished tied for eleventh at this spring’s Heather Farr Classic.

Jennie Lee • Huntington Beach, Calif.
A three-time Rolex Junior All-American including a first-team appearance in 2004, Lee has five career AJGA victories, including the 2003 Polo Golf Junior Classic. She has racked up 27 top-10 finishes in national junior golf events and has had at least one tournament victory in national events every year since 2001. Lee will play college golf at Duke University with Blumenherst this fall.

In-Bee Park • Las Vegas, Nev.
A former Rolex Junior Player of the Year (2002), Park is a four-time Rolex Junior All-American, including appearances on the first team the past three years. She has compiled 11 career AJGA victories including the 2003 Rolex Tournament of Champions and the 2002 McDonald’s Betsy Rawls Girls Championship. She already has an AJGA victory under her belt in 2005, winning the Heather Farr Classic in March. A few weeks later, she finished fifth at the LPGA TakeFuji Classic.

Angela Park • Torrance, Calif.
Park is a two-time Rolex Junior All-American. She finished in the top-10 at all nine national junior events she played last year, with a win coming at the Westfield PGA Junior Championship.

Morgan Pressel • Boca Raton, Fla.
Pressel is a four-time Rolex Junior All-American who has earned first-team honors the past two years. She qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open in 2001 and is the youngest player (age 12) to do so. At the junior level, she notched four AJGA victories in 2004 to bring her career total to eight. In March, she finished tied for 19th at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, an LPGA Major and went on to tie for 19th at the Michelob ULTRA Open at Kingsmill in May.

Be sure to check out these great courses and watch the progress of these outstanding players as the summer of 2005 rolls along!