At the time of writing this, there is room for 2 boys in the Boys First Flight and 2 girls in the Girls Championship Flight.

We hope to see you there.

Both organizations have had many great and unique ideas that we have tried to put forth in our tournaments.  Due to the timing of this decision, it has been decided to follow the model that the NCGA Junior Tour has used for 2011.  Since this model is new to many of you, I wanted to let you know everything you need to know about entering and playing in these tournaments.

Who can play?

The JTNC is open to any junior who meet the following requirements:

• 18 Years of age or younger
• Has not started college
• Has an NCGA membership
• Has established  a valid USGA Handicap Index
• Has become a member of the Junior Tour of Northern California

How are the tournaments structured?

All tournaments are 36-hole, two-day tournaments.  As opposed to the NCPGA Junior Tour, the JTNC flights players by ability rather than age.  There are two flights for boys and two flights for girls.  With the exception of our tournament at Oakmont Country Club in Santa Rose, boys with a Handicap Index at the time of entry of 5.4 or lower play in the Championship Flight.  Boys who have an Index of 5.5 or higher play in the First Flight.  For Girls, the dividing line is 7.4/7.5.   At Oakmont, the dividing line will be 7.4/7.5 for both boys and girls.

In general, the Boys Championship Flight will play courses in the 6200-7000 yard range.  The Boys First Flight and the Girls Championship Flight will usually play courses in the 5700-6100 yard range and the Girls First Flight will usually play the Forward set of tees.  Unfortunately, this makes things difficult for the younger players who might not hit the ball quite far enough yet.  Last year, the NCPGA implemented the I-Tour for these players.  With the high demand anticipated for these tournaments, we apologize that we will not be able to have an equivalent to the I-Tour in 2011.  We do hope to have tournaments in the future for players who are younger.

How do I become an NCGA member?

If you are not already an NCGA member, there are many ways to become a member.

The best way to do this is through the NCGA Foundation’s Youth on Course (YOC) program.  There are two ways to become a YOC member.  The first way is to go to a location that is a certified Youth on Course program.  You can find this list at the here.  The second way is to go through our online program.  To learn more about the online program, click here or go to the NCGA Foundation website at http://www.ncgafoundation.org.   Once you a Youth on Course member, you can take advantage of the reduced green fees at over 100 courses in Northern California.

If Youth on Course doesn’t seem like the right program for you, you can find out about other programs by going to the NCGA home page http://www.ncga.org and clicking on the Join Now button on the home page.

When you become a member, you will receive a GHIN number.  This is sometimes also referred to as your NCGA Member Number.  It is the key to getting a handicap.

If you have been a member of the NCGA before, make sure you use the same GHIN member number you had before to ensure that any scores you had previously posted are carried forward with you.

If you are unsure if you have an active membership at this point, go to http://www.ncga.org/handicaplookup/ and put your GHIN number in the box.  If it shows your scoring record, your membership is active.  If there is a handicap index shown, you can skip the next step.

How do I establish a USGA Handicap Index?

A USGA Handicap Index is essential to playing on the Junior Tour of Northern California as it is what we use to determine which flight you will play in.  In order to establish a Handicap Index, you must first become an NCGA Member.  Then, you must post at least five (5) scores.  Once you have posted the scores, your handicap index will become valid at the next Handicap Revision.  Handicap Revisions happen on the 1^st and 15^th of each month.  Until your Handicap is valid, you will not be able to register for a tournament.

If you had a handicap index before and use the same GHIN number as before when you got your new membership, your old scores will be kept and used.

How do I become a member of the Junior Tour of Northern California?

To become a member of the JTNC, you need to first establish an account on the NCGA’s Tournament Registration site.  To do this, go the NCGA Junior webpage at http://www.ncga.org/juniors.  In the middle of the page, you will see an area titled Register for a Tournament.  Under there is a link titled New Players.  Click on this link and you will be taken to a screen where you can enter your GHIN number and Last Name.  Do that and click on Register.  If you haven’t established your GHIN number yet, you can still do this, but you won’t be able to enter any tournaments.

Fill in the fields on the next screen.  Any field in Yellow must be filled in before registration can be completed.  When you are filling this in, you can pick a user name and password that you will remember.

Once you have created your account, you can use the Returning Players link on the Junior page to enter the system.

Now that you are logged into the system, you will see a series of menu items down the left side of the screen.  At the bottom of hit list, just above the Logout link is one titled Program Signup.  Click on it.

You will see three membership programs listed. One of them is titled “Junior Tour of Northern California Membership”.  To the left of it should be a small box.  Check that box and then click on the “Register” button at the top.  This will take you through the process of registering, during which you will be asked to put in a credit card number to pay the $40 fee.

Because this notice is being sent so close to the first tournament of 2011, we will not require that JTNC membership be taken out to play at Stockton/Brookside.  You should still join as soon as possible so that you won’t have a problem in the future.

Now that I’m all signed up, how to I register for a tournament?

You will sign up for tournaments in the same system you just used to become a JTNC member.  Click on the Returning Players link on the Junior page.  When you log on to the system, you will see a schedule of tournaments.  The default schedule is the NCGA’s regular tournament schedule.  To see the schedule of Junior events find the Season box in the middle of the screen (just below the button that says “Register for Selected Events”).  Click in the Season box.  You will see a number of possible selections.  Select the one labeled “2011 NCGA Junior Tournaments”.  The list of tournaments will change to show you all the Junior Tournaments, including the JTNC tournaments.

Any tournament that is open for you to register for will have a check box next to it.  To register, click that box and then click the Register for Selected Events button above.

Before you go too far, there is something you should know about tournament registration.  There are two periods of registration.  The first is called the Pre-Registration period.  This is the dates you will see listed under Entries Accepted on this screen until the day General Registration opens.  Pre-Registration is open to players who have won an NCGA Junior tournament, an NCPGA E-Tour tournament or anyone who wins a JTNC tournament.   Pre-registration runs for one year from the date of their victory.  Pre-registration runs from Friday at 8AM until Sunday at 8PM.

General or Open registration starts at 8AM on the Monday after pre-registration unless that day is a national holiday in which case it will open on Tuesday.  At 8AM on Monday, the box will be visible.  If you go there before 8AM you will need to hit Refresh on your browser to see the box.

Again, check the box and then click on Register for Selected Events.

To determine the dates that tournaments open for general registration, you should go to our schedule by clicking on the 2011 Schedule on the Juniors webpage.

How does registration work?

Due to the popularity of some NCGA Junior Tour tournaments in 2010, a system was introduced to give all players a chance to get into the tournament even if they can’t be online at 8AM on Monday morning.  This system will be continued in 2011.

After the entries used by pre-registrants are deducted, the remainder of the available entries is divided in half.  The first half is on a first-come/first-serve basis starting at 8AM.  Once these spots are used, all entries are placed on a waiting list.  At 8AM on the morning after registration opens, we will look at how many players have entered.  If there is room for all these players, they will be moved into the field.  If there are more players than can be accommodated, a lottery will be conducted to select the players who get into the tournament.  The remaining players will be placed on a waiting list in the order that their entries were received.  You can read about the entire process at this page.

If you have any more questions about this or anything else regarding the Junior Tour of Northern California, please feel free to call the Tony or John at the NCGA offices.  We can be reached from 8AM to 5PM at 831-625-4653.

We look forward to meeting you in 2011.

Thank you,

John Vander Borght
Manager, Junior Tour of Northern California

Casie is also the Girl’s Player of they Year.  The Boys Player of the Year is Andrej Bevins.  Each of them earns an AJGA Performance Based Exemption.  The final Girl’s and Boy’s Points Lists are now on line.

Other awards handed out at the awards ceremony after the championship were:

• Top 12-13 year old girl – Hannah O’Sullivan – AJGA Junior All Star Exemption
• Top 12-13 year old boy – Justin Suh – AJGA Junior All Star Exemption
• Girls Championship Flight Lowest Scoring Average – Casie Cathrea – 72.71
• Boys Championship Flight Lowest Scoring Average – Jonathan De Los Reyes – 73.17
• Girls First Flight Lowest Scoring Average – Mabel Wong – 76.83
• Boys First Flight Lowest Scoring Average – Matthew Stanners – 77.17
• Girls Spring Series Points Winner – Casie Cathrea – 900 Points
• Boys Spring Series Points Winner – Byrson Dechambeau – 687.5 Points
• Girls Summer Series Points Winner – Samantha Moyal – 700 Points
• Boys Summer Series Points Winner – Jaskaran Sihota – 450 Points
• Girls Fall Series Points Winner – Paige Lee – 625 Points
• Boys Fall Series Points Winner – Andrej Bevins – 862.5 Points

There were also drawings for a Paula Creamer autographed visor and a Tiger Woods autographed Junior Tour hat along with a number of boxes of Titleist golf balls.

In the Boy’s race, Andrej Bevins picked up a few points on Bryson DeChambeau with a 10th place tie vs. DeChambeau’s 12th place finish to virtually lockup the award.  He is now 455 points ahead of DeChambeau.  For Bryson to win Player of the Year, he would have to win while Bevins finished outside the top 15. Boys Points List

Players have until 9 PM tonight to enter the Tour Championship.

On the boy’s side, two boys have a chance to win the Player of the Year.  Andrej Bevins strong second half of the season has enabled him to take a 442 point lead over Bryson DeChambeau.  Both players are entered in the final events.  A strong showing by Bevins this week could wrap things up, but DeChambeau still has a very good opportunity to close the gap and overtake Andrej at the Tour Championship.

The girl’s race is even tighter.  Casie Cathrea currently leads on the strength of six victories this year and a victory in the CWAC Women’s Amateur.  Mariko Tumangan’s win last week along with her victory at the Northern California Junior Player’s Championship and a runner-up finish at the CWAC Junior have moved her within 175 points of Cathrea.  Samantha Moyal is only 335 points behind Cathrea based on wins at the NCGA Junior Championship and at the Junior Tour’s tournament at Metropolitan.  Moyal and Tumangan are both entered in this week’s Junior Tour tournament at Poppy Ridge.

Crawford qualified at Fort Washington Golf  & Country Club in Fresno with a score of 136, surviving a 3 for 2 playoff.  The San Mateo Daily Journal has an excellent article on Matt.

Galletti qualified at El Macero Country Club in El Macero with a 138.

Two more US Amateur qualifiers will be held next Monday.

She parred the next three holes and moved to one up as Morales bogied 13.  She finished with birdies at 16 and 17 to win the match.

Tumangan, who was seeded 5th after stroke play, will face the #4 seed Gyeol Park in the quarterfinals.  Park from Korea also qualified at the Mira Vista Country Club in El Ceritto in June.

Tumangan’s success at the US Girls Junior has given her a strong lead in the race for NCGA Junior Tour Player of the Year.

The medalist, Danielle Kang, continued her roll with a 5 & 3 victory over Pacific Grove’s Haley Andreas.

All three will face tough opponents this afternoon.  Andreas will be playing the medalist Danielle Kang from Thousand Oaks this afternoon, while Tumangan plays Nicole Morales from South Salem, NY.  Garrick will play Gavin Hall from Pittsfield, NY who shot a 62 in the second round of stroke play qualifying.

Bryson DeChambeau was defeated in his morning match at the Junior, while Brenna Nelsen and Grace Na also lost at the Girls Junior.