Adams, Fox, Bednar & Madsen earn Junior Player of the Year honors

SUMMER FUN ON THE NENY PGA JUNIOR CIRCUIT By John Craig

You are invited to view John’s photo album:    The Edison Club -Aug 15, 2009 by John
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Four Junior golfers made the most of their summer vacation and the Junior Golf Tournament run by the Northeastern New York PGA. Jessica Madsen, Victor Fox, Stephanie Bednar and Seth Adams all won their respective age divisions to take “Player of the Year” honors. Each solidified their titles by winning the JGT’s final event, the Championship, on Saturday, August 15. Golfers earn points for each appearance and bonus points for where they finish. The top players in each division faced off at The Edison Club, playing the middle nine (10-18) par-36 first and then the front nine (1-9) par-36.
MADSEN WINS GIRLS 13-15

Jessica Madsen, 15, missed the first tournament of the summer but still charged on to win her division.
“I made them up throughout the year and snuck into first,” she said. In the final event, the Slingerlands resident shot 40-44 and cruised to a seven stroke victory. Sarah Adamowski of Amsterdam (45-46) was second. Rachel Murphy (49-49) was third.

“I could have made more putts,” Madsen said. “A lot of my putts were on the edge but shots into the green were pretty accurate.” Madsen played JV at Guilderland High School last year. The varsity lost five players over the summer so she feels she has a good shot at moving up a level next month.
“I’m hitting the ball pretty far,” she said.

Madsen is a member at Colonie Golf & Country Club and says this summer gave her a lot of confidence.
“It’s fun playing a tournament every week so you’re not just out there practicing every day and you don’t get that much competition,” she said. “And the tournaments are local so you don’t have to travel very far.”
She also had a smile on her face and “thanked” another 15-year old, Bailey Cocca, who moved up a division.
“I feel good,” Madsen said. “Bailey’s always been tough playing against her and with her moving up I get to win some tournaments and get player of the year. She’s always been a tough competitor.”

BEDNAR WINS GIRLS 16-18

Stephanie Bednar, 18, heads off for her freshman year at Central Connecticut State with a new piece of hardware after taking the points title. She shot 36-38 and beat Cocca by a stroke. Cocca, of Latham, who won the New York State Junior Girls Championship in Skaneateles Aug. 5, made a charge after shooting 40 for the first nine. She came back with a one-under 35 to put the pressure on. Lauren Kelleher of Queensbury (42-43) was third.

“We have a really good section, too, very competitive,” Bednar said. “Bailey and Macy [Raimo] are very good players. It was really good.” Bednar said she went into the seventh and final event with a lot of confidence.
Now she is getting a scholarship to play Division I golf at Central Connecticut where she’ll study business.
“The NENY Tour has helped me improve immensely,” she said. “It’s amazing how much my game has improved within two or three years.”

The Hudson High School graduate says she has a lot of great memories from the Summer of ’09. “The girls were great, I love them, I got really close with them,” she said. “It was fun.”

FOX REPEATS IN BOYS 13-15

Victor Fox, 14, of Delmar, only played four of the seven events but was always in the top three to rack up the points and win his division.

On Saturday, he entered the final event with a lead but had Aaron Simone of Niskayuna won, the two boys would have tied. At their seventh hole of the afternoon, Edison’s 16th, par-4, 368-yards, Simone stuck his approach shot to an inch from the cup and birdied while Fox made par. Then, on the par-5, 475-yard (17th, their eighth), Fox hit his tee shot out of bounds and Simone was down the middle.

Fox rallied and parred his ninth while Simone bogeyed. They went back and forth until the 15th hole. Then Simone bogeyed the final four holes to clear a path for the deliberate Fox.

“It was a good match and then Aaron started to fall apart and I kept my game going,” Fox said. Fox used four birdies and six bogeys to shoot 37-37 and win by three strokes over Matthew Parrottino (44-33) of Slingerlands. Simone (41-37) and Spencer Sautin (40-38) of Ballston Lake tied for third. Fox is, and will continue to be, the number one player on Bethlehem High School’s team.

“We lost a lot of seniors, 6 out of 9, so it’s going to be a tough year,” Fox said. Despite winning the NENY PGA JGT last year, he changed his grip in the off-season, going from a 10-finger to an interlocking. “I picked it up pretty quickly but it took a lot of golf balls,” he said.

Fox tied for third at the Albany County Amateur in early June, eight strokes behind the winner, Don DeNyse III. He will test his game again at the end of the month at the Shaker Ridge Invitational. “I love where I’m at right now,” Fox said. “I’m hitting the ball solid.”
ADAMS WINS BOYS 16-18

Seth Adams, 18, a senior-to-be at CBA from Schenectady, used a last minute putting lesson to help him in the JGT Championship. “I was putting badly,” said Adams, who spent just 20 minutes with his coach Peter Girard at Mill Road Friday afternoon. “It helped.”

Adams had all but wrapped up the NENY PGA JGT points win. He had a 130-point lead but if Kenny Hand of Queensbury won, he would have earned 150-points and if Adams finished last, he would have earned just 15. As it turned out, the exact opposite happened. Adams shot 39-36 on his home course for a three-over-par victory, beating Kyle Lewis (36-40) of Saratoga Springs, Jimmy Sullivan (38-38) of Troy and Zachary Meade (38-38) of Tupper Lake.  Hand (48-46) bogeyed the first five holes and Adams said he relaxed after that.

“I wanted to be the points leader,” said Adams, who finished third in the NENY PGA JGT last year. Adams played all seven JGT events and still found time to travel to Ohio for the Junior PGA Championship. There, he got a dose of reality, playing with the 15th ranked junior in the country. Adams shot 92-84.

“I didn’t play too good but it really helped watching those kids,” he said. During the first week of August, Adams felt his swing was a little loose – “I was struggling badly” – so he sought out Girard. “I took a lesson with Pete and then a couple days later I won the Gazette,” Adams said. He shot 69 at the Newspapers In Education Junior Tournament at Schenectady Municipal Golf Course.

One week later, at the Edison Club, Adams hit a tree on the sixth (his 15th), a par-4 430-yarder, and double-bogeyed. Meade parred and was up a stroke. It stayed that way until the green on the second to last. Both boys were on in three on the par-5, 550-yard hole but Meade three-putted and they were tied. On the final drive of the afternoon, Meade found the right hand fairway bunker off the tee and bogeyed. Adams parred for the one stroke win. Adams is the number one player at CBA and his goal to make states again. He won in a playoff last season. He expects his team to win the Big 10 with the stiffest competition coming from Schenectady.

“I wanted to win this,” Adams said. “I didn’t want to back in with the points.”

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