HALEY’S COMET DUE TO HIT SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA DESERT

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By admin May 20, 2015 21:52

HALEY’S COMET DUE TO HIT SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA DESERT

CHAMPIONSHIP JUNIOR GOLF 

Moore, Haley (1) 

HALEY MOORE — 16-yr-old phenom made the cut at the 2014 ANA Inspiration. Watch her this month at Mission Hills.

 Highest Ranked Juniors Compete at Mission Hills This Month

by Chris Richards

 

Haley Moore (who has had as much impact as Halley’s Comet on the junior golf scene says GolfNewsMag.com publisher Dan Poppers) joined an elite group when she jumped into Poppie’s Pond after winning the 2014 ClubCorp Mission Hills Desert Junior. Like champions of the LPGA Tour’s ANA Inspiration, the winners of the AJGA tournament also take the jump and celebrate with a swim in the pond adjacent to the 18th green at famed Mission Hills Country Club’s Dinah Shore Tournament Course.

 

“My favorite memory will be jumping into Poppie’s Pond because the LPGA does it, so I felt like an LPGA player when I did it too,” said Moore, who won by two strokes with a 2-under-par 214 total.

 

The LPGA-feeling was back 10 months later in April, but this time it was because she was among more than 100 LPGA players. Moore won the ANA Inspiration Champions Junior Challenge and qualified to play in the ANA Inspiration, and even more than that, she shot rounds of 73-74-73-74 and was the only amateur to make the cut.

 

A rising senior at San Pasqual High School in Escondido, Moore will return to the Coachella Valley in hopes of defending her AJGA title this month, June 15-18, 2015. Conducted by the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA), the ClubCorp Mission Hills Desert Junior has been played at Mission Hills Country Club every year since 1982, making it the longest-running venue on the Association’s annual 113-tournament schedule.

 

Past champions include Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Cantlay, Kevin Na, Alison Lee, Jennifer Johnson, Kellee Booth and Grace Park, while hundreds of other participants have gone on to successful college and amateur careers.

 

The 2015 ClubCorp Mission Hills Desert Junior will feature 72 boys and girls, ages 12-18, over three days of stroke-play competition. The tournament field includes more than 50 of the best players from California, three Junior All-Americans, and 19 players who have committed to play college golf.

 

Jamie Cheatham of Rancho Santa Fe, California, carded a 5-under-par 211 total and won in a sudden death playoff in 2014, marking the 12th straight year the Boys Division was won by a Californian. A 2015 graduate of Torrey Pines High School, Cheatham has signed a National Letter of Intent with the Cal Berkeley Golden Bears.

 

In the Girls Division, Moore will try to become the first girl to win consecutive titles since Grace Park won in 1995 and 1996. Whether or not she wins, history will be made once again as two more players will celebrate with a jump into Poppie’s Pond in June.

 

AJGA champions (21)

JAMIE CHEATHAM and HALEY MOORE — ClubCorp Mission Hills Desert 2014 Junior champions.

 

admin
By admin May 20, 2015 21:52