Golfweek

The 72 girls who make it into the field at the Kathy Whitworth Invitational (to be played March 15-17) each year get more than just a few days of excellent golf at Mira Vista Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. With Whitworth roaming the grounds as tournament host, players can’t help but leave with a little more understanding of the history of women’s golf than when they arrived.

One of the best parts of participating in the tournament might be listening to Whitworth speak at the tournament banquet. And you’d better believe story time with Whitworth isn’t all serious.

The 88-time LPGA winner said she likes to share a few of the lessons she’s learned along the way, but also tries hard to come up with good stories to tell. Her favorite involves Jack Nicklaus, Dottie Pepper and a can of hairspray.

As Whitworth tells it, several years ago she was invited to Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial tournament as his honoree. When Dottie Pepper introduced her, Pepper mentioned something Whitworth had never known about herself.

“I was totally unaware of it, but she said, ‘We used to know that if Whit’s hair moved, it was ...

I’ll go out on a limb here and say that this year’s Junior Ryder Cup, thanks to some long-awaited cohesion, will be closer than the last one.

The United States won 22-2 in 2008 in Kentucky, remember, with Europe winning only one match outright.

It was a bit of a mess, and pretty symbolic of the way the event has gone since the PGA of America decided to officially take on the “Junior Ryder Cup” moniker in 2002.

A little history lesson: The PGA conducted the “The Junior Match” for the first time in 1995, before outsourcing it to the American Junior Golf Association for the 1997 and 1999 events. (The Junior Ryder Cup, like the Ryder Cup, was postponed in 2001 to the following year because of 9/11.)

What’s been the problem? Consistency, if not communication.

In other words, one team has been stacked heavily against the other three out of the last four matches, leading to about as much drama as most of the real Ryder Cups have given us of late (not counting that last time out, of course).

Here’s why:

• Before the 2006 matches – which ended in a 6-6 tie, the ...

Two more junior events are the in the books, and the race among Golfweek staffers to become the Junior Golf guru continues. This week’s results put Eric Soderstrom way ahead of the pack.

Eric Soderstrom (150): Picked up a total of 100 points this week after choosing the winners for both events. He picked up 50 each from Victoria Tanco at the Annika Invitational and Bobby Wyatt at the HP Boys Championship at Carlton Woods.

Dan Mirocha (65): Earned 30 points off Jordan Spieth’s runner-up finish, and five more from Stephanie Meadow, who was T-15.

Julie Williams (15): Earned her only five points this week from Emiliano Grillo’s T-11. Julie earned no points from Yueer Cindy Feng, who withdrew from the Annika Invitational because of illness.

Scoring: Win (50 points), runner-up (30 points), top-5 (20 points), top-10 (10 points), top-20 (5 points). Zero points for anything outside the top 20. Bonus points when specified. (Only rule: You can’t pick the same player two consecutive weeks.)

REUNION, Fla. – To hear Mariah Stackhouse tell it, the invitation she received to the LPGA’s Mojo 6 tournament in Jamaica is one of the highlights of her career so far. Stackhouse, a 15-year-old Riverdale, Ga., native, told the story of how she found out about the first LPGA start of her career after completing her round at the AJGA Annika Invitational.

Stackhouse was supposed to be presenting the USGA State Team Championship trophy (which she helped Georgia secure in September) to her high school earlier this month, but knew something was up when a larger-than-expected crowd, TV cameras and Olympic swimmer Ed Moses showed up.

“That really threw me off,” she said of Moses’ appearance. “I was like, why is there a swimmer here? I’m a golfer.”

Enter Christina Kim with a bouquet of flowers and the Mojo 6 invitation in her hand to get Stackhouse really fired up.

“She came to the back door and my mouth fell open because I didn’t expect her to show up and that was enough,” Stackhouse said.

The moment was made even more special since Kim is one of Stackhouse’s three favorite players on the LPGA tour (she’s ...

Anthony Paolucci had a reason to get fired up Friday at the HP Boys Championship at Carlton Woods before the tournament even started.

Paolucci, who recently gave a verbal commitment to USC for the fall of 2011, was paired with baseball great Roger Clemens in Friday’s Junior-Am. While not a huge baseball fan, Paolucci welcomed the opportunity to play with the former pitcher, and enjoyed hearing him tell baseball stories throughout the round and joke about sports superstitions (Paolucci reports that Clemens is not one to practice them).

“It was just a really good experience,” he said. “He had so many great stories he told us from baseball.”

According to Paolucci, Clemens – who is a member at Carlton Woods – can hold his own on the golf course.

“He hit some really good drives and shots. He was the best amateur in our group,” Paolucci said. “Definitely not a hacker, a good solid player.”

The round marked the first time Paolucci has played golf with a celebrity, even though the 17-year-old said he knew Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo when he used to live in Dallas (Paolucci recently moved to Del Mar, Calif.).

“Everyone knows who Roger Clemens is, so ...

It’s a big weekend in junior golf as the AJGA hosts the HP Boys Championship at Carlton Woods and the Annika Invitational for girls. The Golfweek staffers have made their junior fantasy picks for both events:

Eric Soderstrom (50 points): Bobby Wyatt. It took pretty much everything in me to not go with a Texan here, specifically Jordan Spieth or Cory Whitsett, but there is recent proof that Wyatt’s game is on. See last week’s Jones Cup, where Wyatt finished fifth in a stacked field full of highly-ranked collegiates and amateurs – in horrible, horrible weather. Look for him to better that T-3 he had last year.

Victoria Tanco. She lost here by four shots last year, and that after a first-round 78. She followed with rounds of 75-71, the final round coming in as the best of the day. Also of note should be her 2009 finishes in AJGA invitationals: T-6, Annika Invitational; T-7, Thunderbird; T-7, Rolex Girls; 1st, Rolex Tournament of Champions; T-12 Betsy Rawls; 2nd, Ping Invitational. She will contend.

Dan Mirocha (30 points): Jordan Spieth. He was stung by a close call at the HP last year, and won’t let it slip away ...

After the first Junior Fantasy event of the 2010 season, Eric Soderstrom is in familiar territory: at the top. Thanks to a second-place finish by Alexis Thompson, Dan Mirocha also got off to a solid start. Julie Williams managed only 10 points to start the year in third.

Eric Soderstrom: Earned 20 points from Justin Thomas’ T-3, and 30 more from a second-place finish by Alexis Thompson for a total of 50 points.

Dan Mirocha: Picked up 30 points from Alexis Thompson’s second-place, but earned no points from Austin Cody, who was T-40.

Julie Williams: Earned 5 points each from Ian McConnell (T-20) and Jessica Korda (T-14).

Scoring: Win (50 points), runner-up (30 points), top-5 (20 points), top-10 (10 points), top-20 (5 points). Zero points for anything outside the top 20. Bonus points when specified. (Only rule: You can’t pick the same player two consecutive weeks.)

It’s that time of year again: Junior Fantasy season. Golfweek staffers are making their first picks of the year for the Verizon Junior Heritage:

Eric Soderstrom (last year’s winner): Justin Thomas. While part of me wanted to pick James Back because of all the possible puns considering his surname and my 2009 Junior Fantasy victory, I like Thomas for reasons other than entertainment: Thomas, last year’s Footjoy Boys champion who also made the cut at the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship, recently committed to Alabama, which always takes a load off; he finished T-4 here last year and was one of only four players to break 70; and he doesn’t seem to have many junior events left in his career. So I’ll take him while I can.

Alexis Thompson. It would be daft to start the year out any other way, so look for her to go... back-to-back. There, I said it.

Dan Mirocha: I’m busting out the big guns for the first event of 2010 with Austin Cody, who finished T-7 at the Junior Players Championship, and Alexis Thompson, who hasn’t finished lower than third in her last five tournaments and won ...

Richard Werenski has joined the roster at Georgia Tech, making the jump to college golf a semester early. He will be eligible for competition next fall.

Werenski graduated from the Heritage Academy in Hilton Head Island, S.C., in the fall, where he also attended the Hank Haney International Junior Golf Academy. He is originally from South Hadley, Mass.

Ranked No. 16 in the Golfweek/Titleist Junior Rankings for the class of 2010, Werenski played in the 2008 U.S. Junior, advancing to the Round of 32, and qualified for the 2009 U.S. Amateur. He had two top-10 finishes in amateur events in 2009 (eighth at the Terra Cotta Invitational and T-4 at the New England Amateur).

Another top junior player, Oliver Schniederjans, the Georgia Junior Player of the Year, has verbally committed to Georgia Tech for the fall of 2011.

Over the past decade, I have seen the business of recruiting news explode within the worlds of college football and basketball, not to mention the Internet. However, when it comes to golf I have seen very little other than the simple announcements of which players have signed at which school come NCAA signing period.

People involved in college golf recruiting want more. And with the recent launch of Recruiting Extra to golfweek.com, we will bring you more.

Now when a player makes an verbal commitment, the plan is to give you more than the name of the player and where they plan to play their college golf. We want to let you know why that player may have chosen that particular school, what other schools they were interested in and maybe even a quote from that player on their decision. You might also find information such as which schools a top recruit has narrowed their list or has recently made an unofficial or official visit to a school.

You will be able to find Recruiting Extra (Boys and Girls) on both the Junior and College sections of golfweek.com.

And be sure to e-mail us any information, commitments or ...

Every time Bob Hope Classic winner Bill Haas held his follow-through for a few extra seconds last weekend, he made a statement for junior golf. A close look at his right shirt sleeve revealed the logo for the Future Collegians World Tour, a junior tour that hosts tournaments across the country.

The FCWT claims PGA Tour up-and-comers like Rickie Fowler and Jamie Lovemark as alumni, but Haas isn’t on that list. His connection to the junior tour is through executive tournament director Jonathan Hopson, who loops for Haas every now and then (dating back to when Haas was playing on sponsor exemptions at the beginning of his career). Hopson was on the bag when Haas and his dad, Jay, won the CVS Charity Classic in 2004.

Haas and Hopson became friends while Haas was playing for Wake Forest from 2000-04. Hopson, who also played at Wake Forest in the mid ’90s, was a volunteer assistant for the Deacons at the time.

“We’ve just been really good friends, I’ve caddied for him probably 20 times,” Hopson said.

Hopson said that in years past, Haas has been paid to sport the logo, but this year he’s doing it ...

Anthony Paolucci, No. 14 in the Golfweek/Titleist Junior Rankings, recently made a verbal commitment to USC. Paolucci will join the Trojans in the fall of 2011.

Paolucci, the runner-up at the 2007 U.S. Junior, is ranked sixth in the Class of 2011. Paolucci recently moved to Del Mar, Calif., after living in Dallas, where he was good friends with fellow Dallas resident Jordan Spieth, the 2009 U.S. Junior champ and No. 1 player in the Golfweek/Titleist Junior Rankings. Spieth is also a member of the Class of 2011.

Despite the holiday season being in full swing, junior golf is still going strong in the South, and Oliver Schniederjans is still riding his streak of solid play.

The Polo Golf Junior Invitational champion got another victory at the Jones Cup Junior Invitational Dec. 22. Schniederjans, 16, shot 1-under 209 (71-66-72) at Sea Island Golf Club’s Seaside Course in St. Simons Island, Ga., and won by 10 shots. Schniederjans now has an exemption to play in the Jones Cup Feb. 4-7, an event featuring amateurs from around the world.

Schniederjans, who also received Junior Player of the Year honors from the Georgia State Golf Association after winning the Georiga Public Links Sept. 13, has verbally committed to Georgia Tech for the fall of 2011. He is ranked No. 16 in the Golfweek/Titleist Junior Rankings.

In other junior tournament news, Ian McConnell, ranked No. 28 in the Golfweek/Titleist Junior Rankings, also found success Dec. 22 at the Innisbrook Christmas Junior, played at the resort’s Copperhead Course in Palm Harbor, Fla. McConnell shot 8-over 221 (76-73-72) to win by one shot. In the girls’ division, Heather Proctor shot 16-over 229 (74-80-75) to win by two shots.

Farther south ...

Emiliano Grillo is making a serious case for a top ranking in the junior golf standings. Only he’s not stating his case against fellow juniors. He’s doing it against the pros.

After firing a blemish-free 5-under 67 Friday, Grillo, currently ranked No. 2 in the Golfweek/Titleist Junior Rankings, is alone atop the leaderboard at the Tour of Americas’ Open de Argentina with a two-day score of 7-under 137. That’s right. The junior amateur is alone in the lead, ahead of 126 pros including current Masters champion Angel Cabrera.

Not bad for a 17-year-old.

This is the second week in a row Grillo has competed in a Tour of Americas event in his native Argentina. Last week, the Buenos Aires native finished 11th in the Argentina Masters with a score of 3-over 287. This week he’s outdone even himself.

He didn’t make a bogey during his second-round 67 and has made 10 birdies in two days. In his last six rounds he’s shot over par once (a second-round 74 in the Argentina Masters), has played the par-5s in 11 under without a single bogey and hasn’t suffered any major meltdowns (he’s made ...

Emiliano Grillo beat a PGA Tour winner and a two-time major champion on Sunday. No joke. The 17-year-old super-junior from Argentina took on the pros and beat nearly all of them.

Grillo played in the Tour of Americas’ Argentina Masters and finished 11th at 3-over 287. He beat 119 pros including Andres Romero and Eduardo Romero, who finished T-15 and T-26 respectively. In Argentina – where all three are from and the tournament was played – this is a big deal.

Both Eduardo and Andres are nationally known athletes. “El Gato,” (the cat) as Eduardo is known, was welcomed home as a national hero after his 2008 U.S. Senior Open triumph. He also won the ’06 Jeld-Wen Tradition and the '06 Argentina Masters. Andres has been in the national spotlight since placing third at the ’07 British Open. He also has a PGA Tour win to his credit (the 2008 Zurich Classic) and a loyal fan club.

With this performance, it might be time to start the Emiliano Grillo Fan Club.

With every swing of the club Grillo continues to impress, and the Buenos Aires native doesn’t need his recent jump from No. 4 to No. 2 in the Golfweek ...