sliceandhook

Your point is well taken, "phenom" is a strong word for local "great" junior players... I guess if the title of this thread would have used the word "great" golfer, then the names of Ko, Li, Wi, Zhang, Kim, Lee, Wu, Chen, Wang, etc. that dominate the conversation of girls junior golf would not appear. Do not get me wrong, there are "great" local girls junior golfers, but for every one local, there are three or four from other places... How the local "great" golfers can compete with these girls that play golf all over the world, with what it seems is with unlimited resources, and still maintain their school work and even their amateur status? Remember the Jutanugarn sisters? How Lydia Ko managed to play all those events? Lucy Li lives in California, but his coach is Jim McLean, who's academy is in Florida? Does the LPGA needs to take a look at this trend and try to help the local players?

Interesting thread, trying to predict if a teen girl will become a phenom in the future... read this thread a few months ago and waited to comment to see how the little one will score now that she is playing with the big girls. Looks like she started playing up (18 under) instead of her age group (13-15), and obviously longer distances. On a side note, it is amazing how this junior tours are being run nowadays, with all the records and stats of their performance. So by looking at her stats for this year, her scoring average went from 78 in 2013, to 73 in 2014. That is pretty good, and keep in mind that now she is playing longer (5800-6000) and with older girls. And with 7 out 13 rounds at even par or better, at least she could be classified as a scratch player... maybe of her way to