After 4 rounds at Torrey Pines, Jordan finishes the Junior World Championship Tournament at +4 for 72 holes. She finished in 35th place of 160 girls 15-18.

Lets start by stating that this was Jordan’s very first 72 hole tournament. It was at Torrey Pines, a place steeped in US Open history and is on almost every golfer’s bucket list to play at least once in their lifetime. B today played her 6th round in as as many days. She played two practice rounds and four rounds in competition against tournament hardened opponents who are amongst the best in the world. When the dust settled, after all the blood sweat and tears, Jordan would best 135 of them. Her scores, including the practice rounds were 74-73-74-75-68-75. That is an average of just +1 per round for 6 rounds and with the course rating of 73.8. This means that her differential was negative. (Negative differential is actually good, kind of like parr on a curve like you used to have in math class).

Yesterdays final round, the one that only the top 40 got to play was unremarkable for Jordan after her day 3 superstar performance. She shot +3. The remarkable part is that this score is no longer remarkable. Had you asked Jordan just six weeks ago if she would be happy with shooting 3 over par at Torrey she would burst out laughing before saying, ”I would be ecstatic!” It is yet another sign of just how quickly her game is developing. SO, back to the round…She had 2 bogeys and a bird, +1 going into the final hole. In her quest to birdie the hole and end even on the day she got a bit aggressive and blasted the ball into the side of a bunker plugging it. It took her two shots to get it out, then the 2 putt for double bogey (only her second one of 6 rounds of golf). It was a day when her putts just refused to fall. As Jerry and Selwyn would attest, there were 6 birdie putts that would either stop at the edge or skip over the corner of the hole. It could have easily have been a -5 on the day but that is golf.

We have had a ton of questions about how the kids were chosen so will try to answer them. In the United States, there were 55 qualifiers. In addition, there were a number of international qualifiers. In total, more then 1200 attempted to win one of these coveted 160 spots to come and play at Torrey Pines. Jordan earned her spot at the Honda Junior Classic last February. This was a field made up of some of the very best the Junior Golf World has to offer. Jordan’s playing partner yesterday from the Philippians who is 18 years old and had the same first 3 day total score as Jordan going into yesterday’s final round is turned Pro in the fall. Many of the other are going D1 next month.

The cut for the final round last year was +7. This year it was +1. Jordan earned her right to be here and defended it with passion and courage. Of the 40 who made the final cut, Jordan was one of only 3 from the high school graduating class of 2025 to make it. Furthermore, she was the only 15 year old girl from the USA above the cut line making her the #1 US 15 year old finisher. Nobody that Jordan played a practice round with or played with in the first 3 rounds made the cut. Just to hammer home the point of the level of competition, see the picture below that shows which college coaches made the trip to see these athletes. Most if not all of the top 20 Division 1 schools were there.

Jordan returned to NY this morning on the red eye from San Diego. She has been forbidden to pick up a golf club today by both Coach Carl and coach Jerry. She will be forced to be a 15 year old kid, having friends over and watching a movie. Super Mom will have the daunting task of unpacking three large suitcases (the size your grandparents moved all of their worldly possessions from the old country in), doing six loads of laundry and putting it all back in the bags as she goes back on tour with B tomorrow for two weeks to compete in the AJGA Junior All Star at York beginning Sunday afternoon with the first practice round. Tournament is Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. At the conclusion they will head to Bollingbrook Illinois where Jordan will have a tune up with with Carl Friday afternoon and Saturday morning before they head to Urbana Il for another AJGA Junior All Star the following week before returning home to NY.

Once again a very special thank you to Jerry who spent the entire week in California with Jordan. Thank you also to gandpa Selwyn who watched all six of B’s rounds and cousin Linda who came from Santa Monica on Tuesday to watch the game.

That’s all for now. This has been the most exciting week yet on Jordan’s journey and a validation of how far she has come for her coaches, parents, but mostly for herself. We were again humbled this week by the texts, emails and phone calls of support. Please know how much they mean to us and keep them coming. Seldom do we get to respond to most but they are the fuel that keeps us going and this blogger writing.