PALO ALTO, CA. Jordan is in California to compete in her very first AJGA INVITATIONAL.

Before we go into this tournament we need to close out the last one. For the first time since the blog began in 2020 there was no wrap up from a tournament. Apologies for the lack of communication. Life was just too hectic that week for the editorial staff and it got missed. We left off after day one in Gainesville with Jordan at a plus seven on the day in 9th place. Day 2 was a plus 5 moving her to 7th place. The final day, Jordan shot the day low score and tied the tournament low score shooting 70 to move her up to a 5th place finish overall. This is a par 70 course with a rating of 76 which means that her score was actually a -6 differential for the golfers among you, no easy task. The top 5 finish gives her EXEMPT status on the FJGT. Ok, now on to Stanford University…..

On January 10th Jordan received a letter from the AJGA informing her that she had earned an invitation to The 2025 Fortinet Stanford Invitational hosted by Rose Zhang at Stanford University February 14th to 17th. AJGA invitationals are considered the very pinnacle of Junior Golf world and are essentially the LPGA of those 18 and under. There is no applying to get into these. You are selected based on your performance and your standing

SuperMom did her usual incredible prep and packing job making all of this possible. Flights were booked, house was rented, car was reserved, practice rounds secured, restaurant reservations made, and B and Coach Carl focused on what is necessary to make sure she can perform at her peak. The course is almost 6300 yards and it plays long. It is hilly and complicated and plays into many of Jordan’s strengths. The ruff is very thick and unforgiving. As B said yesterday to dad, “The key here is to stay on the short stuff because being in the ruff is punishing.”

The staging

The final assembly

B arrived in San Francisco at 11pm Tuesday night and drove to Palo Alto and settled in. Wednesday she did homework shopped for food, and spent some time at The Stanford Driving range getting loose and pinging videos to Coach Carl to confirm the swing was in tact. An early sushi dinner followed by a slightly later Gluten free Vietnamese Bahn Mi and a scoop of ice cream rounded out the day with an episode of Yellowstone before bed. Extra couple of days are super important to get her acclimated to the time zone, the grass, and the weather.

Stanford Pro Shop at the driving range

Wednesday at the Range

Fit as a fiddle and ready for battle

Yesterday B woke up, made super healthy breakfast for her and dad, and off to first practice round. Over Wednesday evening and through Thursday it rained almost 2 inches. Wind was howling and rain was coming down in sheets. Jordan played the first three holes, 🐥1, a par five with an approach shot to 3 feet (video below). After the third hole Coach Carl threw in the proverbial towel from afar as that type of wind and rain can force the player to alter the swing. He made the decision that the damage that could do was much worse then the positives she would get from an extra practice round. Jordan has played this course three times in a past visit to Stanford and knows it well.

3rd shot of par 5 of hole one. Not able to upload the video, but it went in the hole for 🐥

crazy river running alongside the course

After leaving the course, Jordan went back to the house, put clothes in washing machine, hung all the wet stuff, dried all the clubs, and found an indoor facility to swing where she reserved and instructed her chauffeur (dad) on the location and time. 30 minutes is all it took to confirm that her swing was not in fact broken, then back to the house for more homework and a bit more Yellowstone, then out to an incredible Mediterranean (Jordanian) for dinner, then more Yellowstone and 830 to sleep. Today is another practice round, the official one, at 10:40 so leaving the house at 9.

Studying her stats at the Simulator

more from the sim

on the way in

Tomorrow’s T time for round one is 9:40am off of hole 10. Link to the live leaderboard is below for those that care to follow. Please remember that this is in California so she is three hours behind Eastern Standard time. A big thank you to David Sirkin who flew in from New Jersey last night to support Jordan and to keep dad company over the tournament.

https://www.ajga.org/tournaments/2025/the-fortinet-stanford-invitational-hosted-by-rose-zhang/leaderboard

link to the live leaderboard

That’s all for now. Again, we apologize for the incomplete blog from the last tournament. Thank you to all who followed up and asked about it anyway. Humbling for us the interest that B’s journey has generated with our friends and family. We are so incredibly grateful to have you along for the ride. Keep the texts and comments coming. Jordan certainly enjoys them as do we all.

What happens when you let the “Hangry” 17 year old order for the table.