BOLINGBROOK, IL. Jordan finishes The Rolex in the top third of the field and gets invited to The RLX Ralph Lauren Jr. Classic at Beth Page Black. (Click for pics and details).

These last few weeks for Jordan can only be described as a whirlwind and yesterday afternoon took it all up to a new level. In Steven’s Point at The Rolex she ended the tournament shooting 72-72-72 putting her in a four way tie for 25th place in the top one third of what the AJGA brass explained was “The deepest field of year” of one of the majors of Junior Golf. These were amongst the top Jr. Golfers on the planet. Just being there was a privilege for B. Playing three back to back par rounds on a championship level course rated at close to 79 (meaning her differential for each round was about -7) was a fantastic accomplishment.

We have been getting bombarded with questions about the rankings and what this all means for Jordan so we will try to explain it a bit. It is a terribly complicated system to understand and much of our early education came from Yirong (Danny) Zheng to whom we will be forever grateful. As B is only in her 5th year as a competitive golfer we have had to learn really really quickly which tournaments to put Jordan in to be able to grow and advance. Most importantly, all tournaments are NOT created equally. There are three components for each tournament that will contribute to the rankings; 65% is based on the difficulty of the course and the players score in that calculation. 25% is based on the strength of the field, and only 10% is based on what place the player comes in. What this means in simple terms is that if a player only plays “easy” tournaments against weak opponents on easy golf courses and wins every time they can have a much much lower ranking then someone who consistently finishes last in the most difficult and competitive tournaments.

The problem is that it is almost impossible to get into the higher ranked tournaments until you have won the lower ones. (Think chicken and the egg). To further complicate matters, The AJGA only allows players to play in 5 opens a year (invitationals are unlimited but Extremely difficult to get into as they are what they sound like, Invite only) and to get into those “regular” five opens it is by ranking for a very limited number of spots. Some tournaments that Jordan applied for had only 32 spots for girls and the application lists were often in the hundreds. This forces the newer or lower ranked players to travel to the ends of the earth just to try to get to play in anything. For B, it meant going to the remotest parts of Missiouri, Arkansas, Bermuda (in January during a tropical storm), Western PA, Canada, Alabama just to name a few. All of this so that she could hopefully climb in the rankings to be able to play in better tournaments that had more value.

The AJGA says that they are after the top 15% of the young players and getting into any of their “opens” requires the player to be in that 15%. Getting into the “Invitationals” requires the player to be ranked in the very top of that group. According to Rolex, there are over 65,000 ranked Junior Golfers at any one time. The Junior Golf Scoreboard cover 10,000-11,000 of those. Rolex ranks approximately 2500 of those and breaks it down by overall ranking, (anyone who is not yet 19 is considered a junior) and by class year. Those rankings are released every Tuesday at 2Am and I can promise you there are many alarms set each week for that time. This past Tuesday, for the class of 2025, for the very first time, Jordan broke into the top 25 in the world at #24. This was a major milestone for her.

Ok, hope that was helpful, so now let’s go back to yesterday. Jordan completed her final round of the Rolex and loved every minute of it. Every one of these players was extraordinarily accomplished and will either play D1 golf or choose to bypass university and turn professional. Many already have significant endorsement deals and most have been playing since they were 4 or 5 years old. Jordan can be very proud of her top 25 of 72 player finish in this one and it should further improve her ranking.

So, after lunch yesterday Jordan took an hour to pack up her room from 5 days at SenturyWorld have a quick shower then meet dad to pack the car for the 4 hour drive back to Bolingbrook where she will tune up with Coach Carl Rabito today after a great sushi dinner last night and lights out by 9:30. Twenty minutes into that journey she got a call from the tournament director of the RLX Polo Ralph Lauren Invitational (run by the AJGA) that will be taking place at the storied Beth Page Black golf course in Farmingdale Long Island this week offering her a spot as she was on the alternate list which she excitedly accepted. This tournament only has 32 girls so being asked to play in it is a “HUGE DEAL” as Coach Carl likes to say. In fact, it is so important that Jordan will withdraw from her qualifier for the PGA Jr. Championship that she was supposed to play Monday and Tuesday at Hampshire Country Club in Mamaroneck to play this. She will instead seek an exemption from the PGA when they vote on such things next month. A big thank you to our friends Ken and Jessica Berkowitz, members of Hampshire who had invited Jordan to play with them on Saturday. As we keep saying, it takes a village and Ken and Jessica are part of Jordan’s village.

As for Bethpage, B has some history there on mostly the Red Course, never the black. (The Black Course is one of those “Bucket List” spots for most golfers. It is where the Ryder Cup will be held in August. ) Jordan had her very first win in golf at Bethpage Red on June 5th of 2022 with our friend Mark Stewart in attendance.

B and Mark on the day of her very first win in golf

That very first championship trophy…not even three years ago.

Funny enough, this was exactly 4 years ago today, at Bethpage before another tournament. B is with her Grandfather, Papa Selwyn.

Back to the present, but first some final scenes from yesterday at the Rolex….

warming up yesterday as the sun came up

putting

iconic SenturyWorld

Only players behind the ropes

A great shot into the green. Would be one of Jordan’s Birdies yesterday

Jordan’s really nice group yesterday

Tonight Jordan flies back to Westchester where SuperMom will pick her up from the airport at almost midnight and begin to unpack and wash from a full 9 days that Jordan has been on the road on this leg of her summer tour. No sooner will the stuff come out of the washing machine then it will have to go back into the cases as she leaves with the B on Sunday for Bethpage where she will head up Jordan’s cheering section for the week.

The format for this event will be Match Play. Below is an explanation for how it works and the schedule for the week.

That’s all for now. Thank you for following and all of the really great questions, comments, words of encouragement texts, emails, phone calls and positive energy. It means the world to Jordan and the rest of us. Could not happen without so many doing so much.