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2003 Awards

ATLANTA - The 2003 Atlanta Junior Golf Association Awards Banquet was held Sunday, October 12, 2003 at Druid Hills Golf Club in Atlanta.

Jennifer Adyorough, AJGA's 2003 Girl's Grand Champion, delivered the invocation and after the introductions of special guests, dinner was served.

This year's guest speaker, LPGA Tour rookie, former UGA player and former AJGA player Angela Jerman, addressed the guests, encouraging the juniors to set high goals for themselves and to work towards those goals, never giving up on what may seem like just a dream.

After Angela's address, awards were presented. The Overall Boys Grand Champion trophy was presented to Jonathan Visconti of Alpharetta, GA. Jennifer Adyorough of Smyrna, Ga. was presented with the Overall Girls Grand Champion trophy.

Next, the All-AJGA Academic Team was announced. This team is made up of high school students who have achieved a GPA of 3.5 or better for the 2002/2003 school year and have faxed a copy of their transcript into the AJGA office by August 1st. Student-athletes who maintain high grades earn the respect of teachers, administrators, peers, future coaches, and future employees. After the All-AJGA Teams and the Players of the Year were announced, which are listed at the bottom of this page, the special awards were presented.

This year's Larry Nelson Sportsmanship Awards, which are awarded to the male and female juniors who best exemplify and understand the courtesies, décor, and etiquette of golf and who show a great respect for their fellow competitors, officials, and the golf course, were awarded to Kai Shepherd and Leigh Kite.

Jennifer Adyorough, who was the recipient of the 2002 Dixie Dunbar Award which is presented to the most improved player in the Aires Program, was announced as the 2003 Dixie Dunbar Award recipient. The Aires program is a collaborative effort introducing competitive golf to the youth in the minority communities of metro Atlanta. The player who receives this award continuously strives toward excellence and Jennifer improved her stroke average by 6.6 strokes (84.0 to 77.4) from her 2002 to her 2003 season.

The 2003 Most Improved awards were won by Jennifer Adyorough and Alan Fowler, who improved his stroke average from 85.3 in 2002 to 73.1 in 2003 for a 12.2 stroke improvement. In order to determine the players who have improved the most from the previous year, the level of difficulty to improve from one score to another is taken into account. For example, it is much more difficult to go from an average of 80 to 70 than it is to go from a 100 to a 90.

The final award of the night, the MAADA award, recognizes the top overall point finisher for the season. This year's MAADA Award recipient participated in the Boys 16 year old Advanced Division and accumulated a total of 191 points. He had five first place finishes in his regular season events and was the overall Boys Grand Champion after winning the first hole of a playoff with Josh Landers. The 2003 MAADA Award winner is Jonathan Visconti.

* Player of the Year,  ** Overall Grand Champion

This year’s All-Academic Team is listed below: