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  junior golf since 1974

2005 Awards

ATLANTA – On Sunday, October 2nd, the Atlanta Junior Golf Association conducted its annual awards banquet at Druid Hills Golf Club. Guest speaker, Dr. Catherine Lewis of the Atlanta History Center, talked briefly about Bobby Jones and the qualities that he brought to the game of golf. Qualities the AJGA recognizes and aims to instill in its members.

Each year, juniors are honored at the banquet for outstanding accomplishments on the golf course and in the classroom. The top 10 point-winners (including all ties) in each age group are awarded All-AJGA Team honors and the top point-winner in each age group is named Player of the Year.

This year’s All-AJGA Teams are listed below, with the Player of the Year in each age group listed first with an asterisk beside their name.

Along with the All-AJGA Teams which recognize those who were successful on the golf course, the AJGA also honors those high school students who have earned a Grade Point Average of 3.5 or higher in the classroom. These student-athletes are named to the All-AJGA Academic Team and receive a keychain with the AJGA logo and “2005 All-Academic Team” inscribed on the back. It takes talent to be a successful athlete and dedication to be a good student, those who succeed at both are extraordinary.

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

Each year there are special awards presented also. The game of golf is deeply rooted in traditions such as honor, sportsmanship and integrity. It is important to the AJGA that the juniors in our association exude good sportsmanship at all times. Each year one male and one female member is selected to receive the AJGA Sportsmanship Award Presented by the BellSouth Classic. The trophy awarded to these juniors is a statue of Bobby Jones’ hands depicting the Vardon grip. Atlanta’s own Bobby Jones is truly one of the most recognizable names in golf and is synonymous with ‘sportsmanship’.

This year’s Sportsmanship Award winners were Elwyn Bridges and Blaire Minter.

Other special awards include the Most Improved Male and Most Improved Female players. Many golfers know that to improve your stroke average from 73 to 71 is extremely tough compared to reducing your stroke average of 100 to 90, for example. For this reason, the AJGA uses a formula that takes that difference into consideration.

John Stembridge captured this year’s Most Improved Male award. John had a stroke average of 76.1 in 2004 and an average of 73.3 in 2005, reducing his average by 2.8 strokes. Emilie Burger was the recipient of the Most Improved Female golfer, reducing her stroke average by 11.6 strokes from 88.1 to 76.5!

The Aires program is dedicated to inner city youth who wish to learn and participate in this great game. Each year the Atlanta Junior Golf Foundation awards membership scholarships to many juniors in the Aires program and at the awards banquet, the Most Improved Player in the Aires Program is announced. This year’s winner, Olajuwon Ajanaku was able to improve his stroke average by 8 strokes, from 89.7 to 81.7.

The final award of the night was the MAADA Award. This award, named for our Presenting Sponsor the Metro Atlanta Automobile Dealer’s Association, honors the player who earned the most points for the entire season. This year’s recipient was Pierce McNamara who had five 1st place finishes in the regular season, one 2nd place finish and won his age group at the Grand Championship at Renaissance PineIsle Resort.

The AJGA is very proud of all the juniors who earned the right to be recognized on this very special evening.