United States finalise

Junior Ryder Cup team

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

The United States' Junior Ryder Cup Team was named following the conclusion of the Junior PGA Championship at TPC River's Bend in Maineville, Ohio.
The final two places on the mixed team of six boys and six girls were given, not surprisingly, to the top two finishers in the Junior PGA Championship – boys' champion Anthony Paolucci and runner-up Jordan Spieth, and girls' champion Danielle Frasier and runner-up Sarah Brown.
Spieth, pictured right by Cal Carson Golf Agency, played at Hesketh in the R&A Junior Open in July - and went very close to winning the title.
The Junior Ryder Cup will be played at The Club at Olde Stone in Bowling Green, Kentucky on September 15 and 16.
“Any time you get to represent your country and play in the Junior Ryder Cup it is an honour,” Paolucci said. “I am excited to play on the American team this year.”
PGA of America past president Ken Lindsay, the U.S. Junior Ryder Cup team captain, selected Jeffrey Kang and Tiffany Lua with his captain’s picks.
Participants in the 2008 Junior Ryder Cup will also play a nine-hole “friendship” match at the Ryder Cup venue, Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, the day before the men's pro event starts.
UNITED STATES JUNIOR RYDER CUP TEAM
BOYS
Jeffrey Kang
Anthony Paolucci
Cameron Peck
Jordan Spieth
Cory Whitsett
Andrew Yun
GIRLS
Sarah Brown
Danielle Frasier
Jennifer Johnson
Erynne Lee
Tiffany Lua
Alexis Thompson

THOUGHT-PROVOKING QUERY
The Junior Solheim Cup match mirrors the grown-ups' Solheim Cup by being all girls ... why isn't the Junior Ryder Cup match for boys only?

And here's another difference within the Junior Ryder Cup match I was not aware of:

The European team are all Under-16 or were under-16 years at a certain date on the calendar.

But the Americans use a different age selection criteria which involves the high school graduation date of the youngster involved.

For the 2008 Junior Ryder Cup match, the American selections had to be 2009 high school graduates (or younger). This, in effect, raises the age limit bar to 17 years.

Speak about level playing fields! They can't even get one for the selection process of the European and American teams.

I ran into this "high school graduation date" importance when I talked to the US university talent scouts at the recent British girls' open championship at Monifieth.

They told me they were looking for "2009 high school graduates," i.e. girls who would be old enough to go on to college after the summer of 2009.

In this country a golf talent scout would be far more interested in a youngster's date of birth ... but they do things differently in America.

Much the same as in Great Britain & Ireland, we tend to give an amateur golfer's name and put his or her home club's name in brackets after it.

But in the States, an amateur player's golf club is not mentioned. Instead, tournament organisters list the player's home town or city.

Strange but true. Two nations separated by a common language.

Speaking of languages.

It must be a joke started somewhere south of the Border .... The fact that the LPGA are going to make the ability to speak and understand English mandatory to play on the world's No 1 female tour could make it tough for Scottish players, let alone South Koreans in the future!

Of course, we Scots are not aware that we speak English any differently to anyone else.

I remember the time I telephoned someone I had not spoken to for some time and he greeted me with "How nice to hear an Aberdeen accent again!"

Aberdeen accent? What Aberdeen accent?