Rolex Tournament of Champions

Lancaster, Pa. 
July 14, 2013

Another tournament is in the books after the Rolex Tournament of Champions completed at Lancaster Country Club. This was a unique tournament with a lot going on, but overall we had a great week. The venue couldn't have been any better. Home of the 2015 U.S. Women's Open Lancaster CC was in terrific shape and made our week smooth. We also got very lucky with the weather. Somehow we missed all the storms in the area, and never had a weather delay.

This was our first invitational, this meant new features to the event. For starters three was a lot more staff members involved. Secondly this was a four-round tournament. We had been use to three rounds. The level of play was also the highest we had seen. To get into this field juniors either had to have a championship or a high ranking. The golf was really competitive featuring scores as low as 64.

In the Girls Division Alison Lee won her third tournament in a row. She is on quite a run and makes so few mistakes on the golf course. She captured the lead in the second round and never looked back, Last week her tournament included a 63. Lee has racked up an impressive nine titles in her time with the AJGA.

In the Boys Division Benjamin Griffin had a come from behind win after posting a final-round 65. The 65 was highly impressive considering the final round pressure and the rain that fell on the back nine. The rain didn't stop Griffin nailing an 81 foot putt on No. 15. "I knew it was my day after that fell," Griffin said.

There was a lot of action on the back nine in the final round of the Boys Division. Griffin eventually won by a stoke after making a 25 footer on No. 17 for birdie. Griffin's name will now be placed with Phil Mickelson, David Duval, and Webb Simpson as winners of the Rolex Tournament of Champions.

The week was long but for the most part everything went smoothly. The venue was outstanding and the tournament went great. This week had the feel of a really big tournament. The Rolex signage, the course, and the field all made for a big time week.

The first couple nights of the week I stayed at a hotel in downtown Lancaster. I had know idea Lancaster was a city. I assumed it was a town with a sweet golf course in it. I was very wrong. Lancaster is a city of about 60,000 people. The downtown area was really nice, and I got to stay there for a couple of days. After the hotel we stayed at a house on No. 5. Got to experience a hotel and a host family this week. Team five had a great week at Lancaster for the Rolex Tournament of Champions, next week we split up and I will be headed to Abilene, Texas.

Lancaster Country Club served as out host this week for the Rolex Tournament of Champions

OB:

After the tournament concluded team five split up. The foursome that I was apart of went to Reagan Airport in Washington DC to get to Texas. We arrived in DC at about 10:30 a.m. and our flight wasn't until 6 p.m. With the extra time we decided to a little sight seeing. I had never been to DC before. We saw a lot and had a great time. In total we did about three hours of walking around seeing all that we could. We went to up to the Capital Building, The Lincoln Statue, and the White House. I wish we had more time but nonetheless it was a great experience that I never tough I would have looking at our schedule. We made our way to the Airport after checking things out downtown. We first flew into Dallas, then got on to a very small plane to take the 27 minute flight to Abilene. I've never been to Texas before either, hopefully we have another good week in Abilene.

Half of team five was able to do some sight seeing in Washington D.C. before catching our flight