During the winter in Canada the sport of golf is often far from many people's minds, but local golfer Jay James (grade 10) of Arcola and son to Randy and Laurie is currently preparing himself mentally for a tournament in Ft. Worth, Texas, on March 8 and 9.
Sponsored by the Optimists as well as various friends and family members Jay will be attending one of two 2014 Optimist Junior Golf Tour venues. Another tournament held by Optimist International will be held this February, but the James family decided to attend the later venue instead.
Last year the James family approached the Optimists about attending a tournament because they have done so in the past, but all of the Optimist tournaments were over. Thus, the Arcola Optimists found tournaments this year and brought it to the attention of the James family.
"they approached Jay this year and said, 'Jay we have these two tournaments, one was in Myrtle Beach, Kansas, and the other in Texas, so why don't you go to one?'" Laurie explained. "So they approached him and of course he took the opportunity."
The event in Texas will be held at the Waterchase Golf Club where he will participate in the boys 14 to 15 category, taking part in 36 holes.
Jay explained that he is excited to golf in the tournament and isn't too worried about taking on the task, but did say his practice round on the Friday before the tournament will be welcomed as he hasn't been out since last summer.
"The MJT are pretty big tournaments [so I'm not too worried about golfing in Texas], they announce your name when you're about to tee off, so it won't be any different just a different spot," Jay said. "It might be a little weird because I haven't golfed in three months. I'll be fine with a practice round the day before though."
This particular tournament will kick off Jay's season of golf for when he returns Jay will enter his second year of golfing with the Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour (MJT) which is a Canada-wide tour, which is considered Canada's "Road to College Golf."
"His main thing is to get a scholarship for golf, so a chance to go to [Texas] will be good when he applies for scholarships," Laurie said.
"He's trying to get on his road for what he wants for the future."
Jay took part in this event last year as well with the support of local businesses, family, and friends. This year he is again registered and will hopefully be taking in five tournaments across western Canada.
"We're hopefully hitting five tournaments in Alberta, Saskatchewan, B.C., and Winnipeg," Laurie said, explaining his first tournament is to be in Swift Current in May, however, because it is the same weekend as Arcola School's grad he may not attend that tournament.
The MJT appealed to Jay because he fosters dreams of one day reaching collegiate level golf. This also ties into his hopes of attending Florida to complete a golf course design program.
"I plan on going to Florida State to become a golf course designer with a golf scholarship," Jay stated, speaking with The Observer the day after he had spoken with the school's guidance councillor.
Jay first began golfing when he was four or five-years-old and remembers instantly falling in love with the sport.
Though his immediate family wasn't highly involved with golfing when he was younger it was his uncle, Kevin Vandeven, who helped get him started in the sport.
His family, though, has since taken up the game.
Jay practices mostly at Golf Kenosee and thoroughly enjoys the challenges of the game.
Looking forward to the future Jay hopes to perform well and achieve his goals of reaching a golf scholarship and going to school to become a golf course designer.
