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About Owen
About Owen
We are excited to welcome Junior Golf Nerd's first Guest Feature, Owen Prewitt! Owen was an elite junior golfer that now plays college golf at LeTourneau University. In his junior days, he won several TJGT events and finished off his junior career by making the match play stage of the US Junior Amateur, one of the most prestigious junior tournaments in the world. We want to begin by thanking Owen for his time, it was very thoughtful of him to provide detailed answers as part of his feature. Let's get right into it:
Question 1: Tell us more about yourself, your junior golf, and where you are right now.
Answer: I’m Owen Prewitt I’m from Cedar Park, Texas I play golf a LeTourneau University I started playing golf at 4 years old but didn’t start getting serious until high school, where I was never really that good but was known as one of the longer hitters. I would say I got pretty good my senior year where I had a school scoring average of 72.5, shot my school record, got my JGS differential down to around -2, and was Top 500 when I finished junior golf. Right after I graduated, I qualified for the US Junior Am where I played quite well and was T16 after stroke play and was the 17th seed in match play where I unfortunately got beat out in the first round losing 1UP.
Junior Golf Nerd: Now that we know a little bit more about Owen, we can see that he was a bit of a late bloomer in his junior golf career and really began to play some of his best golf in his senior year. Let's ask him about his transition from junior to college golf.
Q2: What has been the biggest adjustment from junior golf to college golf for you?
A: The biggest change from junior golf to college golf that was the most difficult was the level of play. My team is pretty solid; we are ranked Top 10 in D3 golf and our number 1 averaged 69.3 and is ranked 4th individual for D3 golf. Being around players like that and even the teams that we play like Methodist and Emory you see top-quality golf that, frankly, is just as good as D1. I thought it would be a little easier than that, but there are some good fellas that can golf out here.
JGN: Here, Owen gives us some really good insight into his transition to college golf. Playing golf at a D3 school, Owen still finds the level of competition to be the biggest change from junior to college golf. Even though there is a common misconception that D3 golf is at a much lower level than D1 golf, the elite players and teams that play in Division 3 makes it just as competitive of a division. But what about the golf itself?
Q3: How have the courses changed from junior to college golf?
A: The courses are just nicer, at least for me. I know there were guys who were playing a bunch of high-end courses such as TPC Sawgrass for the Junior Players and there are plenty of other examples. But for me, who never really played outside of a public maybe private golf course somewhere in Texas, we get to play nicer courses. Not necessarily much nicer but consistently nice courses.
JGN: It is interesting that Owen notices the quality of the golf courses as the biggest change in college golf courses. I would normally expect something like the length of the golf course to be a factor. But for Owen, who is a long hitter and grew up playing a lot of public courses, makes a good point about the consistency in high-quality golf courses that college golfers can expect.
Q4: How has the way you/your team prepare for tournaments/practice changed?
A: Practice and preparation that my team does are much different, granted I came from a golf high school that was not very good, so practices are more organized and there’s somewhat of a structure. Our coach is chill and lets everyone do their own thing, so it’s definitely less structured than other schools that I’ve heard of, but I’m experiencing what it’s like to qualify to go to tournaments and such. We also play practice round/rounds for every tournament and that’s way different than what my team did in high school.
JGN: Compared to most high school teams across the country, the college golf experienced is one of much more structure and organization. Competitive qualifiers, structured practice, and practice rounds are all components of college golf practice that define its organization.
Q5: Briefly explain the ranking system for college golfers. How is it different from junior golf? Do you think either of them are fair? Which one is more so?
A: The ranking system(Clippd Scoreboard) from what I can tell is quite simple. It ranks you based off of adjusted scoring average as a baseline. This part is weighted most heavily in the ranking. Then they determine placement and strength of field and you get points based on an algorithm and your average points based on those three factors. Strength of field is very important in your adjusted scoring average so that’d be more important than just focusing on scoring average.
JGN: Based on what Owen has told us, the college golf ranking system is similar to junior golf ranking systems like Junior Golf Scoreboard, but perhaps with a larger focus on the strength of field.
Let's once again thank Owen for his precious time; he provided some great info about the nuances in the transition from junior to college golf. If you enjoyed this guest feature, please share it with a friend.
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