From 11-year old phenom to European Tour star

I was going through some old championship results the other day (by old, I mean late 1990's/early 2000's...which actually feels like yesterday) and I came across the Junior Amateur Championship results. A familiar name jumped out at me. Anyone recognize this little one?

The Titleist hat gives it away - that is an 11-year old Peter Uihlein turning in his scorecard at Quashnet Valley Country Club. He won the boys division title by two strokes. And he won it next year and the year after that as well. Then he got bored with us here in Mass and moved down to Florida...you know, to work on his tan, and maybe play a few rounds here and there.

Incidentally, a couple hours after going through these archives, we found out that Peter was named the European Tour Rookie of the Year - the first American to earn this honor. All that time spent in Florida working on his game has certainly paid off. He won the US Amateur in 2010, played on two Walker Cup Teams, and occupied the top spot in the World Amateur Golf Rankings. He's had a great year on the European Tour. He's traveled the world. But before all that, he was an 11-year old signing his MGA scorecard on a summer day down the cape.

Now we can say we knew him when!

Read more about Peter on mgalinks.org