E.A. Sports Today

Huge award

White Plains’ Rogers presented Alabama Junior Golf Organization’s player-of-the-year award as top points earner for 15-19 age group

White Plains’ Isabel Rogers, pictured with parents Matt and Stacy, is the Alabama Junior Golf Organization’s 15-19 player of the year for 2023. (Submitted photo)

By Joe Medley
East Alabama Sports Today

In golf, sometimes you’re the tee, and sometimes you’re the pin. Isabel Rogers will enter the 2024 season as the pin in Alabama High School girls’ golf.

Everybody will be shooting for her.

Rogers is the Alabama Junior Golf Organization player of the year for the 15-19-year-old division. The White Plains senior received the award in Birmingham on Thursday.

The winner is based on points earned by finishes. She finished the 2023 season with 5,593 points. Montgomery’s Eden Pendleton was second at 5,123.5.

She played in 14 events, with two season-best rounds of 77 in the Lane Oliver Junior Invitational on July 13-14 and another 77 in the AJGO Goose Pond on Sept. 16. She finished first and second, respectively, in those events, and her six first-place finishes included the AJGO Silver Lakes Year End Winter Classic on Dec. 16.

She also had five second-place finishes and finished no worse than tied for fifth.

It earned her the experience of Thursday’s AJGO banquet in Birmingham.

“It was really cool!” Rogers said. “We had an award ceremony, and Trey Mullinax, who plays on tour, spoke and did a Q&A. He has a lot of wisdom in the game of golf, and it was great to meet and speak with him. 

“AJGO has really taken off this year with lots more players and events. It’s great to be a part of the tour.”

Among Rogers’ high school credits are the 2023 Calhoun County championship. She was also an Alabama North All-Star.

“She is the model of consistency,” White Plains coach Chris Randall said. “So steady. Never gets too high and never gets too low. The ultimate grinder. 

“That’s why she won it. No matter if it’s 85 and sunny or 45 with 20-mile-an-hour winds, she never changes her attitude or her approach. Always gives her best and always competes. And as a coach, that’s all you can ask for.”

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