Sponsor Spotlight: Mizuno USA
Leading industry manufacturer helps kick off AJGA tournament season

This year with the help of Mizuno USA, the AJGA is kicking off the year bigger and better.

The Mizuno Junior at Innisbrook will provide playing opportunities for the AJGA’s largest field in history with 138 boys and 78 girls. The event is scheduled for March 20-23 and will feature a qualifier, two Sta-Green® Care for the Course parties and a tournament cookout.
 
“This will be a new challenge,” said Tournament Director Tommy Tangtiphaiboontana. “No one at the AJGA has ever run an event this big. It’s going to be tough to figure out how to fit 216 juniors and a record number of staff members at Innisbrook [Golf Resort]. But we are excited and the course staff is amazing.”
 
The historic event also features a move for Mizuno USA’s annual Easter tradition of hosting an open tournament. The event will move to Palm Harbor, Fla., and will be contested for the first time away from the Atlanta-metro area since the tournament’s inception in 1994.

Mizuno has long sponsored an AJGA Easter event.

Innisbrook Golf Resort will host the event on two of its four championship courses which all were designed by E. Lawrence “Larry” Packard.

The Boys Division will compete on the legendary Copperhead course, home to the PGA TOUR’s PODS Championship, which will be held March 3-9 this year. The Copperhead is in golf’s Top 100 Courses, and has received compliments from many PGA TOUR Players including Paul Azinger, Curtis Strange and Stewart Cink.

The Girls Division will play Innisbrook’s Highlands North course which will favor accurate players. Eleven of its 18 holes have a water feature including No.5, a dogleg-right par-4 that ends on an island green.
 
Mizuno USA, a leading manufacturer of high performance golf clubs, bags, apparel and accessories, enters its fourth year with the AJGA as a tournament title partner in 2008. Based out of Norcross, Ga., the company is energized to host the historic event.

“We are excited about moving the tournament to Innisbrook, especially playing on the tour-caliber golf course,” said Gary Pierce, player promotions manager with Mizuno USA. “We’ve struggled with weather the past few years and we’re excited to be able to provide for the largest field in the history of the AJGA.”

The deadline to submit online tournament applications is Tuesday, Feb. 12.