PREP GOLF:

Green Valley high golfer swings his way to success

Mona Shield Payne / Special to the Home News

Green Valley junior Ryan Green practices on the putting green at Legacy Golf Club.

By Jeff Pope (contact)

Thursday, March 12, 2009 | 12:05 a.m.

A closer look at Ryan Green

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High school sports section

Some golfers play a lifetime and never shoot a 64. Ryan Green did it Feb. 7 and he is just 16 years old.

Green, a junior at Green Valley High, said he was focused and confident when he shot 8-under par in the first round at the Tahquitz Creek Golf Course in Palm Springs, Calif.

Green shot a 73 in the second round and placed third overall in his first-ever event on the International Junior Golf Tour.

"I just clicked," Green said. "I was rolling putts really well and stayed positive the majority of the time, which is why I think I scored so well."

His Green Valley coach, Greg Murphy, said Green has yet to reach his potential.

"Shooting that 64 really puts everything into possibility," Murphy said. "Anybody can put it down the fairway, but the guys who can score are being able to get up and down."

Green has played competitively for four years. When he first swung a club, he did so left-handed. But, he said, golfing hampered his baseball swing so he learned to golf right handed and hit a baseball left handed.

"It was hard but I got a lot of lessons and my family really helped me with my swing," Green said.

Green has since given up baseball and his other love, basketball, to focus on golf and perhaps a college scholarship. Then, maybe one day, the PGA Tour.

"I made a goal that if I made the golf team my freshman year and did well, that I was going to stick with golf," he said. "I just really fell in love with golf. Hopefully, I'll make it on the tour somehow."

Green's second event on the junior tour didn't go quite as well. Green shot at 75 and 76 at Temecula Creek Golf Course in Temecula, Calif., on Feb. 28 and March 1.

"I should have shot a lot better. I just lost my concentration on a couple of shots and it cost me a little," he said. "I just wasn't fully there, I guess."

Green now knows what focus and concentration can do for him. As for the rest of his game, Murphy said, no one works harder than Green.

"He's relentless in his practice and his pursuit of excellence," Murphy said.

Jeff Pope can be reached at 990-2688 or jeff.pope@hbcpub.com.