Browndorf looking to
regain his putting touch
Rumson golfer finishes seventh at state
PGA junior qualifier
Golf can be a very funny game. Sometimes your score reflects the way you played (good or bad) and sometimes it doesn’t.
Rumson’s John Browndorf knows the feeling of playing well and not having it reflected on his scorecard.
"I’ve definitely improved," said the high school junior-to-be. "I’m hitting the ball longer and hitting more greens. I’ve improved so much over the last year, but I’m not scoring."
Browndorf competed in the New Jersey section of the PGA’s National Qualifier held at the Rossmoor Golf Club in Monroe earlier this week where rounds of 79 and 75, for a 154, put him in seventh place in the boys’ 16-17 age group. Yet the Rumson-Fair Haven High School star couldn’t help thinking it could have been better, especially the 75 he fired in the second round on the par-72 course.
"I didn’t make any putts," he pointed out. "I hit 15 greens in regulation, but couldn’t make the birdie putts. I don’t have confidence in my putting right now. I’m second-guessing myself. I’m not draining the 5- to 15-footers like I used to.
"I putt by feel and right now I just don’t have it," he added. "I don’t trust myself when I’m reading a putt. I have to avoid trying to be too mechanical with my putting. I don’t need to make any adjustments in my stroke."
But like a baseball hitter in a slump, Browndorf knows it’s only going to take a couple of birdies falling to restore his confidence. Every other aspect of his game is sharp, and he has won often enough not to lose confidence in his golf game.
Browndorf will have plenty of opportunities to regain his putting touch because he’ll be busy in tournaments throughout the summer and fall. That’s where the competition is for a serious golfer like Browndorf.
"I started playing when I was 4 years old with my father (Joel Browndorf)," Browndorf noted. "I found it relaxing. It didn’t take me long to decide that this was the sport I wanted to play."
There was something else about golf that attracted him.
"I’m a perfectionist," he noted. "I’m never pleased with what I do. I feel I could always do better."
That is what keeps bringing him back to the golf course.
Three years ago Browndorf went to local teaching guru Wayne Warms, the PGA pro at Due Process in Colts Neck, to refine his game.
"He changed my entire swing mechanically," the Rumson teen remarked. "It’s perfect right now. I’m hitting the ball solid."
Armed with his new swing, Browndorf became a star immediately at Rumson-Fair Haven.
As a freshman, he won the Shore Conference Tournament, and last year, he was state group champion. He won the New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association South/Central Jersey Group I crown and later added the Group I individual title to his trophy case. At both tournaments, he led the Bulldogs to the sectional and state group championships.
Browndorf had a superb lead-in to his high school season finishing fifth in an American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) Tournament in Georgia back in March, with rounds of 76-73. That fifth place earned him an exemption to AJGA tournaments the rest of the year. The next stop will be in New York in mid-August.
"I like the AJGA tournaments because that’s where the best competition is," he said.
As for his game, Browndorf is the complete player. He can be long off the tee and hits his irons dead-on.
He has a marvelous touch around the greens and is lethal with the wedge. He also is a great course manager. He knows when he can be aggressive and go for pins, and when to take his poison and not force things.
No doubt that will help him as he searches for further success this summer.