One of South Jersey’s most accomplished youth golfers has found a home training in Mt. Laurel.
Andrew Reyes, 9, of Mickleton, recently began training at the Golf Performance Institute in Mt. Laurel. The institute opened last December and offered Andrew an opportunity to train and play golf year-round.
Andrew has already made a name for himself in the South Jersey community, having qualified for the Drive, Chip and Putt competition at Augusta National at the age of 8. Andrew finished as the top golfer in both local and regional qualifying to earn a trip to Augusta. Andrew finished in 11th place overall in the competition.
Andrew first wanted to start golfing at the age of 3. He recalls going with his dad, Freddy, to different courses around the area.
“I actually saw my dad playing, so I wanted to play,” Andrew said. “He bought me a plastic set of golf clubs.”
At the time, Freddy didn’t realize the number of opportunities Andrew could have playing golf.
“I had no idea kids played golf,” he said. “I didn’t start playing golf until I was 30. I didn’t play growing up. So to me, it was a completely foreign concept that kids played golf.”
It turned out Andrew was very talented at the sport. It wasn’t long before Andrew was able to play nine holes with his father.
“I never envisioned he’d get onto the course until he was 11, 12, 13,” Freddy said. “It’s been fun to watch him.”
Aside from qualifying for the Drive, Chip and Putt competition, Andrew plays in about eight to 10 junior tournaments around South Jersey each year.
Freddy said training year-round is something Andrew has wanted to do to stay in golf shape and compete with other top players his age from around the country. Prior to the opening of Golf Performance Institute, Andrew had nowhere to go to hone his skills in the winter.
“We had no way to practice effectively,” Freddy said.
“I would usually go down to our basement,” Andrew said. “I was hitting foam golf balls.”
When GPI opened its doors in Mt. Laurel in December, Andrew finally had a place to train during the winter. In the past five months, Andrew and Freddy have made the trek up I-295 to GPI about three times a week. Freddy feels his son has progressed in his game more than ever from the extra training.
“The fact that he’s played all winter, it’s like he’s in the summer,” Freddy said.
Some of the benefits Andrew has with training at GPI has been the virtual driving range. A computer simulates Andrew’s hit on a computer screen and measures where he hit the ball, how hard he hit it, the speed of his swing and other metrics. Andrew loves seeing how far he can hit the ball down the course.
“Now I’m hitting it 160 to 170 (yards),” Andrew said. “I’m getting the distance.”
Freddy said the information he has received about Andrew from the computer has been extremely valuable to him as well as his son.
“I understand so much more about golf now,” Freddy said.
Andrew believes his future in the sport remains bright. His favorite golf moment was putting on the 18th green at Augusta. This memory is something he wants to relive as he trains in hopes of returning to the Drive, Chip and Putt competition again next year.
