BRADENTON
He shattered the Manatee County Boys Championship record by three strokes and followed it up Tuesday with a 2-under-par 34 from the back tees on the front nine at Stoneybrook Golf Club at Heritage Harbour.
But the memory of an informal nine-hole round last week with Panthers teammates (and an invited guest) at Bradenton Country Club still gnaws inside Bradenton Christian eighth-grader Jordan Miller.
Shooting a 6-over 41, while not up to his standard, didn't bother him as much as getting beat by two strokes by his 10-year-old brother, Landry.
"He played a real good round. I'm proud of him for doing it," Jordan said. "But on the other hand, I was kind of frustrated getting beat by him. I'm sure everybody else on the team felt the same way."
Jordan, 14, didn't stay frustrated for long. His 6-under-par 66 in Saturday's county championship at Imperial Lakewoods lowered the record set in 1997 by Matt Morrissey of Southeast and equaled by Tyler Leon of Saint Stephen's in 2000 (Sean Jacklin of Manatee also bettered the old mark with a 68).
Panthers sophomore teammate Jack Lyerly was duly impressed. "This is the beginning of a great rivalry between me and you," he told Jordan with a wide grin.
Lyerly, who shot 73, knows how hard he'll have to work to keep up his end of the bargain.
"We're good friends. I respect him as a player, and he respects me as a player," Lyerly said. But when he watches Miller's fluid action produce drives of almost 300 yards, his deft touch and a silky smooth putting stroke, Lyerly wonders how to stay in the hunt.
"He definitely plays a game I'm not familiar with. (Opposing) coaches will have their hands full with him," Lyerly said. "He fits in perfect with the rest of the team. We have fun teasing him because he's younger, but he takes it pretty well and shuts us up with his clubs."
Almost as important to Jordan as entering the record books was following it up with a strong effort Tuesday in a quad match against Lakewood Ranch, Sarasota and Englewood Lemon Bay. After three-putting the first hole for bogey, he made birdies on four of the next seven holes before a drive of 300-plus yards went into a water hazard on No. 9, leading to a bogey.
"It feels good to get back in the zone of playing good," said Jordan, whose already formidable game has taken off since he began working with instructor Tim Sheredy at The Founders Golf Club in Sarasota about a year ago. "I couldn't shoot under par at the beginning of the season.
"Shooting 66 Saturday, it makes my life a whole lot better. I can go around thinking I can actually play golf," he said. "I know I still might shoot 40 (in a high school match), but if I go out with the same focus and keep doing what I've done the last couple of rounds, I should be able to do the same thing. When I shoot 38 or 39, I usually lose focus on the last couple of holes."
Lakewood Ranch junior Rocky Khara, who crafted an all-par 36 Tuesday, saw no loss of concentration from his younger rival. "I noticed no mistakes from him. Everything was solid," Khara said.
Along with his considerable talent - honed from the time his grandfather, Mike Deutsch, put a club in his hands at age 2 - Jordan is learning to think his way around a course. On the par-5 third hole at Stoneybrook, he played his second shot right of the green instead of flirting with the water hazard on the left. From there, it was a relatively simple (for him) up-and-down for birdie.
Panthers coach Joel Van Ryn said Jordan's burgeoning course-management skills were key to his virtuoso performance Saturday. "He played smart. He hit a lot of irons off the tee. I loved the way he played that round," Van Ryn said.
"I'm amazed at how good he is, as young as he is. We've been waiting for him to have a breakthrough, because his ball-striking and mental ability have gotten so much better," Van Ryn said.
Jordan says working with Sheredy, who works with other top juniors at Ivan Lendl's Champions Academy, has driven his improvement. "It's made my ball move a whole lot straighter and helped me control it better. I know if I swing the way I'm supposed to, the shot will be a slight draw and it will go there every time," Jordan said.
"One of the biggest things we've worked on is getting the fundamentals of his preparation correct - grip, posture, alignment," Sheredy said. "It's made him more consistent with his ball-striking, made his swing more efficient."
But the biggest factor fueling Jordan's rise is his passion for the game. His mother, Cindy, says when he was old enough to memorize his grandparents' telephone number, he would call grandpa Mike and ask "Pop, will grandma let you come out and play today?"
"I was playing with my grandfather at River Run two months before my eighth birthday, and I told him 'I want to do this for the rest of my life,' " Jordan said. "It's just loving practicing and going around hitting the ball as hard as you can.
"Every time I get a chance, I thank God for giving me the talent to play golf."
He knows he'll have to use his gift to the best of his ability to stay a step ahead of his brother Landry.
