Derek Weaver is only 15 years old but he’s already a veteran on the golf course! And a pretty darn good one at that!

Weaver, from Hackettstown and a member of Panther Valley Golf & Country Club, began playing golf when he was just six years old. He played in his first tournament when he was only 9. Since then he’s played in numerous tournaments, in New Jersey and around the country.

Weaver credits a close family friend, Robert Thomas, for getting him into golf and giving him his first lessons.  Although he is home schooled he is also now a member of the Hackettstown High School golf team. In his first year with the Tiger golf club he won the K-Golf Classic with a 71, took 3rd at counties, and qualified for the Tournament of Champions.

For the past three years he has worked closely with Dan McCarthy, the Golf Pro at Panther Valley.

“He knows my swing so well and if something is off he can always identify what is off and help fix it,” said Weaver.

“Derek is unique,” stated McCarthy. “For such a young kid, he has extensive knowledge of the golf swing and the game itself.  We work together every Friday morning, but with him, it’s not your standard golf swing lesson.  After a few weeks, we changed our game plan immensely.  We weren’t working on the swing itself so to speak, we worked on hitting golf shots.  High draws, low fades, etc….  Derek has raised the bar.  He has PGA Tour aspirations so our game plan had to be changed to accomplish his goals, which rightfully so, are set very high.  We will generally only hit balls for about 10 to 15 minutes, hit about 5-10 putts, then we go play 5 or 6 holes to practice.

“What impresses me the most about Derek is his thinking,” added McCarthy. “I believe he is in a very good spot mentally and understands how to get the ball in the hole in the least amount of shots possible.”

Weaver, one of five siblings, has been a member at Panther Valley for the past four years. When he’s not participating in a tournament somewhere, he plays at his home course in Allamuchy as often as possible.

All of his hard work has paid off.  He now plays on the Junior NJPGA tour, and has played at AJGA and FJGT Florida) events. In the process he made the NJ PGA All State 3rd team. In addition he has been invited to play this year again in the NJPGA Pritsch Cup (top five players 16-18 and 11-15 in NJPGA player standings).