Jayvie bides time for the big-time

For Jayvie Agojo, the LPGA can wait.

While most players look forward to joining the lucrative tour in a huff, Agojo is biding her time, vowing to finish her studies first at Pepperdine University and improve her game before taking the plunge in the big league.

"I still have to polish my game, I’m not yet ready for the LPGA. Besides I need to finish my studies so I can have something to fall back on when I get old," Agojo told The STAR in an interview three days before she goes back to the United States to pursue her studies at Pepperdine where she is a sophomore golf scholar.

Unlike Jennifer Rosales, who cut short her stint with the University of Southern California after winning the NCAA individual championship in 1998 and then gaining exempt status for the 2000 LPGA season, Agojo wants to get a degree first before trying her luck in the LPGA.

But mixing golf and studies can be too heavy a load for the petite Agojo, 19.

"It’s really hard to stay focused on my studies and my game but I’m coping up," said Agojo, who hopes to finish International Studies in two and a half years and at the same time raise the level of her game to LPGA standards.

In fact, Agojo will be taking summer classes to make up for the units that she missed during regular semesters.

"It is tough to carry a full load and at the same time get to play in so many tournaments, so I’m only taking 13 to 14 units per semester," said Agojo, now the No. 3 player at Pepperdine, which she helped power to its fifth straight West Coast Conference title. In doing so, Agojo also became the fifth Pepperdine player and eighth in the last nine years to claim the individual medalist honors.

"But it becomes doubly difficult when we have a tournament this week and then exams the following week. It’s really a big sacrifice since we are expected to do good on both unlike here where we can ask for special exams during tournaments," said Agojo, the most dominant Filipina golfer in 2004, the year she anchored the Philippines’ 18th place finish in the World Amateurs in Puerto Rico where she finished 12th in the individual rankings.

What frustrates Agojo, a player with considerable gifts and skills, is her inability to represent the country in international tournaments and at the same time join in the local competitions the way she used to as the schedules just don’t jibe, like in the World Amateurs, the Asian Games and the Philippine Amateur Golf Championships late last year.

In fact, Agojo will not be around when the RP Ladies Open, a tournament she ruled in 2005 at the Manila Golf Club, is held next week at The Country Club as she is set to leave for the US on Jan. 7 in time for her classes the following day.

"When I finish my studies, I will really play in the LPGA Qualifier," said Agojo. "And if my schedule would allow me, I’d love to compete here and perhaps for the national team," said Agojo.