The Round Up by juniorgolfHQ Vol. 7

The Round Up by juniorgolfHQ

August 2026

What’s on the tee…

As the books close on July, we have some exciting recaps to share.

Most notably, the US Junior Amateur and the US Girls’ Junior Amateur presented incredible content for followers. Both championships had some of the top names competitng for a title and playing some excellent golf to boot. We have done a deeper dive into these tournaments in the ‘Sundae Scoop’ section of the newsletter.

In addition to the USGA events, we have an exciting slate of July tournaments to recap and an equally exciting schedule of August tournaments.

While we normally focus on ‘junior-only’ events, we reserve the right to make an exception for the crowned jewel of Amateur golf as a whole. That of course, the US Amateur. Both the Men’s and Women’s fields will be stacked with junior players. Most notably, defending Men’s Champion Mason Howell, who just aged out of the junior ranks mere days before the US Junior Amateur eligibility window.

Finally, another plug for coaches and players: we would love to feature you on the page. Please reach out here or on our socials if you'd like to join us for a profile in the coming months! Happy Reading!

2026 July Major Junior Tournament Results

Wyndham Cup

June 6th - 9th, 2026

Old Sandwich Golf Club

Champion: Team East

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The 2026 Wyndham Cup, the American Junior Golf Association's marquee East-vs-West team event, played out July 6–9 at Old Sandwich Golf Club in Plymouth, Massachusetts, marking the fifth time the Coore & Crenshaw design has hosted the event. As always, the format pitted 40 of the country's top junior golfers — 10 boys and 10 girls on each side — selected via the Rolex AJGA Rankings, in a Ryder Cup-style competition spanning four-ball, foursomes, mixed foursomes, and singles matches, with 50 total points on the line.

Old Sandwich brought a fitting complication: the weather. Day one arrived with heavy rain and gusty conditions, and the West Team used the elements to its advantage, grabbing an opening lead during the morning and afternoon sessions while the East fought to trim the gap through the wind and wet greens.

Day two shifted the tone again. Coverage of the session described "westward momentum," suggesting the West extended its edge through the morning four-ball and afternoon mixed-foursome matches — but the East closed strong late in the day, setting up a tight, winner-take-all singles finale heading into the final round.

That's exactly what it became. On the strength of a furious rally in Thursday's 20 singles matches, the East Team stormed back to salvage a share of the Cup, with coverage framing it as a "stunning singles comeback" that brought an end to the West's recent run of success at this venue — a nod to 2022, the last time the Cup was contested at Old Sandwich, when the West won going away, 31–19.

When the dust settled, the two sides finished dead even at 25–25, the tie meant the East retained the Wyndham Cup for a second straight year. It marked just the third time in the event's history that the Cup has been decided by a 25-25 deadlock, joining the 1998 and 2023 editions.

Beyond the final score, the week reinforced the Wyndham Cup's reputation as a proving ground for future stars — the event has run since 1990 and rotates host courses annually, with team selection based purely on the Rolex AJGA Rankings, making it one of junior golf's benchmark honors. Old Sandwich's demanding layout, with rolling, multi-textured greens and Coore & Crenshaw's signature waste areas and cross-bunkering, added another layer of difficulty for players already navigating a soggy, wind-whipped week.

For the East, it's their third consecutive Cup result without a loss (a win in 2025, a retained tie in 2026), while the West will look to regroup and reclaim the trophy outright when the event moves to its next host site.

Final Results

Junior PGA Championship

July 28th - 31st, 2026

PGA Fields Ranch

Champions: Jaden Soong & Aubrey Hilgers

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The 2026 Junior PGA Championships wrapped up this week at Fields Ranch at PGA Frisco, with the East and West Courses hosting the country's top junior golfers from July 28-31 in Frisco, Texas.

In the boys' division, Jaden Soong of Burbank, California, claimed the title with a four-round total of 7-under 281. Soong, a member of the class of 2028, built his winning score with rounds of 72-67-69-73, closing with just enough cushion to hold off a crowded chase pack. Aadi Parmar of Selma, Texas, and Chase Hughes of Oklahoma City tied for second at 6-under 282, finishing a single stroke back. A logjam formed just behind them, with Evan Liu, Rory Asselta, Kailer Stone, and Ainslie Stanford all tied for fourth at 5-under 283. The field also included Charlie Woods, son of Tiger Woods, who made the 36-hole cut before finishing at 6-over for the week.

The girls' division delivered even more drama, coming down to a playoff. Aubrey Hilgers of Surprise, Arizona, and Yujie Liu of China finished regulation deadlocked at 6-under 282 after four rounds, forcing extra holes to decide the champion. Hilgers ultimately prevailed, winning on the third playoff hole with a birdie to capture the title. Both players had shown steady form throughout the week, with Hilgers carding a final-round 69 and Liu closing with a matching 69 to force the playoff after each carded contrasting front-nine and back-nine performances across the tournament. Ava Zhang of Lake Mary, Florida, finished alone in third at 2-under 286, while Macie Rasmussen of Chesapeake, Virginia, rounded out the top four at 1-under 287. A tightly bunched group at even par 288 included Amber Lee, Lisa Herman, Zilin (Grace) Xu, Carolyn Liu, and Alexis Lamadrid, reflecting just how competitive the scoring was throughout the championship.

Across both divisions, the tournament showcased the depth of junior golf talent from across the country and internationally, with competitors representing states from California to Florida as well as countries including Australia, China, Vietnam, and Mexico. The East and West layouts at Fields Ranch proved to be a stern but fair test, producing a 36-hole cut in both divisions and rewarding the players who could sustain their form over all four rounds.

For the boys, Soong's ability to avoid a bad round proved decisive, as none of his four scores rose above 73. For the girls, the championship came down to the wire, with Hilgers and Liu separating themselves from the pack over the final round before their playoff showdown. Both champions now add a Junior PGA Championship title to their growing junior golf résumés, a credential that has historically been a springboard for future success at the collegiate and professional levels.

Boys’ Leaderboard

1 - Jaden Soong| 72-67-69-73=281

Girls’ Leaderboard

1 - Aubrey Hilgers| 70-73-70-69-66=282

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Up Next

U.S. Women’s Amateur

August 4th - 9th, 2026

The Honors Course

The USGA's oldest championship for female amateurs returns August 4-9, as the 126th U.S. Women's Amateur heads to The Honors Course in Ooltewah, Tennessee. It's the tournament's first visit to the storied Pete Dye design, which opened in 1983 and will play as a 6,539-yard, par-72 test for one of the strongest fields in women's amateur golf.

A field of 156 competitors earned their way in through a demanding qualifying process. The Women's Amateur uses a single-stage format, with players competing in an 18-hole qualifier at sites held from mid-June through mid-July, and the top finishers at each site claiming spots in the championship. That leaves zero margin for error at qualifying, which only raises the stakes once the real event begins.

Per the standard format, the week opens with two rounds of stroke play on Tuesday and Wednesday (with a playoff for the last spots into match play, if necessary), before the field is cut to the low 64 for Thursday's Round of 64. The bracket compresses quickly from there — Round of 32 and Round of 16 on Friday, quarterfinals and semifinals Saturday, and a 36-hole championship match on Sunday to crown the winner.

Megha Ganne, a rising senior at Stanford, won the 2025 title at Bandon Dunes, defeating Brooke Biermann 4 and 3 in the 36-hole final — her breakthrough coming in her seventh U.S. Women's Amateur start. Ganne is no stranger to the big stage: she was a member of the victorious 2022 USA Curtis Cup Team and was low amateur at the 2021 U.S. Women's Open. The US Women’s Amateur has a long history of repeat champions. A whopping seven players have repeated a win and even more impressive, five women have accomplished a three-peat. Ganne will look to add her name to the list of Champions to defend her title.

The exemption list reads like a who's-who of the sport's next wave. Rianne Malixi, the 2024 champion, and Asterisk Talley, the 2024 runner-up, both return exempt, as does Farah O'Keefe, fresh off winning the 2026 NCAA Division I individual title and a spot on the 2026 USA Curtis Cup Team. Several other 2026 Curtis Cup players are also in the field, including Anna Davis, Jasmine Koo, Kiara Romero, and Avery Weed, giving the week extra intrigue ahead of that biennial matchup. Last year's semifinalists and quarterfinalists — Lyla Louderbaugh, Ella Scaysbrook, Taylor Kehoe, and Arianna Lau among them — return looking to finish the job this time.

Historically, the US Women’s Amateur field has held upwards of 50 juniors in the field each year. This year will be no exception. While the field is not finalized, names like Aphrodite Deng, Clairey Lin, Anna Fang, and Lily Peng are sure to make a big push towards match play and beyond.

Beyond the trophy, the champion earns an exemption into the U.S. Women's Open, making this as much a launching pad as a championship. The Honors Course's tight, tree-lined Dye layout should reward accuracy over raw length, setting up a week where course management could matter as much as star power.

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U.S. Amateur

August 10th - 16th, 2026

Merion Golf Club

The oldest championship in American golf heads to one of its most storied venues, as the 126th U.S. Amateur will be contested August 10-16 at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. It's a return engagement — when the U.S. Amateur was last held at Merion in 2005, Edoardo Molinari became the first player from Italy to hoist the Havemeyer Trophy. This time, Merion's East Course (renovated by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner in 2014) will co-host stroke play alongside nearby Philadelphia Country Club, a William Flynn design that dates to 1890.

A field of 312 players was drawn from 5,111 entries, whittled down through local qualifying at 48 sites in June and final qualifying at 19 sites in July. The field opens with 18 holes of stroke play at each course on Monday and Tuesday, before cutting to the low 64 for six rounds of single-elimination match play, capped by a 36-hole championship match on Sunday, August 16. The winner and runner-up both earn exemptions into next year's U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. The champion also picks up an exemption into the 2027 Open Championship at St. Andrews and a likely invitation to the 2027 Masters.

Mason Howell, an 19-year-old from Thomasville, Georgia and incoming Georgia freshman, won last year's title at The Olympic Club, defeating Tennessee's Jackson Herrington 7 and 6 in the 36-hole final. It was a stunning run — Howell became the third-youngest champion in U.S. Amateur history and just the third No. 63 seed ever to win since seeding began in 1985, after surviving a 20-for-17 playoff on Monday morning just to make match play.

The exempt list is loaded. Both finalists from 2025, Howell and Herrington, return, along with semifinalists and quarterfinalists Niall Shiels Donegan, Eric Lee, Jacob Modleski, Jimmy Abdo, and Miles Russell. Several 2025 Walker Cup and World Amateur Team members are also in the mix, including Preston Stout, Ethan Fang, and Stewart Hagestad on the U.S. side, plus Great Britain & Ireland internationals like Connor Graham, Stuart Grehan, and Tyler Weaver.

Just like the Women’s Championship, we will see a load of familiar faces in the field from the junior side. 2025 US Junior Am Champion Hamilton Coleman, Miles Russell, Oscar Couilleau, and newly minted US Junior Amateur Champion Noah MacLaughlan highlight a great list of junior players sure to press the gas pedal towards match play and beyond.

Merion's East Course is short by modern standards — 6,921 yards at a par of 70 — but it's earned its reputation through sheer difficulty and lore. Its firm greens, deep "white faces of Merion" bunkering, and signature wicker-basket flagsticks make it one of the most demanding tests in the country. Most famously, Bob Jones completed his Grand Slam here in 1930 by winning his fifth U.S. Amateur title, the same year he also captured the U.S. Open, British Open, and British Amateur. The club's championship pedigree runs deep, with winners at Merion over the decades including Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan, and Justin Rose.

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2026 “Major” Junior Golf Event Schedule

Junior Orange Bowl - January 2026 - Tomas Restrepo & Charlotte Naughton

AJGA Simplify Boys Championship - February 2026 - Grayson Baucom

The Fortinet Stanford Invitational - February 2026 - Asterisk Talley

Dustin Johnson World Junior - March 2026 - William Lisle & Fay Jia

Junior Invitational at Sage Valley - March 2026 - Miles Russell & Asterisk Talley

Mizuho Americas Open - May 2026 - Aphrodite Deng

AJGA Team TaylorMade Invitational - May 2026 - Luke Ringkamp

The Nelly Invitational presented by Chevron - May 2026 - Vidhi Lakawala

Southern Junior Championship - June 2026 - Neil Jolly

AJGA Wyndham Invitational at Sedgefield - June 2026 - Jessy Huebner

Women’s Western Junior Championship - June 2026 - Iris Lee

Western Junior Championship - June 2026 - Andrew Sciortino

North & South Junior Championship - June 2026 - Alex Elkhomri & Taylor Snively

Rolex Girls Junior Championship - June 2026 - Inseoul (Zoe) Jiamanukoonkit

RLX Ralph Lauren Junior Classic - June 2026 - Rory Asselta & Eliana Saga

Wyndham Cup - July 2026 - Team East Retains

U.S. Girls’ Junior Amateur - July 2026 - Clairey Lin

U.S. Junior Amateur - July 2026 - Noah MacLaughlan

Junior PGA Championship - July 2026 - Jaden Soong & Aubrey Hilgers

U.S. Women’s Amateur - August 2026

U.S. Amateur - August 2026

Junior Players Championship - September 2026

Junior Solheim Cup - September 2026

Junior Presidents Cup - September 2026

ANNIKA Invitational - October 2026

AJGA Ping Invitational - October 2026

Notah Begay Jr. Golf National Championship - November 2026

Rolex Tournament of Champions - November 2026

The Elite Invitational - November 2026

Junior Jones Cup - December 2026

The Sundae Scoop

U.S. Girls’ Junior Amateur

Old Chatham Golf Club

Champion: Clairey Lin

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The 77th U.S. Girls' Junior Championship, held July 13-18 at Old Chatham Golf Club in Durham, North Carolina — a Rees Jones design that opened in 2001, set on 400 acres of protected pine woodlands near Jordan Lake — ended with a dominant coronation. Clairey Lin, of Canada, capped a dominating week of golf with a convincing 5-and-4 victory over Amelie Zalsman in the 36-hole championship match, giving Canada back-to-back champions after Aphrodite Deng's win a year ago.

Lin's win was about as thorough as it gets. The 16-year-old opened with a first-round 66, then followed with a blistering 7-under 65 on Tuesday to claim medalist honors, and her 36-hole total of 13-under 131 missed the championship record by just one stroke. That performance made her the first stroke-play medalist to win the U.S. Girls' Junior since Rose Zhang did it in 2021 at Columbia Country Club.

A field of 156 golfers competed in the first Girls' Junior ever held at Old Chatham, and match play produced its share of drama along the way — notably Juliet Oh's memorable run, which included surviving a three-hole, 6-for-2 playoff just to reach the Round of 64, then upsetting No. 2 seed Yujie Liu to advance to the Round of 32. Lin, meanwhile, rolled through the bracket largely unchallenged, birdieing the opening hole in every single match of the week except her semifinal against Athena Singh, where she made eagle instead.

The 36-hole final pitted Lin against 17-year-old Amelie Zalsman, a Floridian and second-year member of the U.S. National Junior Team ranked No. 34 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. It started as a genuine battle: Lin birdied the opening hole to go 1 up, Zalsman answered right back on No. 2, and the two traded blows through the front nine — Zalsman even grabbed her only lead of the match by winning the par-5 sixth.

That's when Lin took over. She reeled off four consecutive winning birdies from No. 7 to build a 3-up cushion heading into the lunch break. Play then paused for an unexpected 92-minute weather delay right as the afternoon 18 began, but the rain didn't cool Lin off — she birdied holes 24 and 25 immediately after the restart to push her lead to 4 up. Zalsman battled back gamely, capitalizing on a rare Lin bogey to stay within range, and the two continued trading holes until Lin's birdie on the par-4 13th (31st hole of the match) put her back to 4 up with five to play. She sealed it with one more birdie on the par-5 14th — her 12th of the match — while Zalsman missed a 3-foot putt that would have extended things, closing out the 5-and-4 win.

Lin, still processing the moment, reflected on a lifelong goal realized: "I've always wanted to be on the big stage and inspire some people and work hard and see it pay off, and to be able to do that today is amazing." She also credited her putting for carrying her through the week on Old Chatham's greens: "I had a pretty good putting streak the entire week, and these greens were so pure that I feel like, if I get my ball started on the right line, it will likely go in." usga

Zalsman, despite the loss, notched her best-ever finish in five U.S. Girls' Junior starts and left with real perspective heading into next month's U.S. Women's Amateur: "I feel like in the past I haven't been the strongest match-play player, but I feel like this week definitely taught me some really valuable lessons." usga

Lin earns exemptions into the 2027 U.S. Women's Open at Inverness Club, the 2026 U.S. Women's Amateur at The Honors Course, and the 2027 U.S. Women's Amateur at Pinehurst No. 2, along with a likely invitation to the 2027 Augusta National Women's Amateur. Zalsman picked up a three-year U.S. Girls' Junior exemption and a Women's Amateur berth of her own — though she'd already locked that in separately via her world ranking. Next year's championship moves to Canterbury Golf Club in Cleveland, Ohio

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U.S. Junior Amateur

Saucon Valley Golf Club

Champion: Noah MacLaughlan

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The 78th U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, held July 20-25 at Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania — with the Old Course as the main venue and the Grace Course serving as stroke-play co-host across three total 18-hole layouts on the property — produced one of the more remarkable stories in the event's history. Noah Maclauchlan, of Moseley, Virginia, defeated Miles Russell, of Jacksonville Beach, Florida, 6 and 5 in Saturday's 36-hole final, forging the first all-left-handed individual final in USGA history.

The 264-player field, representing 30 countries, opened with two rounds of stroke play across the Old and Grace Courses. The headline storyline entering the week was Miles Russell — the No. 7-ranked amateur in the world, a rising high school senior committed to Florida State, fresh off making the cut at last month's U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills and a newly named member of the 2026 USA Walker Cup Team — who entered as the clear favorite after Tyler Watts withdrew, leaving Russell as the highest-ranked player in the field.

Charlie Woods also entered the week after two disappointing showings at his prior appearances. This time, Woods was determined to improve and make a run at the title. His first few holes cost him dearly, but the 17-year-old battled back and entered a 14-for-2 playoff to move on to match play. A successful playoff win would have likely matched him up with good friend and future teammate, Miles Russell. Sadly, Woods failed to advance beyond the first playoff hole after a controversial moment where a patron’s camera click caused some distraction.

Miles Russell rolled through match play as the top seed, defeating Tyler Mawhinney 2 and 1 in the semifinals after Mawhinney rallied from an early deficit to briefly take the lead before Russell closed it out with a birdie at 17. It set up a final that, on paper, looked lopsided in Russel’s favor.

It wasn't. Maclauchlan — ranked an almost unbelievable No. 2,047 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, some 2,040 spots below Russell — delivered a career-defining performance, and the margin only grew as the day went on. Maclauchlan tied the match with a par win on the par-4 16th, then reeled off wins on Nos. 17, 19, 21, 23, 24, and 28 — all with birdies — to build a commanding 6-up lead. He sealed the 6-and-5 victory with a birdie on the 31st hole, his 13th birdie of the day. Russell clawed back one hole late with a par at the 29th, but it was academic by then — "Matter of time now," as the closing stretch played out.

Maclauchlan, an 18-year-old left-hander headed to Liberty University, was overwhelmed afterward: "I don't really have words right now. It's pretty surreal, pretty unbelievable to call myself a United States Junior champion. To have my name next to all the legends that have won this, including Tiger [Woods] and so many more, is so special." He also credited a friend for inspiring him mid-week: "I owe Rawlin Sutter a special thanks. He was at the qualifier that we all played in. Drove in the middle of the night with no sleep and then won the junior championship four days later." Fittingly, his younger brother Liam — a 2027 Virginia commit who had missed the match-play cut himself — caddied for him throughout the week. WTOPTV

Maclauchlan joined Brian Harman (2003) and Cory Whitsett (2007) as just the third left-handed champion in tournament history. Both finalists earned exemptions into next month's U.S. Amateur at Merion, and Maclauchlan's win comes with a spot in the 2027 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. The championship trophy carries extra weight for any winner — it's officially named the Tiger Woods Trophy, honoring Woods's record three consecutive titles from 1991-93, and past champions include Jordan Spieth, Scottie Scheffler, David Duval, Johnny Miller, and Will Zalatoris.

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Until next month…..