The Round Up by juniorgolfHQ Vol. 8
The Round Up by juniorgolfHQ
September 2026
What’s on the tee…
Another month in the books and the US Women’s Amateur and US Amateur delivered. In this edition of The Round Up, we will cover these two coveted championships, highlighted by some stellar junior performances, including one champion from the junior ranks!
As customary, we will also preview our September slate, highlighted by the Junior Solheim and Junior Presidents Cup. These team events, held just before their professional counterparts, are always a preview of how these top amateurs compete in a team setting. The list of juniors on these teams who have gone onto compete in the professional ranks is endless.
Finally, superstar brothers Noah and Liam Maclauchlan join the page in the Sundae Scoop section. Noah recently made headlines after taking down World No. 1, Miles Russel in a dominating performance at Saucon Valley for the USGA Junior Amateur. Who was on the bag for this triumph? That’s right, Liam. These two brothers have a long list of accolades and they’re just getting started.
2026 August Major Junior Tournament Results
U.S. Women’s Amateur
August 4th - 9th, 2026
The Honors Course
Champion: Asterisk Talley
Instagram post
After three near-misses on golf's biggest amateur stages, 17-year-old Asterisk Talley finally has the trophy to match her talent. The Chowchilla, California standout captured the 126th U.S. Women's Amateur on Sunday at The Honors Course in Ooltewah, Tennessee, routing fellow 17-year-old Anna Iwanaga of Japan 8-and-6 in the 36-hole final.
Iwanaga, the tournament's co-medalist and top seed, grabbed an early 1-up edge after winning the ninth hole in the morning round, but that was as close as the match would get. Talley responded by taking nine of the next twenty-one holes, turning the afternoon into a rout and closing things out with her father, Jim, on the bag.
The win caps a run of heartbreak-turned-growth for Talley, who was runner-up at the 2025 Augusta National Women's Amateur, fell short in both the U.S. Girls' Junior and a previous U.S. Women's Amateur final at Southern Hills in 2024, and was upset early last year at Bandon Dunes despite sharing medalist honors. It's her second USGA title overall, following a U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball win two years ago, and makes her the first runner-up to eventually win the Women's Am since Amanda Blumenherst in 2008.
Along the way to the final, Talley also survived a scare from 14-year-old phenom Maggie Ma in the quarterfinals, needing a birdie on the 19th hole to advance after a mid-round mix-up with her dad on caddie duty. Reflecting on finally getting over the hump, Talley said the finish "pretty much completes" her amateur career.
With the win, Talley heads into her senior year of high school as the reigning U.S. Women's Amateur champion — arguably the crown jewel of her already loaded junior résumé.
U.S. Amateur
August 10th - 16th, 2026
Merion Golf Club
Champion: Jack Whaley
Instagram post
The 126th U.S. Amateur came to historic Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pennsylvania this month, and it delivered one of the wildest championships in recent memory. A stacked 312-player field got torn apart in match play — 47 of the top 50 ranked players in the draw were eliminated, including World No. 1 Preston Stout, the defending champion, and five of the top six seeds. Merion's tight fairways, thick rough, and unpredictable weather (rain, wind, even a wasp sting during the final) gave nobody anywhere to hide.
Jack Whaley, a 22-year-old Florida State senior from Doncaster, England, capped off one of the great underdog runs in championship history. Entering as the No. 60 seed, Whaley first had to survive a 16-player playoff just to make the match-play bracket. From there he reeled off six straight match-play wins, closing out Jay Leng Jr., a 20-year-old Stanford junior, 4 and 3 in the 36-hole final to become the first English winner of the U.S. Amateur since Matt Fitzpatrick in 2013. His father Andy caddied for him in a major event for the first time.
Leng, the No. 15 seed, had won the Western Amateur just two weeks before Merion and reached this final in only 76 holes — fewer than anyone else in the field — before running into Whaley's hot putter. As runner-up, he still picked up a spot on the 2026 U.S. Walker Cup team and invitations to the Masters and the 2027 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.
Josh Ryan, a Pennsylvania local, earned medalist honors in the 36-hole stroke-play qualifier before falling in the Round of 16.
Merion wasn't just a story for the college ranks — several of the game's top juniors made real noise. 37 juniors teed it up at Merion and its companion course, Philadelphia Country Club. Tyler Watts had arguably the best week of any junior in the field. Entering match play as the No. 2 seed, Watts came in with a resume that includes being the youngest-ever winner of the Northeast Amateur, an 18-under win at the Sunnehanna Amateur, and the youngest champion in Alabama State Amateur history at just 15. He advanced all the way to the Round of 16 before running into eventual finalist Jay Leng Jr. Miles Russell, a recent U.S. Walker Cup selection, went out in the Round of 64 after opponent Ryder Cowan chipped in on the penultimate hole. Dawson Lew, Jackson Ormond, Fifa Laopakdee and William Lisle are some other notables to qualify for match play.
At the very young end of the field, Landon Tudor and Bento Assis, both just 15 years old, were among the youngest competitors to tee it up in the 312-player field at Merion — a reminder of how deep the junior pipeline into elite amateur golf has become.
Up Next
Junior Players Championship
September 3rd - 6th, 2026
TPC Sawgrass
One of junior golf's marquee invitationals returns to hallowed ground this fall. The Junior PLAYERS Championship presented by Rolex is set for September 3-6 at TPC Sawgrass's famed Stadium Course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, bringing 75 of the top boys golfers in the world, ages 12 to 19, to the same layout that hosts THE PLAYERS Championship on the PGA Tour. The AJGA invitational plays 54 holes of stroke play over the daunting par-72, 7,298-yard test, with no cut, meaning every player in the field gets a full three rounds around the Pete Dye design, island green and all.
This year's event arrives with a wide-open storyline at the top. Miles Russell, the two-time defending champion who became the first repeat winner in tournament history with a wire-to-wire, 9-under performance last year, won't be back to defend. His departure from the amateur ranks leaves the door open for a new name to join a champions list that includes Hamilton Coleman (2024) and Jeffrey Guan (2022).
The field still has plenty of star power to fill the void, headlined by Charlie Woods, who continues to build his own competitive résumé on some of the same courses his father, Tiger, made iconic. He'll be joined by a deep and international group of contenders from more than a dozen countries, reflecting just how global the junior game has become. Keep a special eye on Giuseppe Puebla (2027), who has competed at the US Open, US Amateur, and US Junior this year en route to a #2 WAGR rank for the junior class.
Beyond the competition itself, the week carries extra meaning as a bridge between generations of golf: the AJGA has highlighted how several Junior PLAYERS alumni are now set to tee it up at the "big" PLAYERS Championship, a full-circle moment for a tournament built to spotlight the sport's next stars on a big-league stage.
Junior Solheim Cup
September 7th - 8th, 2026
Bernardus Golf (Netherlands)
The next generation of Solheim Cup stars will get their moment on a genuinely historic stage. The 2026 PING Junior Solheim Cup tees off September 7-8 at Bernardus Golf in Cromvoirt, Netherlands, marking the first time the junior event and the Solheim Cup itself will be contested on the same course, just days before the main event begins on September 9.
Team USA enters looking to defend the trophy after a commanding win two years ago, and it will do so under a captain with deep ties to the event. Morgan Pressel, who went undefeated across two Junior Solheim Cup appearances in 2002 and 2005 before going on to play in six Solheim Cups, becomes the first former Junior Solheim Cup player to captain the American side. She'll be joined by AJGA's Sidney Jockisch as co-captain.
The 12-girl American roster, ages 12 to 18, is built around eight automatic qualifiers from the Rolex AJGA Rankings, headlined by newly-crowned U.S. Women's Amateur champion Asterisk Talley, alongside Amelie Zalsman, Eliana Saga, Lily Peng, Anna Fang, Honorine Ferry, Kelly Zhang and Grace Carter. Pressel rounded out the squad with four captain's picks: Madeleine Conser, Iris Lee, Amber Lee and Aubrey Hilgers. Team Europe, captained by 2019 Solheim Cup winner Anne van Dam, will be announced August 18.
The format mirrors its senior counterpart, with two days of fourballs, foursomes and singles matches deciding the winner. The Americans hold the edge in the series history at 8-4-1 overall, though Europe has won two of the last three stagings. A win for either side will double as a proving ground — Junior Solheim Cup alumnae who've gone on to represent the U.S. at the senior level include Paula Creamer, Lexi Thompson and Angel Yin, among others.
Junior Presidents Cup
September 19th - 21st, 2026
Medinah Country Club (No. 1 & No. 2)
The fifth edition of the Junior Presidents Cup arrives at one of American golf's most storied clubs this fall. The two-day team match play event is set for September 19-21 on a custom routing of Medinah Country Club's Course No. 1 and Course No. 2 in the Chicago suburbs, serving as a lead-in to the Presidents Cup itself, which follows on Medinah's Course No. 3 beginning September 22. Twenty-four of the top junior boys in the world, 12 from the United States and 12 representing the International side (excluding Europe), will square off in fourball and foursomes matches before the competition is decided in singles.
Matt Kuchar takes the reins as U.S. captain in his first turn leading a Presidents Cup team at any level, while C.T. Pan, a three-time Olympian for Chinese Taipei, captains the International squad. Both captains played key roles in assembling rosters that blend proven junior standouts with first-time internationals.
The U.S. side is headlined by Miles Russell, the world No. 7 amateur and top-ranked junior in the Rolex AJGA Rankings, who enters off a runner-up finish at the U.S. Junior Amateur and a recent selection to the 2026 USA Walker Cup team. He's joined by returning 2024 team member Ronin Banerjee, along with Jaden Soong, Jessy Huebner, Giuseppe Puebla, Grayson Baucom, Rory Asselta, Sam Carraher, Joseph Corcell and Grant DeLorenzo. Kuchar rounded out his side with captain's pick Sohan Patel, fresh off a quarterfinal run at the U.S. Junior Amateur. One final U.S. roster spot remains open, to be decided by rankings on September 10.
The International Team, by contrast, is composed entirely of first-time Junior Presidents Cup participants, drawing from seven countries including China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, New Zealand, Thailand, Argentina, Guatemala, Colombia and Hong Kong. China's Qiyou Wu and Zhi Li headline a deep and geographically wide-ranging group alongside Vietnam's Tuan Anh Nguyen and Japan's Taisei Nagasaki.
The Americans will look to extend their perfect record in the event, having won all four previous editions, most recently a 15-9 victory in 2024 at Laval-sur-le-Lac outside Montreal. With Medinah's history as a major championship venue and the Presidents Cup arriving on its heels, this year's junior event carries an extra dose of atmosphere for the players stepping onto that stage.
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 - Asterisk Talley
U.S. Amateur - August 2026 - Jack Whaley
Junior Players Championship - September 2026
Junior Solheim Cup - September 2026
Junior Presidents Cup - September 2026
ANNIKA Invitational - October 2026
The Ping Invitational - October 2026
Rolex Tournament of Champions - November 2026
The Elite Invitational - November 2026
Junior Jones Cup - December 2026
The Sundae Scoop
Player Profile
Liam and Noah Maclauchlan
Mosely, Virginia
Instagram post
Brothers Liam and Noah Maclauchlan joined our socials last week and we are here to bring you some additional coverage of these two budding stars.
Noah, an incoming freshman at Liberty University, made national headlines in July after a stunning run in match play. Ranked 2,047 in WAGR prior to the event, Noah entered the final 36-hole match against World No. 1, Miles Russell. A David & Goliath story on paper, paper doesn’t win golf tournaments, golfers do. Noah kept it close and took a one-up lead into the afternoon before hitting the gas pedal and pulling away for a massive victory. We asked Noah about the win and he was largely still lost for words:
“It was a special week on so many levels, having Liam on the bag was the most special of them all. Having your brother on the bag at the US Junior is not common. I had a teammate caddy for me during stroke play, but once match play came Liam and I were both locked in and took it to the next gear.”
We have left the US Junior recap below, for those who want a refresher on Noah’s win.
That’s not the only win of 2026 for Noah, he also captured the Virginia State Junior Four Ball victory alongside, you guessed it, younger brother Liam. Trailing by a shot into the final round, the boys put up a 61 en route to a 4 shot victory. It is not really much of a fair fight with these two in the field, if you ask me.
Liam, a rising senior in high school, is verbally committed to University of Virginia for the fall of 2027. No stranger to the winner’s circle himself, he triumphed at the Virginia Amateur Championship in 2025 and punched his ticket to The Olympic Club for the US Amateur. Liam’s run was no easy task - his opponent took him to 19 holes in the round of 32, the quarterfinals saw a 2&1 victory, as did the finals. This was a defining victory for the 16 year old, which helped him add another piece of hardware to the cabinet after being named the Virginia State Golf Association Golfer of the Year in 2025.
We asked Noah and Liam about their sibling ‘rivalry’ and about growing up together under the same roof:
N: “I don’t know if we realized it at the time, but growing up under the same roof drove us both to be better. When Liam won the state amateur, it made me realize I wasn’t content with where I am. I need to work harder, smarter, and get to that level.”
L: “It’s been a blessing. It benefits me in more ways that I know. Having a brother who is competitive and talented drove me to get better. I hate to lose. Being on the range together, putting together, it helps having someone that is grinding alongside you and can also help you.”
As Noah ages out of the junior ranks, he won’t be able to defend his title for the US Junior next year at Chambers Bay. But Liam will be able to defend a Maclauchlan title. We asked Noah if he’ll be on the other side of the bag this time:
N: “I would 100% be down to caddie at Chambers Bay. I want to make it a comfortable space for him. When you have your brother on the bag, you don’t need to be anyone but yourself. When you have a caddie you don’t know, you might try and impress someone. This year, Liam knew my game so well we trusted each other. I would love to do the same for him.”
They’re competitve juices don’t stop after they leave the golf course. They love competing in basketball and pickleball, and virtually anything else they can come up with. We had to ask who would win in a 10 round tournament…Liam said without hesitation “I’m beating Noah 6-4”. Noah took the more political route calling it a tie. Someday we hope we can see this play out and finally see who was right!
A huge thanks to Liam and Noah for joining us. Two terrific golfers and great people from our interactions during this profile process. We are thrilled to continue tracking their future success, we know many more trophies will head home to Mosely with a Maclauchlan.
Make sure you go follow the lads on Instagram to see their games!
@noahmaclauchlan07
@liammaclauchlan
U.S. Junior Amateur
Saucon Valley Golf Club
Champion: Noah MacLaughlan
Instagram post
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…..