Blades Brown and Gianna Clemente were named Tuesday as the American Junior Golf Association’s 2024 Rolex Junior Players of the Year.
The Rolex Junior All-America Teams annually recognize the world’s premier junior golfers. The 2024 class includes 48 boys and girls, ages 13-19, from 19 states and three countries.
Brown, a 17-year-old from Nashville, Tennesssee, finished third at the AJGA Simplify Boys Championship in a field that included 18 of the top-20 players, highlighted by 2023 Rolex Junior Player of the Year, Miles Russell. He also made his PGA Tour debut this spring at the Myrtle Beach Classic. He also won medalist honors at the U.S. Junior Amateur, becoming only the third person to do so at the Junior and U.S. Amateur. He then placed second at the Junior Players.
Gianna Clemente of the United States plays her shot from the fourth tee during the final round of the Mizuho Americas Open at Liberty National Golf Club on May 19, 2024, in Jersey City, New Jersey. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
Clemente, 16, is now a five-time Rolex Junior All-American. She began the year with a top-10 finish at the Fortinet Girls Invitational and then tied for 11th at the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley. She also placed fifth at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur before winning the Mizuho Americas Open. Clemente was a semifinalist at the U.S. Girls’ Junior and made the Round of 32 at the U.S. Women’s Amateur.
Brown, Clemente and the 2024 Rolex Junior All-America Teams will be honored at the Rolex Junior All-America Awards Banquet on Saturday, Nov. 23, at the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa.
The Americans have won all four Junior Presidents Cups.
Heading into Tuesday’s singles matches, the United States led by one point. By the end of the day, it was a dominating victory.
The Americans won the 2024 Junior Presidents Cup at Le Club Laval-sur-le-Lac in Canada with a dominant showing in singles. Of the 12 matches, the Americans lost only one of them. The Charley Hoffman-led team won six singles matches, halved five and held on to win its fourth straight Junior Presidents Cup.
Mimicking the Presidents Cup, the Junior Presidents Cup features two teams made up of the top 12 male junior golfers (12-18) representing the United States and another International team representing countries around the world excluding Europe. Junior players must be at least 12 years old and no older than 18 at the start of the event. These amateur players are chosen to be on the United States team based on the Rolex AJGA Rankings and the International team based on the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
It’s a two-day event, with a foursomes and four-ball session on Monday before all 12 players face off in singles Tuesday.
The United States led 6½-5½ after Monday, and Tuesday was a dominant showing in singles. Michael Riebe, Jackson Byrd, Will Hartman, Logan Reilly, Asher Vargas and Blades Brown each won their matches to retain the trophy.
The U.S. dominated singles on Tuesday, winning 10 of the 12 matches.
It was a historic victory for the Americans in the Ping Junior Solheim Cup.
The U.S. team won the 13th Junior Solheim Cup at Army Navy Country Club in Arlington, Virginia, with a score of 18½-5½ over Team Europe. This is the Americans’ eighth Junior Solheim Cup title, moving the all-time record to 8-4-1.
The Americans’ score of 18½ points is the most points scored by either team in the tournament’s history. The ending score of 18½-5½ is also the largest margin any team has won by in tournament history.
The U.S. dominated singles on Tuesday, winning 10 of the 12 matches and halving another to reclaim the trophy.
Modeled after the Solheim Cup, the Ping Junior Solheim Cup biennially features the 12 best female junior golfers (ages 12-18) from the United States against their counterparts from Europe. The team match play event includes foursomes, four-ball and singles matches played over two days and rotates between U.S. and European host sites coinciding with the Solheim Cup.
This year’s event includes both teams watching the final days of the Solheim Cup matches at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club.
This week’s win marks Team USA’s first since 2019 in Scotland and first win on U.S. soil since 2017 in Iowa. Before losing in 2021 and 2023, Team USA held the title for six years.
Tiger Woods missed the cut at the 2024 PGA Championship a few weeks ago, but his focus this week wasn’t on his game, but his son’s. On Wednesday, Woods and CBS’ Trevor Immelman were in Lake Worth, Florida, watching their sons, Charlie and Jacob, play in the UNIQLO/Adam Scott Junior Championship on the AJGA.
The tournament at The Falls Club of the Palm Beaches wrapped up on Thursday, with Pennson Badgett from Pilot Mountain, North Carolina, taking home the title at 11 under (68,65).
Charlie Woods finished in a tie for 27th at 2 over after consecutive rounds of 73, while Jacob Immelman grabbed a share of 32nd thanks to rounds of 76 and 71. (There were 47 players in the field.)
🚨📸🐅 #PHOTOS — Tiger Woods and Trevor Immelman watched their sons compete together today at the Adam Scott Junior Invitational down in South Florida. (Via @AJGAGolf) pic.twitter.com/vsgcqTgZG9
Yana Wilson returns to Liberty National this week looking for her own repeat.
Rose Zhang won’t be the only defending champion on hand at this week’s Mizuho Americas Open. Yana Wilson, winner of the inaugural junior edition of the Mizuho Americas Open, run by the AJGA, returns to Liberty National looking for her own repeat.
One of the most unique aspects of the Mizuho, hosted by Michelle Wie West, is the interaction junior players enjoy with LPGA pros. They share the same dining room, locker room, range and tee times as the junior event runs concurrently. Pros and juniors even exchange phone numbers as part of a big sister program.
Wilson, 17, of Henderson, Nevada, has taken the opportunity to ask a number of players about their decisions to play college golf or skip that step and go straight to the pros.
In the end, Wilson finds herself leaning toward what she’s long thought.
“It’ll be very last minute if I do go to college,” said Wilson, who is committed to Oregon, “but my mind is pretty much set on turning pro straight out of high school, and it’s always been like that. College is kind of plan B for me, and I told my coach that when I first committed to college.”
Wilson, who has NIL deals with Lululemon, TaylorMade and Transcend Capital, said her parents support the decision to turn professional, and she doesn’t feel pressured.
“Honestly, for me personally, because I’m not as disciplined as Rose or Michelle that went to college,” she said, “for my type of personality, it’d be probably best for me to spend a year on tour taking those first bumps and bruises, and then going up and improving along the way.”
Wilson plans to attend Stage I of LPGA Qualifying School August 22-25 at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California. But first, after the Mizuho, she’ll compete in the Amundi Evian Championship and U.S. Women’s Amateur. Wilson also took part in a practice session for the 2024 Curtis Cup earlier this year.
The 2023 AJGA Player of the Year, Wilson won the 2022 U.S. Girls’ Junior over another hotshot junior, Gianna Clemente, 3 and 2. One of Wilson’s most dramatic victories came at the 2022 Hilton Grand Vacations Annika Invitational when she defeated Anna Davis in playoff by holing a 75-yard wedge shot for eagle on the first extra hole.
While this week’s LPGA event in Jersey City, New Jersey, features an elite field of 120 pros, the AJGA invitational boasts 24 of the best junior girls in the world. It was a thrill for Wilson to win the title alongside Zhang, who’s not long removed from the junior scene and a close friend.
It was also a full-circle moment for Wilson, who grew up attending the LPGA Kia Classic in the San Diego area where she would always follow her favorite player: Wie West.
“I was Michelle’s No. 1 biggest fan growing up,” said Wilson, whose father hails from Wie West’s home state of Hawaii. Wilson even has photos with Wie West from a decade ago and recently shared them with her over dinner. Wie West said she remembered her from all those years ago.
“You know, it’s all about paying it forward,” said Wie West during Mizuho media day. “It’s all about the next generation.”
Wilson won her first professional title earlier this year on the Cactus Tour and missed the cut at the Chevron Championship while playing sick.
When asked what her time alongside the pros has taught her, she pointed to course management.
“I think our swings are not that much different,” she said. “I mean, you walk up and down the range and some junior’s swings look really similar to some of the pro’s swings. Nobody’s swing is perfect set, except maybe Nelly Korda’s.
“Honestly, I think it’s all about how you play the course. You know, they don’t really make big mistakes out there, and that’s why they’re so good. They make pars, occasional birdies, and maybe an occasional bogey sometimes, because, you know, everyone’s human. I think that’s probably the biggest thing I took away. I know I can hit my golf shots just as good as the pros can. I know I can work the ball if I need to just as well as they can. So I think it’s really all about where you place the shots, and just minimizing mistakes is, I think, what they do best.”
Earlier this spring at the Epson Tour season opener, Wilson found herself in contention even after tragedy struck. Her caddie Rick Evans, a Liberty National looper who was on her bag for the win at Mizuho, collapsed during a practice round in Winter Haven, Florida, and later died.
Wilson wrote in a touching Instagram post that she would do her best to make him proud. She stayed in the tournament, recording three eagles in Saturday’s round to sit only two strokes back of the leaders but fell ill on Sunday and was forced to withdraw.
The caddie known as “Goose” will no doubt be in her mind all week at Liberty National as she aims to win one more junior crown.
Yana Wilson and Miles Russell were named the 2023 American Junior Golf Association Players of the Year, the organization announced Thursday.
Russell, who turned 15 on Wednesday, is one of the youngest players to receive Rolex Junior Player of the Year honors. He is the first Florida native to earn top honors in the Boys Division since Peter Uihlein in 2007. Wilson is the first Nevada native to win Rolex Junior Player of the Year honors in either division.
In 2023, Russell had four wins in eight national junior golf events to end the season at No. 1 in the Rolex AJGA Rankings. The 2027 grad started his first full season of AJGA events with two Junior All-Star event wins in just three weeks. He also captured the Junior PGA Championship, the Junior Players Championship and was a member of the Junior Ryder Cup team.
Wilson, an Oregon commit, won the junior portion of the Mizuho Americas Open and the AJGA Girls Invitational. She’s also a two-time member of the United States PING Junior Solheim Cup Team and a 2023 Junior Ryder Cup team participant.
Russell, Wilson and the 2023 Rolex Junior All-America Teams will be honored at the Rolex Junior All-America Awards Banquet on Saturday, Nov. 18, in San Antonio, Texas. Then the duo, Rolex Junior All-Americans and a field of the top players in the Rolex AJGA Rankings will compete at the Rolex Tournament of Champions, Nov. 18-22 at TPC San Antonio – Canyons Course in San Antonio, Texas.
Tyler Watts of Huntsville, Alabama, posted a final round of two-under 70. He fired five birdies today to claim the 51st Southern Junior Championship title with a 9-under 207 total at Baton Rouge Country Club in Louisiana. Watts finished five shots ahead of his competition.
The win marked another amazing triumph for Watts, who just last week became the youngest champion in Alabama State Amateur history. His age record surpassed the one set by Gordon Sargent of Vanderbilt, who is currently competing as an amateur in the U.S. Open.
Collins Trolio of West Point, Mississippi, who finished second with a four-under 212 score. Noah Kent of Naples, Florida, and Liam Pasternak of Morristown, New Jersey, each finished at two-under 214. After a scorecard playoff, Kent claimed bronze.
72, 65, 70 earns the #SouthernJr Championship title.
— Southern Golf Association (@sgagolf) June 16, 2023
The winner of the Southern Junior Championship receives a silver medal, his name engraved on the Perry Adair Trophy, a Calamity Jane putter, exemption into the 2024 Southern Amateur Championship, exemption into all future Southern Junior Championships in which he is eligible to compete and is fully exempt with the American Junior Golf Association for 12 months.
Kaitlyn Schroeder started re-watching “The Last Dance” in recent months because she finds inspiration in Michael Jordan’s extreme competitiveness.
EVANS, Ga. — Kaitlyn Schroeder started re-watching “The Last Dance” in recent months because she finds inspiration in Michael Jordan’s extreme competitiveness. Her father, Scott, thinks some of Kaitlyn’s competitive fire came from the summer camps he ran at the University of North Florida. Kaitlyn, who didn’t attend just one week of camp but all the weeks, didn’t like golf at the time, but she hated losing more, and Scott often split up the groups for mini competitions.
Now an 18-year-old, Kaitlyn, last year’s AJGA Player of the Year, loves every part of the grind this game demands and wants nothing less than to be the best player in the world. As the daughter of a men’s Division I college golf, she’s had the rare opportunity to watch PGA Tour player Philip Knowles and current UNF star Nick Gabrelcik go to work daily at the UNF practice facility, which essentially doubled as her second backyard.
“It’s just seeing how hard they work,” said Kaitlyn. “Not hearing about it, but like literally seeing it.”
Kaitlyn Schroeder poses with the AJGA Rolex Player of the Year trophy alongside her parents, Scott and Wendy. (courtesy photo)
Kaitlyn is one of 37 players in the field this week making their debut at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, where just over half the participants are teenagers. She’ll have her father, Scott, on the bag, noting that she sometimes trusts him more than herself. Scott, a seven-time ASUN Conference Coach of the Year, played collegiate golf at UNF and his wife, Wendy, is a UNF Hall of Fame tennis player.
Scott notes that when Kaitlyn was growing up, former UNF All-Americans Travis Trace and Knowles didn’t let her win in friendly competitions. And none of them made excuses.
“In today’s society right now, everybody finds an excuse,” said Scott. “And for the most part, she’s really good about not making excuses: ‘I just played bad.’ If you’re going to be good, you’ve got to be willing to admit when you play bad and not blame somebody else.”
Kaitlyn, who was homeschooled long before she got serious about golf, graduated from high school last December and enrolled at Alabama as a redshirt freshman this spring. She’s currently taking 13 credit hours and transferred in with 12.
Knowing firsthand how difficult the transition can be jumping into the fall golf season while adjusting to college classes away from home, Kaitlyn thought she’d get her feet wet this spring, even though she can’t compete.
“She brings a competitiveness and a leadership that’s going to be really valuable to us and our culture,” said Alabama coach Mic Potter of what’s to come. He also said that recruiting conversations with Kaitlyn were exceptionally easy given her passion for college football.
Looking back, Scott said Kaitlyn’s trip to the 2018 NCAA Championships in Stillwater, Oklahoma, made a big impact because tournament rules allowed spectators to walk on the fairways, up to close to the action.
“I think that was probably when she decided, ‘I want to go do this,’ ” said Scott, “not just be good at golf, but be involved on a team and have a chance to do some of this stuff.
When asked how he knew when to pull back to allow Kaitlyn to grow in recent years, Schroeder said his coaching philosophy is to occasionally allow kids to fail.
“You don’t want them to fall off a large cliff, but you can let them fall off a short cliff,” he said. “Because sometimes they have to fail to be willing to listen more. If you’re only always telling them what to do, at some point, they’ll stop listening.”
With so many potential ANWA competitions still on the horizon, Scott said they’re not putting too much pressure on this week. As Kaitlyn continues to improve, Scott finds himself saying less of the things he used to preach on a consistent basis.
He now coaches Kaitlyn similar to the way he coaches Gabrelcik, who is currently No. 12 in the men’s World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Kaitlyn played her first AJGA event in the ninth grade and last year won both the AJGA Rolex Girls Junior and Junior PGA titles. While some of her junior friends have previous experience at the ANWA and Drive, Chip and Putt competition, Kaitlyn will see Augusta National for the first time this week.
The past two winners of the ANWA have been junior golfers, with then 16-year-old Anna Davis winning last year and Japan’s Tsubasa Kajitani triumphing in 2021 at age 17.
Bailey Shoemaker, 18, teamed with Schroeder to reach the finals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball last year. Shoemaker went on to reach the semifinals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur and made the cut in three LPGA starts, including the U.S. Women’s Open.
“I think we’re a little bit like Jordan (Spieth) and J.T. (Justin Thomas),” said Schroeder. “We love each other off the golf course, but every time we play, like whether it’s just playing for fun or playing, you know, in a tournament, we want to beat the crap out of each other.”
The teams were determined exclusively through the Rolex AJGA Rankings as of October 12.
Eric Lee of Fullerton, California, and Kaitlyn Schroeder of Jacksonville, Florida, were named the 2022 American Junior Golf Association’s 2022 Players of the Year, it was announced Thursday.
Lee is the first boys junior from California to earn the honor since 2010, and Schroeder the first girls junior from Florida since 2009. They are both first-team Rolex Junior All-Americans, as well, with their distinctions.
Lee, 17, did not finish outside the top 10 in seven national junior golf events to end the season at No. 1 in the Rolex AJGA Rankings. He won the season-opening Rolex Tournament of Champions at PGA National. He advanced to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Junior Amateur at Bandon Dunes. Lee is committed to Cal.
Schroeder, an Alabama commit, had two wins and three top-five finishes. Her wins came at the 31st Rolex Girls Junior Championship at The Loxahatchee Club and the Girls Junior PGA Championship at Cog Hill. She advanced to the round of 32 at the U.S. Girls’ Junior in Kentucky.
Kaitlyn Schroeder was named the 2022 AJGA Player of the Year. (Photo: AJGA)
The Rolex Junior All-America Teams annually recognize the best junior golfers from around the world. The 2022 class includes 48 boys and 48 girls, ages 14-19, from 24 states and 10 countries. The teams were determined exclusively through the Rolex AJGA Rankings as of October 12.
Lee, Schroeder, and the 2022 Rolex Junior All-America Teams will be honored through the Rolex Junior All-America Awards Banquet on Saturday, Nov. 19.
These are some of the best junior golfers in the world.
The American Junior Golf Association announced Tuesday the 21st annual AJGA Junior All-Star Team, which includes 20 players who were recognized as the top golfers ages 12-15 in the world during the 2022 season.
The AJGA Junior All-Star Team was selected based on the Rolex AJGA Rankings. The top 10 boys and 10 girls were determined as of Sept. 8. Eligibility for the team includes competition in at least two AJGA Junior All-Star Series tournaments, which also included the KPMG Stacy Lewis Junior All-Star Invitational. AJGA Junior All-Star Series events were conducted across the country from March to August.
Members of the AJGA Junior All-Star Team received an invitation to play in the concluding event of the Junior All-Star Series at the 2022 Ping An Bank Junior All-Star Invitational from Nov. 20-23 at Canyon Springs Golf Club in San Antonio.
Here’s a look at the 10 boys and 10 girls who were named to the All-Star team:
Girls
Hadley Ashton, Erie, Colorado (Class of 2025)
Sawyer Brockstedt, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware (Class of 2025)
Irene Kim, Woodstock, Maryland (Class of 2026)
Ellison Lundquist, Furlong, Pennsylvania (Class of 2025)
Rianne Malixi, (Philippines) San Bernardino, California (Class of 2025)
Avery McCrery, Wilmington, Delaware (Class of 2025)
Scarlett Schremmer, Birmingham, Alabama (Class of 2025)
Siuue Wu, (Hong Kong) Reunion, Florida (Class of 2024)
Angela Zhang, Bellevue, Washington (Class of 2027)
Donina Zhou, San Clemente, California (Class of 2027)
Boys
Finley Bartlett, Cincinnati, Ohio (Class of 2025)
Edan Cui, Atherton, California (Class of 2025)
Michael Lee, Fairfax, Virginia (Class of 2024)
Tyler Loree, Kula, Hawaii (Class of 2025)
Brody McQueen, Marietta, Georgia (Class of 2026)
Nathan Miller, Dallas, Texas (Class of 2025)
Sahish Reddy, Atlanta, Georgia (Class of 2026)
Michael Riebe, Encinitas, California (Class of 2025)
Luke Smith, (Canada) Toronto, Ontario (Class of 2025)
Eric Zhao, (Canada) Toronto, Ontario (Class of 2025)
