Junior Golf Tournament Hierarchy List

[Golfquant]

I thought it would be useful to start a list (ranked) of junior golf tournaments.  Not including Amateur Tournaments.

 

Considerations for inclusion and order of importance could be prestige of the event, helpfulness in college recruiting, effect on rankings and overall experience.  If a player wins XYZ event, which tournament would have the greatest overall life impact?

 

I would guess that the US Jr Am would be at the top, but what would you put after that?  Where does a Sage Valley vs a Western Junior vs various AJGA Invitationals rank?  How about international tournaments (I'm not very familiar with junior golf in Europe or Asia, but are there any that really stand out)?  Junior PGA Championship?

[BallsBreakFast]

For Asia, you should consider some of the events listed on the APGC website. Note that In Asia many of the top juniors play international and local ams (as well as pro events) as they've outgrown the relative shallow depth of competition in many local junior events, so I think you'd have to include many of the ams on your list.  For example many juniors play WAAP and APAC - which is effectively about the Asia equivalent of US ladies and mens ams.  Winning these am events gets you exempts into the US ams as well as some professional events and even majors. ie Eila Galitsky winning WAAP as a 16 year old got her spots in the Womens Open, Evian, Cheveron, US Womens Am and ANWA in Augusta.
https://www.apgc.online/

The R&A site also lists some of the top events in Europe as well as in Asia. These would be considered elite events that might require nomination by the country's national golf association or an invitation by the R&A.
https://www.randa.org/en/championships/event-calendar?showFull=true

You can also go to the WAGR site and filter the events by ams, junior, collegiate etc and rank in order of power.  Since power is determined by size and strength of field, its decent proxy for prestige and value for recruiting. For example:

Edited January 19 by BallsBreakFast

[BallsBreakFast]

You can take a look at Galitsky's WAGR page and see what events she's played since winning WAAP in early 2023. She's class of '25 and now plays ams and pro events.  And how big an impact a single tournament can have on a junior golf career, its hard to top WAAP and APAC as far as opening opportunities.

https://www.wagr.com/playerprofile/eila-galitsky-35022 

Edited January 10 by BallsBreakFast

[Golfingdawg19]

Golfweek used to have a junior

golf Tournament ranking. They looked at the strength of field and several other factors. I looked for it the other day and couldn’t find it 

[golfdad1]

Sage Vslley all the way. No top junior declines it. The US Junior is great but doesn't include a lot of top US Juniors due to the stupidity of their WAGR exemptions, and the fact that anyone can get through an 18 hole Qualifer, some of which are held on crappy courses. The DJ also has a great field and is very well run. For AJGAs, probably the Jr Playyers is the best.

[golferdad8]

15 hours ago, BallsBreakFast said:

For Asia, should consider some of the events listed on the APGC website. Note that In Asia many of the top juniors play ams as they've outgrown the relative shallow depth of talent in many of the junior events, so I think you'd have to include many of the ams on your list.  For example many juniors play WAAP and APAC - which are the Asia equivalent of US ladies and mens ams.  Winning these events gets you exempts into the US ams as well as some majors. ie Eila Galitsky winning WAAP as a 16 year old got her spots in the Womens Open, Evian, Cheveron, US Womens Am and ANWA in Augusta.
https://www.apgc.online/

The R&A site also lists some of the top events in Europe as well as in Asia.
https://www.randa.org/en/championships/event-calendar?showFull=true

You can also go to the WAGR site and filter the events by ams, junior, collegiate etc and rank in order of power.  Since power is determined by size and strength of field, its a good proxy for prestige and value for recruiting. For example:

This is a very good list. 

Based on your comments re the purpose being for prestige and recruiting, if the junior golfer is already a top 25 or top 50 player and a committed golfer - why not just pursue a lot of amateur events, and even try for qualifiers to get into professional events (ie BB, Akina, Russell, etc.)? 
 

Also, my observation is that the US Jr Am success depends a lot on luck - both for the entry in as well as the bracket. Many top players get knocked out while a few guys get hot with easy draws. Not saying it’s not fair, but that the final 16 players are not necessarily the top 16 players in the field - thus not a good gauge of how good one is. 
 

As for Sage, I’ve heard it’s a great event (for prestige) but I don’t see how winning a small (albeit strong) high school field counts as much as beating elite college, amateur or professionals in a legit 100-156 person event. 

[Golfquant]

7 hours ago, golferdad8 said:

This is a very good list. 

Based on your comments re the purpose being for prestige and recruiting, if the junior golfer is already a top 25 or top 50 player and a committed golfer - why not just pursue a lot of amateur events, and even try for qualifiers to get into professional events (ie BB, Akina, Russell, etc.)? 
 

Also, my observation is that the US Jr Am success depends a lot on luck - both for the entry in as well as the bracket. Many top players get knocked out while a few guys get hot with easy draws. Not saying it’s not fair, but that the final 16 players are not necessarily the top 16 players in the field - thus not a good gauge of how good one is. 
 

As for Sage, I’ve heard it’s a great event (for prestige) but I don’t see how winning a small (albeit strong) high school field counts as much as beating elite college, amateur or professionals in a legit 100-156 person event. 

I agree playing high-level Amateur (or even Pro) events is ideal for a top junior golfer

 

I just couldn't find, so am trying to create, a ranked tournament list resource; similar to "USNWR Top Colleges", a somewhat subjective source that others could reference in deciding which tournaments to apply to and try to compete in

 

9 hours ago, golfdad1 said:

Sage Vslley all the way. No top junior declines it. The US Junior is great but doesn't include a lot of top US Juniors due to the stupidity of their WAGR exemptions, and the fact that anyone can get through an 18 hole Qualifer, some of which are held on crappy courses. The DJ also has a great field and is very well run. For AJGAs, probably the Jr Playyers is the best.

Good point about the Dustin Johnson World Junior - often overlooked

[BallsBreakFast]

9 hours ago, golferdad8 said:

...Also, my observation is that the US Jr Am success depends a lot on luck - both for the entry in as well as the bracket. Many top players get knocked out while a few guys get hot with easy draws. Not saying it’s not fair, but that the final 16 players are not necessarily the top 16 players in the field - thus not a good gauge of how good one is... 

I think part of the appeal of the Jr Am is similar to March Madness - there are clear favorites but also Cinderellas who get hot at the right time, as well as teams that got into the field by winning their small conference tournament (like WAGR exemptions!).  And nowadays the skill levels at the very top are so close, that to win you do need a meaningful luck element; its not like back when Tiger won 3 in a row.  While the final 16 many not be the initial top 16 (and there will be arguments how to define these "top 16"), I think by the time you get to the final 4, everyone will agree that they all can make a solid case why they deserve to be there.

Edited January 11 by BallsBreakFast

[BallsBreakFast]

2 hours ago, Golfquant said:

...I just couldn't find, so am trying to create, a ranked tournament list resource; similar to "USNWR Top Colleges", a somewhat subjective source that others could reference in deciding which tournaments to apply to and try to compete in...

If you look at the list of events for Minh (https://www.wagr.com/playerprofile/nguyen-anh-minh-36245) and Malixi (https://www.wagr.com/playerprofile/rianne-mikhaela-malixi-31475) - both of whom are still junior golfers - you will get a solid list of the top events in the US and internationally. Both have outstanding golf resumes for a junior player - ams, pro events, int'l team events, and elite junior invitationals. 

[LawGenius305]

12 hours ago, golfdad1 said:

Sage Vslley all the way. No top junior declines it. The US Junior is great but doesn't include a lot of top US Juniors due to the stupidity of their WAGR exemptions, and the fact that anyone can get through an 18 hole Qualifer, some of which are held on crappy courses. The DJ also has a great field and is very well run. For AJGAs, probably the Jr Playyers is the best.

Yep. The USGA Junior qualifiers are beyond dumb. Anyone can catch lightning in a bottle for a day. These qualifiers should be more expansive. At least 36 holes. This should be the biggest major of the year for juniors. I have seen kids qualify that couldn't break a line up at a bad NAIA school.

Edited January 11 by LawGenius305

[LawGenius305]

13 hours ago, Golfingdawg19 said:

Golfweek used to have a junior

golf Tournament ranking. They looked at the strength of field and several other factors. I looked for it the other day and couldn’t find it 

stopped doing them over a year ago.

[StoutKing]

13 minutes ago, LawGenius305 said:

Yep. The USGA Junior qualifiers are beyond dumb. Anyone can catch lightning in a bottle for a day. These qualifiers should be more expansive. At least 36 holes. This should be the biggest major of the year for juniors. I have seen kids qualify that couldn't break a line up at a bad NAIA school.

I think that's why the USGA is expanding exemptions. 

[golferdad8]

1 hour ago, BallsBreakFast said:

While the final 16 many not be the initial top 16 (and there will be arguments how to define these "top 16"), I think by the time you get to the final 4, everyone will agree that they all can make a solid case why they deserve to be there.

I agree there should be a better list - perhaps someone can crowd source one or have a kid survey all the coaches for input. It would be a good “passion project” for aspiring college applicant that could get published & help shape future of college recruiting. 
 

Re: US Jr, it’s too bad to see it drop in prestige. I see lots of kids become highly desired by top schools after getting hot at a one day Q (coaches can’t help themselves) and then fade the rest of year, not able to get top 5 or even top 10 finishes at AJGA Opens. Coaches are so hungry about “brand” validation that they brag in the school bios about getting kids who get into top 32 or top 64 into match play - but who end up underperforming in college (against “inferior”) players. 
 

The other tournament that’s become a  joke is the IMG US world - now usswing. It used to be quite special with 4 days of the best junior golfers. It became a pay to play w lots of favoritism (for socal players), whacky exemptions, and one day Q’s with limited entries that excluded many top players (the bottom half of the leaderboard are just them trying to check the boxes for new country flags). Now factor in $800/night for rooms and crappy courses (for girls & younger age players) that no wonder it’s a joke (although coaches like going there for a nice paid vacation). 

[LOB-Dwight]

21 hours ago, golferdad8 said:

This is a very good list. 

Based on your comments re the purpose being for prestige and recruiting, if the junior golfer is already a top 25 or top 50 player and a committed golfer - why not just pursue a lot of amateur events, and even try for qualifiers to get into professional events (ie BB, Akina, Russell, etc.)? 
 

Also, my observation is that the US Jr Am success depends a lot on luck - both for the entry in as well as the bracket. Many top players get knocked out while a few guys get hot with easy draws. Not saying it’s not fair, but that the final 16 players are not necessarily the top 16 players in the field - thus not a good gauge of how good one is. 
 

As for Sage, I’ve heard it’s a great event (for prestige) but I don’t see how winning a small (albeit strong) high school field counts as much as beating elite college, amateur or professionals in a legit 100-156 person event. 

BB, Akina and Russell are great players but none of them qualified for any of the pro events they played in-all sponsor exemptions. (Russell top 25’d at the first KFT event and got in the following week). Russell playing one of seven Farmers PQ’s this Wednesday. Thats a long way to travel for an 18 hole PQ. https://scpga.bluegolf.com/bluegolfw/scpga25/event/scpga258/contest/1/leaderboard.htm
Russell is currently T1 at the Jones Cup and has been playing great of late. Have to think he is on the BB skip college path. 

[golfdad1]

10 hours ago, golferdad8 said:

I agree there should be a better list - perhaps someone can crowd source one or have a kid survey all the coaches for input. It would be a good “passion project” for aspiring college applicant that could get published & help shape future of college recruiting. 
 

Re: US Jr, it’s too bad to see it drop in prestige. I see lots of kids become highly desired by top schools after getting hot at a one day Q (coaches can’t help themselves) and then fade the rest of year, not able to get top 5 or even top 10 finishes at AJGA Opens. Coaches are so hungry about “brand” validation that they brag in the school bios about getting kids who get into top 32 or top 64 into match play - but who end up underperforming in college (against “inferior”) players. 
 

The other tournament that’s become a  joke is the IMG US world - now usswing. It used to be quite special with 4 days of the best junior golfers. It became a pay to play w lots of favoritism (for socal players), whacky exemptions, and one day Q’s with limited entries that excluded many top players (the bottom half of the leaderboard are just them trying to check the boxes for new country flags). Now factor in $800/night for rooms and crappy courses (for girls & younger age players) that no wonder it’s a joke (although coaches like going there for a nice paid vacation). 

The IMG field is so weak. 
Wondering how this year's US Jr champ will do in general. Hasn't done well in other big events at tough courses. 

[LOB-Dwight]

14 hours ago, Golfquant said:

I agree playing high-level Amateur (or even Pro) events is ideal for a top junior golfer

 

I just couldn't find, so am trying to create, a ranked tournament list resource; similar to "USNWR Top Colleges", a somewhat subjective source that others could reference in deciding which tournaments to apply to and try to compete in

 

Good point about the Dustin Johnson World Junior - often overlooked

You can search WAGR by past Junior events and then sort by Power. Obviously no 2 day events (cuz WAGR stinks for US juniors) . https://www.wagr.com/mens-events 

[wegobomber31]

To answer the original question, I think there is only one junior tournament where anyone will care or mention somebody winning more than 10 years from now and that is the U.S. Junior. Everything else is a distant, distant second.

 

As far as other junior tournaments, I think it boils down to how many of the top 25-30 kids are playing in the event. With that in mind, I think Simplify, Junior Players, Junior Invitational and maybe Rolex are in the next tier, then a handful of events in the next tier after that (DJ World). 
 

WAGR power rating can be a little misleading as it’s heavily based on how many international players there are in the field (helps Jr Players and Jr Inv) and is a function of the top players rankings at the time of the tournament.  A lot of good US kids don’t have fully baked (less than 8 tournaments) WAGR rankings and therefore contribute very little to the Power. 
 

all this to say, I think Simplify is probably the second best event, then either Junior Inv or Junior Players next. the Junior PGA in a Ryder Cup year usually has a strong field. 
 

By the way, is the Junior Invitational even happening this year? As far as I know, no invites have gone out yet and no dates have been posted.

[kiddoc]

These are important lists for established junior players.

 

If someone is looking for general junior advice, the best tournaments to enter are ones your child has a chance to win.

 

 

[leezer99]

5 hours ago, wegobomber31 said:

To answer the original question, I think there is only one junior tournament where anyone will care or mention somebody winning more than 10 years from now and that is the U.S. Junior. Everything else is a distant, distant second.

 

As far as other junior tournaments, I think it boils down to how many of the top 25-30 kids are playing in the event. With that in mind, I think Simplify, Junior Players, Junior Invitational and maybe Rolex are in the next tier, then a handful of events in the next tier after that (DJ World). 
 

WAGR power rating can be a little misleading as it’s heavily based on how many international players there are in the field (helps Jr Players and Jr Inv) and is a function of the top players rankings at the time of the tournament.  A lot of good US kids don’t have fully baked (less than 8 tournaments) WAGR rankings and therefore contribute very little to the Power. 
 

all this to say, I think Simplify is probably the second best event, then either Junior Inv or Junior Players next. the Junior PGA in a Ryder Cup year usually has a strong field. 
 

By the way, is the Junior Invitational even happening this year? As far as I know, no invites have gone out yet and no dates have been posted.

Full field for JI was announced in March last year and I think invites went out in February. You worried about not getting in. 😂 

[wegobomber31]

7 hours ago, leezer99 said:

Full field for JI was announced in March last year and I think invites went out in February. You worried about not getting in. 😂 

they had posted players who were invited and committed as early as mid-November last year and had 4 similar posts out by this time last year. And no 2025 dates yet on their website. 

[golferdad8]

11 hours ago, kiddoc said:

These are important lists for established junior players.

 

If someone is looking for general junior advice, the best tournaments to enter are ones your child has a chance to win.

 

 

Even if don’t win, I do think top finishes & ability to go low are good indicators of future/college success.

 

Btw @Tugu is being proven right every time we see top 50 ranked players (with -5 JGS scoring differential) who average 75+ & without many top 5 finishes become a top college recruit but then fade in college tournaments & beyond. 

[BallsBreakFast]

On 1/12/2025 at 1:45 AM, golferdad8 said:

I agree there should be a better list.... 

If my kid is somehow able to play some of the below (other than the top 2-5 not in any particular order; all junior events; no team events; US and int'l - but still missing some in Korea, Japan and Europe) in the next 3-4 years and is able to play well, I don't doubt she'd get D1 coaches' attention. And would look even better if able to include a few of the amateur and team events which some of top girls play.  TBF coming up with a target list is probably the trivial part...figuring out how to access, qualify and/or get invites is the bigger challenge...🤯

U.S. Girls' Junior
Junior Invitational Sage Valley
World Junior Girls Championship
Toyota Junior World Cup
R&A Girls Amateur Championship
ANNIKA Invitational
Royal Junior
Mizuho Americas
Seri Pak Annika Invitational
Junior PGA Championship
Western Women's Junior
PING Invitational
Rolex Tournament of Champions
Fortinet Girls Invitational
Dustin Johnson World Junior
Rolex Girls Junior Championship
Australia Girls Amateur
APGC Junior Championships
IMG Academy Junior World Championship
Junior Orange Bowl
AJGA Invitational presented by PING
Buick China Junior Championship
HSBC China Junior
RLX Ralph Lauren Junior Classic
R&A Junior Open
Nelly Invitational
Selangor International
Any state girls championships

Edited January 14 by BallsBreakFast

[Golfquant]

7 hours ago, golferdad8 said:

Btw @Tugu is being proven right every time we see top 50 ranked players (with -5 JGS scoring differential) who average 75+ & without many top 5 finishes become a top college recruit but then fade in college tournaments & beyond. 

Are there many examples of this?  It seems more the exception, not the rule - and most likely only happens to kids who just used golf to gain admission to a school?

[wegobomber31]

2 hours ago, Golfquant said:

Are there many examples of this?  It seems more the exception, not the rule - and most likely only happens to kids who just used golf to gain admission to a school?

When I looked at this last year, I only found 2 of the top 50 golfers with scoring averages slightly above 73. Most are in the 71s and 72s. There wasn’t anybody in the top 150 with a 75 scoring average. 

Edited January 14 by wegobomber31

[LawGenius305]

9 hours ago, golferdad8 said:

Even if don’t win, I do think top finishes & ability to go low are good indicators of future/college success.

 

Btw @Tugu is being proven right every time we see top 50 ranked players (with -5 JGS scoring differential) who average 75+ & without many top 5 finishes become a top college recruit but then fade in college tournaments & beyond. 

College coaches see that -5 and think "they must be good". They really need to do a deeper dive into what they are scoring.  At the end of the day, a scoring differential doesn't matter. What matters is are they consistent and can they shoot red numbers.

Edited January 14 by LawGenius305

[Tugu]

1 hour ago, wegobomber31 said:

When I looked at this last year, I only found 2 of the top 50 golfers with scoring averages slightly above 73. Most are in the 71s and 72s. There wasn’t anybody in the top 150 with a 75 scoring average. 

How many events per player are you data mining? Is your result inclusive of all the the events they play without any weighting? Just simple stroke average of ALL competitive rounds played?

Edited January 14 by Tugu

[wegobomber31]

45 minutes ago, Tugu said:

How many events per player are you data mining? Is your result inclusive of all the the events they play without any weighting? Just simple stroke average of ALL competitive rounds played?

Just tournament rounds on JGS events (the rounds that pop up when you select a players name). I had the data available when I looked at the difference between TUGR and JGS when TUGR first came out. 

 

On JGS you can no longer select copy and paste any of their data so I won’t be refreshing the analysis anytime soon.  I’m sure one could use ChatGPT to scrape this data, but I’m not going to bother with it. 

[Tugu]

26 minutes ago, wegobomber31 said:

Just tournament rounds on JGS events (the rounds that pop up when you select a players name). I had the data available when I looked at the difference between TUGR and JGS when TUGR first came out. 

 

On JGS you can no longer select copy and paste any of their data so I won’t be refreshing the analysis anytime soon.  I’m sure one could use ChatGPT to scrape this data, but I’m not going to bother with it. 

The data as presented by JGS shows approximately half of top 150 players at this time having single digit number of events in their counting tournaments. No statistician can draw much qualitative conclusion from such a sample alone. I'm curious about a true stroke average. Can't be that half of top 150 ranked kids play sub 10 events a year. If they are playing AM events, I'd still like to know their scoring average if trying to sift through data to make any predictions on future success.

 

I do however reiterate that noone needs JGS rankings to know if Miles Russell, Asterisk Talley, BB or LC are good players or not. Those types of kids go low, win or place high with some regularity. All attributes of potential successful golfers beyond junior golf.

Edited January 14 by Tugu

[golferdad8]

1 hour ago, wegobomber31 said:

When I looked at this last year, I only found 2 of the top 50 golfers with scoring averages slightly above 73. Most are in the 71s and 72s. There wasn’t anybody in the top 150 with a 75 scoring average. 

 

Btw @Tugu is being proven right every time we see top 50 ranked players (with -5 JGS scoring differential) who average 75+ & without many top 5 finishes become a top college recruit but then fade in college tournaments & beyond. 

 

***

 

I think my statement above is being misunderstood. I didn't say top 50 guys have those stats...

What I was trying to explain was that whenever I saw those stats by "top junior golfers," they tend to fade in college (or not play much on the team). 

 

As one example, one top 2025 JGS player who's committed to a top golf school:

13 tournaments, -4.5 scoring differentials, 75 strokes avg, with only 7 out of 36 rounds below par.

There's an AJGA win, but on all the other 12 tournaments, the highest was #14 and was at the bottom half or bottom quartile finish (second highest finish was #14).

Unfortunately, these stats and JGS rankings are not good predictor of who will performance well in college.

 

Going back to the OP comments, what is the goal of having these top tournaments rankings? 
Is it to play in the toughest tournaments and get high scoring differentials and rankings?
Is it to win? 

Is it to keep getting better by playing with top players?

Is it to get WAGR ranking?

If the goal is to eventually go pro, the best advice I heard was from Cameron Champ's dad, Jeff Champ:

1/3 tournaments - go learn and win by the highest margin possible (learning to go low, perhaps low 60s).

1/3 tournaments - be competitive with top players and be in the hunt to win or have a top finish

1/3 tournaments - play amateurs or with pros and get your butts kicked, and learn to get better

 

 

[golferdad8]

1 hour ago, LawGenius305 said:

College coaches see that -5 and think "they must be good". They really need to do a deeper dive into what they are scoring.  At the end of the day, a scoring differential doesn't matter. What matters is are they consistent and can they shoot red numbers.

+1