Four of the top 10 boys in the Polo Golf Rankings will represent the West Team, led by fourth-ranked Norman Xiong. He won the Thunderbird International Junior in May, and at the Polo Golf Junior Classic last November, he advanced to the semifinals before losing to East Team foe and eventual champion Ryan Gerard. Xiong will return to Wyndham Cup after totaling a 3-1-0 record last year.
Also returning will be Philip Barbaree, who tallied the Cup-clinching point for the West last year. He was named the 2015 Rolex Junior Player of the Year after winning the U.S. Junior Amateur and the Rolex Tournament of Champions. The other three boys with previous Wyndham Cup experience are: Cooper Dossey (2014 record: 1-3-0); Spencer Soosman (2015 record: 1-3-0); and Matthew Wolff (2015 record: 1-2-1).
Kaitlyn Papp is No. 1 in the Polo Golf Rankings, and she is the only player on either team with multiple years of Wyndham Cup experience (2014, 2015). Papp has top-five finishes in her last four AJGA tournaments, including a quarterfinal appearance at the 2015 Polo Golf Junior Classic and a T5 showing at the 2016 Rolex Tournament of Champions. She tallied a 2-2-0 record at last year’s Wyndham Cup and was a member of the victorious U.S. PING Junior Solheim Cup Team.
The other two girls making their second Wyndham Cup appearances are Alyaa Abdulghany (2015 record: 1-1-2), and Hailee Cooper (2015 record: 1-3-0). Abdulghany has top-10 finishes in her last six national events, including a win at the AJGA Junior at Carlton Oaks in April. Cooper notched her sixth career AJGA victory in June, extending her streak to four straight years with at least one AJGA win.
West players making their Wyndham Cup debut include Cole Hammer, who competed in the 2015 U.S. Open at the age of 15, three-time AJGA champion Emilee Hoffman, and Grace Ni, who has two AJGA victories in 2016.