San Jose, CA – The American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) is dedicated to developing the next generation of golfers around the world.
This week at the C.T. Pan Foundation Championship,12 international junior golfers were given the opportunity to play in San Jose, California, at the AJGA's tournament, hosted by the C.T. Pan Foundation.
To start his junior career, Pan placed eighth in the 2008 Scott Robertson event and would go on to earn a second place finish at the same event to conclude his junior career in 2010. Turned professional in 2015, Pan was just the second Taiwanese golfer to win on the PGA TOUR after his victory at the 2019 RBC Heritage. This would be the same year he would host his first AJGA tournament, the 2019 C.T. Pan Junior Championship at The Clubs of Kingwood in Kingwood, Texas. Now with multiple events a year, he dedicates his time to help Taiwanese juniors realize their own golf dreams.
Pan’s vision for his foundation is for all youth to have quality resources through golf and the AJGA provides just that. For the past four years, the AJGA has held the C.T. Pan Foundation Championship, formally named AJGA Junior at San Jose presented by Live View Sports in San Jose, California, where 72 junior golfers ages 12-18 compete to take home the trophy and the title of “Champion”.
However, getting to play in San Jose means more to these international golfers than just taking home a trophy. Hsuan-Yi Chen from Taoyuan City, Taiwan, expresses how valuable this competition is to his future career as a golfer. “To play in the American Junior Golf Association is really {exciting} because it’s one of the biggest recruiting opportunities for American college coaches.”
This is Hsuan-Yi’s third year playing in the C.T. Pan Foundation Championship. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to play here because C.T. played in the AJGA and became a great player, and I want to be just like him.” With the exposure Chen received at the AJGA tournaments he participated in, he was given the opportunity to verbally commit to the University of Houston in Texas.
But Chen isn't the only exemption the C.T. Pan Foundation supported this week. 11 other international juniors had the opportunity to showcase their talent to college coaches thanks to Pan. "I just want to help them as much as I can," C.T. said.
See all the C.T. Pan Foundation exemptions for the event below.
Exemptions:
- Hui Chien Lu of New Taipei City, Taiwan
- Yijia Ren of Dalian, China
- Jiayi Lin of Hangzhou, China
- Ting-Yu Chang of Taichung City, Taiwan
- Hsuan Yi Chen of Taoyuan City, Taiwan
- I-Ju Tsai of Taoyuan City, Taiwan
- Ping-Hsua Hsieh of New Taipei City, Taiwan
- Lung Jui Kao of Kaohsiung City, Taiwan
- Po Cheng Hsu of Taoyuan City, Taiwan
- Chen-En Wu of Hsinchu City, Taiwan
- Chen-Shiuan Wu of Taipei, Taiwan
- Cheng-Wei Hsieh of New Taipei, Taiwan