Columbus, Ohio – The American Junior Golf Association is proud to announce the return of the Memorial Junior in 2023. The four-day event will be hosted at Hickory Hills Golf Club for the second time in tournament history.
The open event will bring together 96 male and female junior golfers from around the world to the greater Columbus area to compete in the 54-hole stroke play tournament. AJGA Open tournaments make up the largest part of the AJGA schedule. All members may submit tournament applications to Open tournaments. All AJGA Open tournaments are filled using the AJGA’s Performance Based Entry system.
Past champions of the Memorial Junior include LPGA professional Lindsey Weaver, NCAA standouts Julian Perico (Arkansas), Ashley Gilliam (Mississippi State), and Kary Hollenbaugh (Ohio State).
The Memorial Tournament hosted nearby at Muirfield Village Golf Club annually features a strong field of AJGA alumni. In 2022, the field included 89 alumni – 74% of the field. 2022 champion Billy Horschel along with Max Homa, Jordan Spieth, Will Zalatoris, Patrick Cantlay, and Viktor Hovland headlined the group of 89 alumni.
The Jack Elton Snyder Foundation will again serve as the benefitting charity of the Memorial Junior Junior-Am Fundraising Tournament. Jack Elton Snyder was a member of the AJGA until he passed away at the age of seventeen in 2021. Jack played in nationally competitive golf tournaments for three years from 2018 to 2020. His best AJGA finish was solo third in the qualifier for the Natural Resource Partners Bluegrass Junior presented by Encova Insurance.
Beyond the golf course, Jack left behind a legacy of kindness, generosity, and love. Jack’s parents started a foundation in his honor to provide financial and educational support to benefit junior golfers who demonstrate the values Jack played with, the importance of God and family, integrity, respect, and perseverance. The foundation awarded their first scholarships in 2021 to three deserving junior golfers because of events like this one. Additionally, since its inception, the foundation has been able to award over $75,000 in scholarship monies to 15 junior golfers throughout central Ohio and beyond.
The AJGA’s Junior-Am is modeled after the PGA TOUR’s Pro-Am in which a junior is paired with three amateurs to raise funds for a local charity and the AJGA’s Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE) Grant.
The Memorial Junior runs June 5th through 8th at Hickory Hills Golf Club in Grove City, Ohio. The official practice round and Junior-Am fundraising tournament will be held June 5th with the competitive tournament rounds following on the 6th through 8th.
The AJGA is looking for local supporters to help increase the charitable impact associated with the Memorial Junior. If you are interested, please contact Senior Midwest Regional Director, Ryan Flanagan at rflanagan@ajga.org.
We encourage the Columbus community to volunteer at the Memorial Junior. If you are interested in supporting the AJGA through volunteering please contact Tournament Director, Ty Kempf, tkempf@ajga.org .
For more information about the Memorial Junior visit ajga.org or check out the AJGA on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .
Jack Elton Snyder Foundation Mission Statement
The Jack Elton Snyder Foundation , a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization, provides financial and educational support to benefit Junior Golfers who wish to advance their game of golf while reinforcing the values demonstrated by Jack Elton Snyder: the importance of God and family, integrity, respect, and perseverance.