The Junior PLAYERS Championship presented by Rolex returns to TPC Sawgrass for the 18th year

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The 18th edition of The Junior PLAYERS Championship presented by Rolex will take place August 29 - September 1, 2024 at TPC Sawgrass, the home of The PLAYERS Championship.

Thanks to a longtime partnership between the PGA TOUR and the American Junior Golf Association, 78 of the world's top-ranked male junior golfers will compete in a 54-hole, stroke-play event mirroring THE PLAYERS Championship setup and hole locations. Rolex also added support in 2022 by becoming a presenting partner.

About The Junior PLAYERS Championship Field
The international contingent highlights the field with representatives from 12 foreign countries. Players from 17 U.S. states (11 from Florida) are set to compete in one of the AJGA’s annual top boys fields, featuring 13 of the top 20 in the Rolex AJGA Rankings.

Of the 78 boys competing, 35 players are signed or verbally committed to play college golf. There are five sets of future college teammates in the field:

• Auburn University
  
  • Logan Reilly of Lovettsville, Virginia
  • Jake Albert of Blacksburg, Virginia
• Stanford University
  
  • Logan Kim of Altadena, California
  • Edan Cui of Atherton, California
• University of Florida
  
  • Parker Severs of Lakewood Ranch, Florida
  • Trevor Gutchewski of Elkhorn, Nebraska
• University of Texas at Austin
  
  • Brooks Simmons of Dallas, Texas
  • Adam Villanueva of Austin, Texas
• Vanderbilt University
  
  • Will Hartman of Marvin, North Carolina
  • Jon Ed Steed of Enterprise, Alabama

Top Players to Watch

Miles Russell | Jacksonville Beach, Florida

Russell enters the week as the top-ranked player in the field at No. 1 in the Rolex AJGA Rankings. The 2023 and youngest Rolex Junior Player of the Year is back to defend his title and looks to become the tournament’s first two-time winner. The 2027 grad tied for sixth at the 2024 Junior Invitational at Sage Valley and made his PGA TOUR debut at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in June. Before his TOUR debut, Russell made history in April at the LECOM Suncoast Classic by becoming the youngest player to make a cut on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Tyler Watts | Huntsville, Alabama

Watts holds the No. 2 spot in the Rolex AJGA Rankings. After placing fourth at the 2023 The Junior PLAYERS Championship, Watts won the 2023 Jones Cup Junior Invitational. The Rolex Junior All-American finished third this year at the Dustin Johnson World Junior and tied for second at the Mayakoba Invitational. He most recently finished as the runner-up at the 2024 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship against Trevor Gutschewski of Omaha, Nebraska, who is also competing this week.

Pennson Badgett | Pilot Mountain, North Carolina

Badgett quickly ascended to No. 4 in the Rolex AJGA Rankings this year after winning three AJGA events. He won the Visit Goldsboro NC Junior Championship in April, the UNIQLO / Adam Scott Junior Championship in May and the RLX Ralph Lauren Junior Classic in June. Badgett played on the victorious East Team at this year’s Wyndham Cup.

Blades Brown | Nashville, Tennessee

Ranked at No. 5 in the Rolex AJGA Rankings, Brown has had a couple of top five finishes this year. He finished third at the AJGA Simplify Boys Championship at Carlton Woods and tied for third at the RLX Ralph Lauren Junior Classic. He made his PGA TOUR debut at the Myrtle Beach Classic in May and became the second straight 16-year-old to make a PGA TOUR cut. This summer, he earned stroke-play medalist honors at the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship to join Tiger Woods and Bobby Clampett as the only three people to earn medalist honors at both the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship and the U.S. Amateur Championship.

The Junior PLAYERS Championship History

Since 2007, the top boys have traveled to Ponte Vedra in search of a signature victory. Past champions include:

• 2007 Morgan Hoffmann
• 2008 Evan Beck
• 2009 Bobby Wyatt
• 2010 Michael Johnson
• 2011 Gavin Hall
• 2012 Robby Shelton IV
• 2013 Austen Truslow
• 2014 Sam Horsfield
• 2015 Chun-an Yu
• 2016 Khavish Varadan
• 2017 Shuai Ming (Ben) Wong
• 2018 Travis Vick
• 2019 Jayden Schaper
• 2020 David Ford
• 2021 Benjamin James
• 2022 Jeffrey Guan
• 2023 Miles Russell

TPC Sawgrass has hosted the iconic event each year except in 2016 (Sawgrass Country Club) during extensive renovations on THE PLAYERS Stadium Course. From 2011-2013, the first two rounds were played on Dye’s Valley with the final round on THE PLAYERS Stadium Course.

Now-PGA TOUR alum Morgan Hoffman won the inaugural The Junior PLAYERS Championship in 2007. Hoffmann’s junior golf career featured five AJGA victories, including four Invitationals, and a selection as Rolex Junior All-American.

The lowest round in the history of the Junior PLAYERS Championship was set by Logan McCallister of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in the second round of the 2017 tournament at 9-under-par 63. McCallister ultimately tied for second after a three-hole aggregate playoff with Shuai Ming (Ben) Wong of (Hong Kong) The Woodlands, Texas, and Jake Beber-Frankel of Miami. Wong secured his first AJGA Invitational victory with a par on No. 18, the final playoff hole.

The new low 54-hole total of 16-under-par 200 at TPC Sawgrass was set in 2022 by Guan. His rounds of 67-69-64 shattered the previous record from 2018 of 8-under-par 208 originally held by Travis Vick, Akshay Bhatia and Bo Jin. Ben James also tied the previous low 54-hole total on his way to victory at the 2021 event.

Related: Playoff History | Tournament History

Graduation to THE PLAYERS Championship

The AJGA has a storied history of junior, amateur, college and professional success and The Junior PLAYERS Championship showcases an impressive list of 61 alumni all-time who graduated to the PGA TOUR stage.

Major winner and AJGA tournament host Justin Thomas made history at the 2021 PLAYERS Championship when he became the first The Junior PLAYERS Championship alumni to win the professional event. Thomas won the tournament by one stroke at 14-under-par 274.

Thomas, a two-time Rolex Junior All-American as a junior golfer, has hosted his own AJGA tournament since 2016 and spends time on-site hitting shots with sponsors and sharing advice with juniors. He also supports kids who need a financial boost to play through his Liberty National ACE Grant  endowment. Thomas competed twice at TPC Sawgrass as a junior (2008  and 2009 ).

Scottie Scheffler led the contingent of 38 The Junior PLAYERS Championship alumni to compete in the 2024 PLAYERS Championship. Scheffler won the PLAYERS with a score of 20-under par. In his junior days, Scheffler a three-time Rolex Junior All-American and the 2013 Rolex Junior Player of the Year. He played in the Junior PLAYERS from 2011-2013 with his best finish as fifth place.

International Exposure

Since the tournament's inception, international players from every corner of the globe gather to test their skills against top players from the U.S.

In 2019, Jayden Schaper of South Africa, played in his third The Junior PLAYERS Championship and won, becoming the fifth champion with international ties. The 2020 grad carried that momentum into the 2020 European Tour's South African Open where he finished T6 and became the first amateur to finish in the top-six since Ernie Els in 1989.

2022 champion, Jeffrey Guan of Bexley, Australia, is the most recent international player to win The Junior PLAYERS Championship. He still holds the 54-hole scoring record at -16. Guan went on to represent the International team at the 2022 Junior Presidents Cup and is now playing professionally.

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