Cannon, Herman, Morris, Newsom set for PGA Junior Championships at Congressional
BETHESDA, Md. (July 29, 2024) — Two of golf’s major junior championships—the 48th Junior PGA Championships—tee off at storied Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland, July 30-Aug. 2.
The Junior PGA Championships are open to amateurs no older than 18 years of age on August 2, and all contestants must have qualified through a PGA of America Section Championship or have been granted an exemption into the field.
The four-day, 72-hole event will feature 312 players—156 girls, 156 boys—playing concurrently. Each division will have a 36-hole cut on Wednesday, July 31, to the low 60 scorers and ties, and a 54-hole cut Thursday, August 1, to the low 30 scorers and ties. The first two rounds will be played on both the Blue and Gold Courses at Congressional before moving exclusively to the Blue Course for the final two rounds.
The top female junior golfers will compete for the Patty Berg Trophy. The girls division features seven of the top 15 junior players, according to the Rolex American Junior Golf Association Rankings, highlighted by No. 5 Asterisk Talley, No. 6 Aphrodite Deng and No. 9 Elise Lee.
The top male junior golfers competing for the Jack Nicklaus Trophy feature seven of the top 15 junior players, including No. 4 Pennson Badgett, No. 5 Will Hartman and No. 6 Jackson Byrd.
Representing Oklahoma in the boys field are Jacob Newsom of Broken Arrow and Sam Morris of Tulsa. On the girls side are Lisa Herman of Jenks, Evyn Cannon of Edmond and Emerie Schartz of Wichita is also a frequent competitor in Oklahoma Junior Golf Tour events.
Lucy Darr of Stillwater had qualified in one of two South Central Section qualifiers but had to withdraw. Meg Tilma of Wichita has replaced her in the field.
While Cannon has burst on the Oklahoma scene as a 14-year-old by winning the OGA Junior Girls Championship and finishing third in the WOGA Junior Championship and second in the WOGA State Amateur, Herman hasn’t played in the state in 2024, including skipping the high school season and all state amateur events to concentrate on a national schedule. She won the Class 6A state championship as a freshman for Jenks in 2023.
For Morris, who begins his collegiate career at Oral Roberts next month, this is the cap of a great junior career, while Newsom is a 15-year-old sophomore who recently fired a 61 at Stone Creek Golf Course in Tulsa to win a PGA South Central Section interclub event.
More than 100 college coaches are expected to be in attendance for the final two rounds.
The Junior PGA Championships are where the best in the world get their start. Among previous participants are Tiger Woods, Rose Zhang, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Lexi Thompson, Yuka Saso, Scottie Scheffler, Akshay Bhatia and Inbee Park.
The 2023 Junior PGA Championships were held at Hot Springs Country Club, where 15-year-old Gianna Clemente won the Girls Division by three strokes and 14-year-old Miles Russell cruised to a seven-shot victory in the Boys Division. The two champions were both members of the 2023 U.S. Junior Ryder Cup Team in Rome. Clemente’s stellar year included making her first LPGA Tour cut to finish T-47 earlier this summer at the ShopRite LPGA Classic, while Russell made history in April as the youngest player to make the cut on the Korn Ferry Tour, ultimately finishing T-20 at the LECOM Suncoast Classic.
