Six Oklahomans take aim at Junior PGA Championships this week

FRISCO, Texas (July 27, 2026) — Two of junior golf’s major championships, the 50th Junior PGA Championships, tee off at Fields Ranch East & West at PGA Frisco July 28-31.

The Junior PGA Championships are open to amateurs no older than 18 years of age on July 31, 2026, who have qualified through a PGA of America Section Championship or have been granted an exemption into the field.

All of the representatives of the PGA South Central Section hail from Oklahoma. Earning spots were boys Jacob Newsom and Porter Hart, teammates at Broken Arrow High School, as well as current OGA Junior champion Ainslee Stanford III of Edmond, who is paired in the first round with Charlie Woods, son of Tiger Woods. Girls who qualified are Juliana Hong of Norman, Megan Kalapura of Tulsa and Dia Singh of Bixby.

The Junior PGA Championships are where the best in the world get their start. Previous participants include Tiger Woods, Rose Zhang, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Lexi Thompson, Yuka Saso, Scottie Scheffler, Akshay Bhatia and Inbee Park.

The four-day, 72-hole championships will feature 312 players (156 girls and 156 boys) playing concurrently. Each division will make a 36-hole cut on Wednesday, July 29, to the low 60 scorers and ties, and a 54-hole cut Thursday, July 30, to the low 30 scorers and ties. The first two rounds will be played on both Fields Ranch East and Fields Ranch West before moving exclusively to Fields Ranch East for the final two rounds.

New for 2026, the final two rounds of the Junior PGA Championships will be streamed live on the PGA of America YouTube channel. The broadcast of the third round on Thursday, July 30, will start at 3 p.m. CDT while the final round stream on Friday, July 31, will begin at 11 a.m. CDT. The stream will run through the conclusion of play both days and the trophy presentation on Friday.

The broadcast, originating from the PGA of America Studios at the Home of the PGA of America, will be led by host Bryan Fenley, analyst Ewan Porter and analyst and on-course reporter Lauren Withrow.

The girls division features five of the country’s top 20 junior players, according to the Rolex American Junior Golf Association Rankings, highlighted by No. 5 Zoe Cusack, No. 8 Vidhi Lakhawala, No. 16 Iris Lee, No. 18 Amber Lee and No. 19 Juliet Oh.

The top male junior golfers competing in the Championship include four of the top 20 junior players: No. 10 Jaden Soong, No. 12 Rory Asselta, No. 19 Grant DeLorenzo and No. 20 Chase Bauer. Also in the field is Woods, the son of 15-time-major-winner and 1990 Junior PGA runner-up Tiger Woods, who finished T-9 at last year’s Junior PGA Championships.

The 2026 Junior PGA Championships will be the first event offering points to qualify for the U.S. Team at the 14th Junior Ryder Cup, which will be contested Sept. 14-16, 2027, at Ballyneety Golf Club and Adare Manor in Ireland.

The 2026 Junior PGA Champions will receive exemptions into the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley while the top two eligible boys and girls will earn exemptions into the 2026 NextGen World Final in Australia. The girls winner will also receive an exemption into the 2027 Augusta National Women’s Amateur while the boys winner receives an exemption into the 2027 Tulum Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour, held at PGA Riviera Maya in Mexico.

The top 15 competitors in 2026 will be granted fully exempt status with the American Junior Golf Association, and the top 20 competitors will be exempt for the 2027 Junior PGA Championships next summer at NCR Country Club in Ohio.

The 2025 Junior PGA Championships were held at Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex in West Lafayette, Indiana, where 16-year-old Asterisk Talley won the Girls Division by one stroke with a score of 12-under 273, while 16-year-old Lunden Esterline captured the Boys Division by seven shots with a score of 19-under 266.