U.S. Junior Amateur Championship

The U.S. Junior Amateur is the national championship of junior golf, conducted by the USGA since 1948. It is the event that made Tiger Woods, who remains the only player to win it three straight years, in 1991, 1992, and 1993. Jordan Spieth is the only other multiple winner, taking the title in 2009 and 2011. The champions list also includes Johnny Miller, David Duval, Hunter Mahan, and Nick Dunlap, who in 2023 joined Woods as the only players to have won both the U.S. Junior Amateur and the U.S. Amateur. The format is what separates this championship from almost every other junior event. Two rounds of stroke play cut the field to a 64-player match-play bracket, and the survivor has to win six matches, including a 36-hole final, to lift the trophy. It is golf at its most exposed. There is nowhere to hide over 18 holes of head-to-head competition, and coaches know that a deep run here means a player can handle pressure that stroke-play events never create. In 2026 the championship comes to Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, from July 20 to 25. Saucon Valley is USGA royalty, a repeat U.S. Open and U.S. Senior Open host, and this is the first Junior Amateur it has staged since 1983. Since 2017 the USGA has awarded the champion an exemption into the following year's U.S. Open, which turns the winner's week into a genuine springboard to the professional game.