3 Things to Know: 77th U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship

For the first time in more than 15 years, the pinnacle of girls’ junior golf is returning to the Tar Heel State.

Old Chatham Golf Club, in Durham, N.C., will play host to the 77th U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, last held in North Carolina in 2010 when Doris Chen stood victorious at The Country Club of North Carolina, in Pinehurst.

This year’s national championship will build upon the state’s rich golf heritage that includes 38 USGA championships, including four memorable U.S. Opens – and one U.S. Women’s Open -- with a new champion being crowned following six challenging days of competition.

The 156-player field, featuring the top female juniors from around the world, are all vying for a chance to hoist the Glenna Collett Vare Trophy, and add their names to an illustrious list that includes World Golf Hall of Famers Mickey Wright, JoAnne Gunderson Carner, Amy Alcott, Hollis Stacy, Nancy Lopez and Marlene Bauer Hagge as well as recent champs Lexi Thompson, Minjee Lee, Ariya Jutanugarn, Rose Zhang and current world No. 1 amateur Kiara Romero. 

The champion also gains an exemption into the 2027 U.S. Women's Open Presented by Ally at Inverness Club, spots in the 2026 and 2027 U.S. Women's Amateur Championships, and an invitation into the 2027 Augusta National Women's Amateur.

With competitors ranging in age from 12-year-old Bella Simones to University of Wyoming rising sophomore Kiley Reisner, who just beat the age deadline by a day (not turning 19 until July 19), the championship represents an opportunity to solidify a top junior's already-proven legacy or unearth the next "big thing" in girls’ junior golf.

Before a champion emerges from the ashes, here are three things to know heading into the championship that begins with 36 holes of stroke play:

A Goddess Lays Down Her Crown

Although still age-eligible, Aphrodite Deng, who shares a name with the Greek goddess of love, chose not to defend the title she claimed a year ago at the Atlanta Athletic Club, in Johns Creek, Ga. Instead, the 16-year-old Canadian decided to accept an invitation to this past weekend’s Amundi Evian Championship, in France, one of the five women’s professional majors. Deng, who became the first Canadian to ever win the U.S. Girls’ Junior when she defeated Singapore’s Xingtong Chen, joins 2024 runner-up Asterisk Talley as top-ranked juniors who eschewed this championship to play at Evian. Both players made the cut in this year’s U.S. Women’s Open at The Riviera C.C. 

That leaves the door open for a new name to be added to the coveted Glenna Collett Vare Trophy. On paper, favorite is Japan’s Anna Iwanaga, who is the field’s highest-ranked player according to the World Amateur Golf Ranking®/WAGR® at No. 16. Iwanaga, who owns multiple victories overseas, is coming off a two-stroke victory in this year’s Toyota Junior World Cup. A member of the Japan National Team, she recorded seven WAGR® victories in 2025 alone and represented her country at the 2025 World Amateur Team Championship in Singapore.  

Eleven additional top-100 ranked players in the WAGR® are in this year’s championship field (five more than last year): Yujie Liu (No. 20), Seoah Kim (No. 30), Arianna Lau (No. 32), Amelie Zalsman (No. 39) – who is making her fifth appearance in the Girls’ Junior, Anna Fang (No. 48), Shauna Liu (No. 57), Amelia Harris (No. 66), Rayee Feng (No. 73), Nikki Oh (No. 74), Clairey Lin (No. 80) and Lily Peng (No. 90).

USA! USA! USA!

As is the case with most USGA championships, the United States of America dominates the field with 117 players – the next closest country is Canada with seven. What is different than year’s past is how much U.S. National Development Program representation will be present at Old Chatham Golf Club.

More than 40 USNDP-affiliated players will tee it up, including 10 of the 12 female players on the U.S. National Junior Team, the pillar of the U.S. National Development Program that was established in 2024 to create a unified pathway designed to nurture the potential of America’s top players. Asterisk Talley, the highest ranked WAGR® player on the USNJT, would have been at Old Chatham had she not chosen to play in the Evian Championship.

This figure is a three-player increase from 2025 when just eight players competed. 

Mia Clausen, Zoe Cusack and Eliana Saga are first-year U.S. National Junior Team members in this year’s field. Clausen, a Californian, is a two-time San Diego Junior Golf Association Player of the Year who is competing in her third U.S. Girls’ Junior after advancing to the Round of 16 in 2025. Cusack, a University of Virginia signee, is also no stranger to high-level competition having competed in the 2026 U.S. Women’s Open at The Riviera Country Club (one of six players in the field to do so). Saga is one of the biggest risers in the field, coming off an American Junior Golf Association victory at the RLX Ralph Lauren Junior Classic at Bethpage State Park’s Black Golf Course. That is the only match-play competition on the circuit’s competitive calendar.

In addition to the three newcomers, National Junior Team veterans Mia Hammond, Nikki Oh, Emerie Schartz, Angela Zhang and Amelie Zalsman will play in the championship. Zalsman, a second-year member of the U.S. National Junior Team who qualified for the 2024 U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster (Pa.) Country Club, is competing in her fifth U.S. Girls’ Junior, the most of anyone in the field. She is also coming off a trip to the Round-of-16 at The Women’s Amateur Championship last month at Muirfield in Scotland.

In addition to National Junior Team representation, this year’s championship will also feature 31 USNDP State Junior Team players and eight USNDP Grant Athletes. At the Atlanta Athletic Club in 2025, there were only 10 State Junior Team players and four Grant Athletes. 

A Bruin on the Prowl

Kacey Ly enters the championship a step ahead of most of her competitors. 

Ly is one of three players in the field who have already enrolled and completed their freshman college season. Moreover, she found great success as a freshman at UCLA, winning Big Ten Freshman of the Year and being selected first-team All-Big Ten. 

The rising sophomore from Temple City, Calif., led UCLA with a 72.54 scoring average, secured four top five finishes and posted a low round of 66 during Round 2 of the Huntington Bank Collegiate in April. She was also a three-time Big Ten Freshman of the Week selection. 

Prior to being named Freshman of the Year for the Bruins, Ly prepped at Temple City High School and put together a convincing junior golf résumé that includes a Round-of-32 appearance in last year’s U.S. Girls’ Junior – where she defeated Stanford commit/USJNT member Nikki Oh in the Round of 64 – a quarterfinal appearance alongside Celina Yeo in the 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship and a win at the AJGA Junior at Copper Valley in 2024. 

In terms of other college players in the field, Ly is joined by Kiley Reisner and Keya Naik. Reiser, who turns 19 a mere day after the championship, is a rising sophomore at the University of Wisconsin who recently became the third women's golfer in Cowgirls history to be named to the All-Mountain West team. Naik completed her freshman season at Clemson University, appearing in seven events. Naik was the No. 2 ranked player in the state of Virginia in the 2025 recruiting class and qualified for the 2025 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Bandon Dunes. 

Austin Eames is the USGA’s summer communications/content intern. Email him at aeames@usga.org.