Okay, well...I feel I should start with an apology. I made the mistake of assuming. I assumed the first 11 members of Team USA were going to be picked *after* the Junior PGA, but it was selected during the final round. Apparently, they wanted to coincide the team announcement with the International team, which uses WAGR to determine their team - released on Wednesdays. Team USA is based on the Rolex AJGA rankings, which was updated that week on Monday. Mea culpa.
Well, today is the start of the Junior Players, and this time I'm certain the last spot will be determined by the end of play on Sunday. First, let's review who has already earned a spot on Team USA (current rank in parenthesis, followed by school committed to):
Garrett Barber (12, LSU)
Jacob Bridgeman (17, Clemson)
Prescott Butler (16, Alabama)
Canon Claycomb (18, uncommitted)
Noah Goodwin (1, SMU)
Cole Hammer (15, Texas)
Joe Highsmith (21, Pepperdine)
Eugene Hong (26, Florida)
Turner Hosch (22, Oklahoma)
William Mouw (5, UCLA)
Trent Phillips (3, Georgia)
The team has this year's U.S. Junior Amateur champion (Goodwin), the Western Junior champion (Mouw), and the Haas Family Invitational champion (Phillips). It has a relatively unknown player at the beginning of the year, that was ranked outside of the top 1300 (Butler), as well as guys that have been household names in the junior golf circuit for years (Barber, Hammer, Hong). Who will join them?
The best bets are the PGA Junior champion and runner-up, Akshay Bhatia and Reid Davenport, respectively. Both are here at TPC Sawgrass ready to compete for another championship. And, if there is a junior player hotter than Akshay, I'd like to meet them. In the past month, he's won the PGA Junior, just missed Monday qualifying for the PGA's Wyndham Championship by a stroke, won another AJGA event and the Joe Cheves, a big regional event in North Carolina that had a field two of Team USA's participants (Bridgeman, Phillips).
That said, Reid will enter the event with a slight edge on grabbing the final spot. The PGA runner-up, a 2018 verbal to Vanderbilt, can lock up the final spot by staying within a finishing spot of Akshay if both finish in the top 10. After that, Akshay has the advantage.
Now, those are not the only two players playing this week that could get the final spot. Ricky Castillo (committed to Florida) can make the team with a win, and a Davenport finish of third or lower. He could also get it with a top 2, but then would need Akshay to finish 7th or worse, and Reid to finish 9th or worse. Outside of that, the remainder of contenders (you can see a list here) all would need to win, and low finishes by the two favorites.
It should be an interesting weekend of golf here in Ponte Vedra Beach.
