The 2017 champion of the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley, Joaquin Niemann, not only received the coveted Golden Jacket but soon ascended to the top of the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR), where he has remained until this week. He will lose the top spot as he is making his professional debut at this weeks PGA Tour stop, the Valero Texas Open. His final event as an amateur was just a few weeks ago when he was playing for a Green Jacket, just 17 miles away. Fifty-four players from around the world will attempt to follow Joaquin and become the 8th champion of the premiere event in boys junior golf, played at the eye-pleasing Sage Valley Golf Club, outside Aiken, SC.
The 2018 edition of the Junior Invitational includes 42 players who have signed and/or committed to play college golf at 25 different institutions. The University of Florida leads the way with 6 participants. Here's the breakdown:
Alabama (3), Frankie Capan, Prescott Butler, Canon Claycomb
Arizona State (1), Cameron Sisk
Arkansas (1), Julian Perico
Auburn (1), Alexander Vogelsong
BYU (1), Cole Ponich
Clemson (1), Jacob Bridgeman
Colorado (1), Kristoffer Max
Florida (6), Eugene Hong, Wocheng (Aden) Ye, Clay Merchent, Ricky Castillo, Joseph Pagdin, Tom McKibbin
Florida State (1), Robin Williams
Georgia (2), Trent Phillips, Nicolas Cassidy
Illinois (2), Adrien Dumont de Chassart, Tommy Kuhl
Louisiana State (2), Garrett Barber, Michael Sanders
North Carolina (1), Ryan Burnett
Oklahoma (3), Logan McAllister, Patrick Welch, Turner Hosch
Oklahoma State (1), Rayhan Thomas
Pepperdine (2), Joe Highsmith, William Mouw
SMU (1), Shuai Ming (Ben) Wong
South Carolina (1), Ryan Hall
Stanford (1), Karl Vilips
TCU (2), Alejandro Aguilera, Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira
Texas (3), Parker Coody, Pierceson Coody, Will Thomson
Texas Tech (2), Jansen Smith, Ludwig Aberg
UCF (1), Pedro Lencart
UCLA (1), Sean Maruyama
Vanderbilt (1), Reid Davenport
How competitive is the field at the Junior Invitational? Seven players can claim a #1 ranking in their class by at least one of the major junior golf rankings: Garrett Barber ('18), Ricky Castillo ('19), William Mouw ('19), Rayhan Thomas ('19), Canon Claycomb ('20), Rasmus Hojgaard ('20), Karl Vilips ('20). The field has players who have won major boys championships in the past year: Trent Phillips, William Mouw, Karl Vilips, Akshay Bhatia, Ben Wong, Canon Claycomb, Garrett Barber, Julian Perico and Tom McKibbin. It also includes some guys who have played very well in amateur events against the college guys: Garrett Barber (won Jones Cup), Ricky Castillo (T32 US Amateur) and Joe Pagdin (T2 Azalea Amateur).
These guys are also very familiar with one another, including a set of twins (the Coody brothers), the reigning USGA 4-Ball champs (Frankie Capan & Ben Wong), 2016 Team USA Junior Ryder Cup teammates (Eugene Hong & Patrick Welch), 2017 Team USA Toyota Junior Golf World Cup teammates (Frankie Capan & Travis Vick), 2017 International Team members of the Junior Presidents Cup (Sean Maruyama, Rayhan Thomas, Karl Vilips and Aden Ye) and 2017 Team USA Junior Presidents Cup members (Garrett Barber, Akshay Bhatia, Jacob Bridgeman, Prescott Butler, Canon Claycomb, Joe Highsmith, Eugene Hong, Turner Hosch, William Mouw and Trent Phillips). In a nutshell, it's a deep field of competitive players who are familiar with each other.
Sage Valley has hosted the top juniors since 2011, treating them as well as any junior event. As one college coach once told me, "the only thing that this place is missing, compared to a Tour event, are courtesy cars for the players." And, since the players don't leave the property after arriving early in the week, staying in really nice cottages on the property, they don't need the vehicles. Not to mention, many don't yet have driver's licenses.
