The U.S. Golf Association will more than double the number of state junior teams for 2025 as the national governing body seeks to rapidly expand its pipeline for the National Development Program that launched last year.
Teams for elite juniors ages 13-18 will debut in California (Northern), Delaware, Idaho, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and West Virginia. Rosters will be released in late 2025.
The seven states already organizing teams – California (Southern), Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Ohio and Tennessee – expect to finalize their rosters by the end of the year.
The USGA intends to have junior teams in all 50 states by 2033. The project is headed by Heather Daly-Donofrio, the USGA’s managing director for player relations and development and a former winner on the LPGA Tour. She was featured last week in a GGP+ story by Lewine Mair.
“There is such a deep talent pool of promising young golfers across the country,” said Chris Zambri, the head coach of the U.S. National Development Program, “and building this state-level network to support them through dedicated development and access to resources will be a game-changer.” READ MORE
Jefferson Park Golf Course in Seattle, Washington, was renamed the Bill Wright Golf Complex on Saturday to honor the late golfer, who grew up in the city and was the first Black American to win a USGA title.
Wright, who died in 2021 at age 84, won the 1959 U.S. Amateur Public Links. He learned to play golf at Jefferson Park and graduated from Seattle’s Franklin High School before winning the 1960 NAIA national championship for Western Washington.
Mayor Bruce Harrell called the recognition “a powerful testament to his legacy as an athlete and a trailblazer.” READ MORE
TAP-INS
Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon will host the 2026 PGA Professional Championship, the PGA of America announced. The resort’s original Bandon Dunes course, a 1999 David McLay Kidd design, and Pacific Dunes, a 2001 Tom Doak creation, will host the four-day, 72-hole event for 312 club and teaching professionals from the 41 PGA sections nationwide. The top 20 scorers will earn exemptions to the 2026 PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. READ MORE
Jimmy Dunne, the former PGA Tour Policy Board member who helped broker the 2023 “framework agreement” with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, has joined the Troon management company’s board of directors. Dunne, an investment banker and president of Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Florida, also is an investor in Scottsdale, Arizona-based Troon, according to Bloomberg. In lamenting that his role with the PGA Tour’s Policy Board had become “utterly superfluous,” Dunne resigned in May in what Ron Green Jr. described in a story in GGP+ as a “cacophony that is as relentless as the cicadas this spring.” READ MORE
TGL, the tech-infused team virtual league backed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy that plans to launch in January, has signed a media-rights deal in Canada with Sportsnet. READ MORE
England Golf appointed Martha Brass as its new chairperson, marking the first female chief of the national organization. Blair, the chief operating officer of BBC Studio Productions, replaces Ian Pattinson, who became captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. READ MORE
Dormie Network, which operates a group of seven private clubs in the U.S., will match contributions up to $50,000 for relief efforts for hurricanes Helene and Milton, with all proceeds going to the American Red Cross. READ MORE
The Annika Foundation, the charitable arm of LPGA champion Annika Sörenstam, will sponsor a new junior girls’ tournament in Thailand. The Annika Invitational Asia will be played April 23-25 at Blue Canyon Country Club Phuket’s Canyon Course and feature 78 players from Asia, Australia and New Zealand. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon