If you saw 5-foot-9, 140-pound Tyler Watts walking down the street, you’d likely not spare him any thought. You’d have no idea that the 17-year-old is one of the most promising juniors in golf, breaking records as the youngest Alabama State Amateur champion and Sunnehanna Amateur champion in those events’ nearly 200 years of combined history.
“I really don’t think (my smaller stature) matters at all,” Watts said. “I think it’s how big your heart is. Whoever has the biggest heart and the biggest brain is usually going to come out on top.”
Currently sixth in the Rolex AJGA Rankings and No. 45 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, Watts is a rising star. The soon-to-be senior at Grissom High School in Huntsville, Alabama, is committed to the University of Tennessee when he graduates in 2026. While Watts is one of the best amateurs in golf, he has to deal with the mental side of the game like everyone else. It’s because he continues to overcome tough moments that he’s where he his today.
“I think somebody who wants to truly get better and always improve will fight through it and that’s what all the best players in the world do,” Watts said. “I want to be one of those guys. I want to be the best player in the world.”
Watts picked up a golf club for the first time when he was only 2 years old, swinging it in his backyard in Huntsville. A year later, he took to the golf course.
“I was running around on the golf course all the time,” Watts said. “I fell in love with it, started playing competitions when I was 5 or 6 years old and never put it down.”
“Once I grew old enough I wanted to be myself and see how far I could go, play my own way and not be like anybody else.”
Tyler Watts
Watts’ first competitive tournament was a U.S. Kids local event. “I had no idea what was going on but they told me I won,” he said.
Despite his immediate success, Watts says he didn’t understand that he was actually good at golf. That changed in 2020, when Watts won the Alabama Boys State 13 & Under Junior Championship, shooting an unbelievable score during the second round.
“I shot 61 and I was like, ‘OK. I might be pretty good at this,’” he said.
Watts’ confidence built from there. Growing up, his role model in professional golf was Jordan Spieth. However, Watts wanted to forge his own path.
“Once I grew old enough I wanted to be myself and see how far I could go, play my own way and not be like anybody else,” Watts said.
In 2023, Watts became the youngest Alabama State Amateur champion in the tournament’s 107-year history. He was just 15, beating the record previously set by Gordon Sargent, who was 17 when he won it in 2020.
“I hadn’t won a really big tournament before and to be able to say that I broke a record by being the youngest to win I think that helped me realize I can go a long way,” Watts said. “I wanted to keep winning trophies and breaking records.”
But if you told Watts before the tournament that he was going to win, he would not have believed you. His goal was just to make the cut, and even that seemed like an uphill battle.
“Truthfully I had been struggling a little bit,” Watts said. “I was losing a lot of motivation to practice hard and prepare for tournaments.”
Watts says his putting was holding him back, and, while it was improving heading into the Alabama State Am, he still didn’t feel very comfortable. And yet, he kept practicing. He kept trying to figure out how to get better.
Given his form, Watts would have been happy with even-par rounds, but his resilience paid off. In his first three rounds he was 15-under and bogey free.
“What in the world is going on,” Watts thought at the time.
Watts’ newfound confidence and resilience set him up for his blazing 2025 season to date. It got off to a rocky start, as Watts withdrew from the Jones Cup Invitational after feeling ill and shooting 87 in the first round. But he didn’t let the result get to him. He spent the next five months honing his game and getting used to his new Cobra equipment.
Once again, his resilience paid off, this time at the Sunnehanna Amateur against some of the best junior, collegiate and mid-amateurs.
“It gives me all the confidence in the world,” Watts said. “I’m going to the University of Tennessee next August. I’m prepared for college golf and I’m (already) playing against those guys. It makes me really excited for the future.”
After the Sunnehanna Amateur, Watts’ name kept showing up near the top of the leaderboards. He placed sixth in the Northeast Amateur Invitational before finishing runner-up in the North & South Amateur Championship. In the North & South, Watts lost in 19 holes to Vanderbilt transfer and eventual champion Carlos Astiazaran. While not winning was disappointing, Watts won’t let it get him down. Instead, he will use the result as fuel.
“That's all I see myself doing. Records are there for a reason. They're meant to be broken.”
“I think if I had won I would have come home, gotten some rest and maybe not touched a club at all,” he said. “After coming up just short, it gave me a lot of motivation to just get that much better.”
Watts’ recent form gives him an outside shot at making the United States’ Walker Cup team this September at Cypress Point, something he didn’t believe was a possibility last year. He says one of his favorite career moments was winning the Junior Presidents Cup for the United States in 2024. Making the Walker Cup team is a lifelong dream.
“Whenever I can wear the USA on my golf bag, my shirt or my hat, it just gives me all the more motivation to go out there and kick some butt,” Watts said.
Watts is playing with a lot of confidence. Even if he doesn’t make the Walker Cup team this year, he’ll surely be a candidate for years to come. Ultimately, he wants to forge his legacy on the PGA Tour.
“You’re playing for money but you’re also trying to make history, hoist trophies and break records,” Watts said. “That’s all I see myself doing. Records are there for a reason. They’re meant to be broken.”
E-MAIL EVERETT
Top: Tyler Watts is sixth in the Rolex AJGA Rankings and No. 45 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
ben adelberg, @thebackoftherange