Defending champions and 2025 AJGA Rolex Junior Players of the Year Miles Russell, Aphrodite Deng lead talented junior field
GRANITEVILLE, S.C., – The Junior Invitational at Sage Valley Golf Club, the most prestigious event in junior golf, today confirmed its 2026 field for the 15th edition of the tournament, which takes place March 11-14. The 60-player field includes all 10 of the top ranked boys junior players and nine of the top 10 ranked girls junior players. This event routinely features the future of golf as 36 boys and 24 girls from 19 countries compete for top honors.
Four past champions are returning to Sage Valley this year, including the defending champions and current No. 1s in the Rolex AJGA Rankings and 2025 AJGA Rolex Junior Players of the Year, Miles Russell and Aphrodite Deng, and 2024 Champions, Italy’s Giovanni Daniele Binaghi, and World No. 2 Asterisk Talley.
Defending Junior Invitational Champion Miles Russell hails from Jacksonville, Fla., and returns to Sage Valley after his recent commitment to play golf at Florida State University next year. After last year’s expansion from 54 to 72 holes, Russell shot three straight final rounds of 2-under-par 70 to win his first Junior Invitational. He’ll tee it up at Sage Valley following a remarkable 2025 season. Along with his second AJGA Rolex Junior Players of the Year honor and current spot at No. 1 in the Rolex AJGA Rankings, Russell won The Junior PLAYERS Championship presented by Rolex for the second time in 2025 and represented the U.S. at the Junior Ryder Cup last fall.
The other nine players in the Rolex AJGA top 10 rankings joining Russell in the field include Tyler Mawhinney (committed to Vanderbilt University), Giuseppe Puebla (committed to University of Florida), Jessy Huebner (committed to University of Florida), Luke Colton (committed to Vanderbilt University), Luke Ringkamp (committed to Pepperdine University), Ronin Banerjee (committed to University of Tennessee), Sam Carraher (committed to Purdue University), Pennson Badgett (committed to University of Tennessee) and Ayden Fynaut (committed to Pepperdine University).
Charlie Woods will also tee it up for the second time in the Junior Invitational alongside leading international players such as Lev Grinberg (from Ukraine, committed to University of Arkansas) Hugo Le Goff (from France, committed to University of Virginia) and Louis Klein (Czech Republic).
Headlining the girls’ field is defending champion and World No. 1 Aphrodite Deng and World No. 2 Asterisk Talley, who recently committed to play college golf at Stanford University. This year marks Deng’s third appearance in the Junior Invitational following a notable 2025 with her second Mizuho Americas Open win (alongside Nelly Korda), a victory at the 76th U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship and the 2025 AJGA Rolex Junior Players of the Year honor. Deng dominated the field last year, winning by six shots, and was one of only two players in the girls division to finish under par with a score of 7-under (281).
Nine of the top 10 ranked girls on the AJGA Rolex Rankings joining Deng and Talley at Sage Valley include Lily Peng (committed to UCLA), Anna Fang (committed to Stanford), Clairey Lin, Honorine Ferry, Yujie Liu, Amelie Zalsman (committed to Wake Forest) and Zoe Cusack (committed to University of Virginia).
For the second time in tournament history, the Junior Invitational will be contested across four rounds from Wednesday, March 11 through Saturday, March 14. Tournament play begins at 9:30 a.m. ET each day and winners will be honored in a closing ceremony on Saturday immediately following play.
This year’s tournament will be closed to the public and onsite access will be limited to players and immediate family members, along with Sage Valley members.
Media may apply for credentials to cover the 2026 event by submitting an application here.
2026 Full Tournament Field
Boys Field: Callixte Alzas, Mason An, Pennson Badgett, Ronin Banerjee, Giovanni Daniele Binaghi, Ben Bolton, Tim Brohl, Sam Carraher, Hamilton Coleman, Luke Colton, Oscar Couilleau, John Doyle, Lunden Esterline, Ayden Fynaut, Hugo Le Goff, Lev Grinberg, Preston Hage, Yago Horno, Mason Howell, Jessy Huebner, Chase Hughes, Le Khanh Hung, Louis Klein, Guus Lafeber, Evan Liu, Tyler Mawhinney, Cooper Moore, Giuseppe G Puebla, Vicente Quiroga, Tomás Restrepo, Luke Ringkamp, Miles Russell, Parin Sarasmut, Emilio Velez, Tyler Watts, Charlie Woods
Girls Field: Samantha Chiou, Zoe Cusack, Aphrodite Deng, Clara Ding, Krishny Elwin, Anna Fang, Rayee Feng, Honorine Ferry, Anna Iwanaga, Alice Kong, Louise Uma Landgraf, Jude Lee, Clairey Lin, Yujie Liu, Shauna Liu, Charlotte Naughton, Nikki Oh, Lily Peng, Prim Prachnakorn, Lily Reitter, Achiraya Sriwong, Asterisk Talley, Michelle Xing, Amelie Zalsman
For more information about the 2025 Junior Invitational, visit Juniorinvitational.com.
About Junior Invitational
Recognized by Golfweek as the No. 1 junior event in golf, the Junior Invitational welcomes the best golfers from around the world to Sage Valley Golf Club in Graniteville, S.C. Founded in 2011, the Junior Invitational has become one of the most desired invitations in the world of competitive junior golf. Past participants have included some of the top names in golf: Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas, Colin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland, Cameron Young, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Anna Davis, Megha Ganne and more. For more information, visit JuniorInvitational.com.
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