Start here
First Tee
Roughly 7–18, varies
Life-skills program on a golf course. The on-ramp if your family has no club membership and no idea where to stand.
Look up your chapter. It is not a tour — it is how a lot of kids learn the game exists.
Where We Compete
It’s a ladder.
You start playing with your family. Then local tournaments. Then the ones you drive to — U.S. Kids, Under Armour, Hurricane. AJGA is the end of junior golf for the best players. Type your city and we show the local, the PGA section junior tour, and UA if they’ve got a league. Kids can also do Youth on Course, PGA Jr. League, Drive Chip & Putt, Operation 36.
Your city
Where to compete from here.
Biggest junior-golf metros sit here with no search. Type anywhere else — Delaware, Tulsa, Boise, Myrtle Beach. Tours move. Their site wins.
Always: U.S. Kids Find a Local Tour · UA Locate a League · search “your city PGA junior tour” for the section tour (WNYPGA, NENY, CNY, Met, Tri-State…).
1
Family golf
Nine with dad, mom, brothers, sisters, friends. Youth on Course and the muni are how you pay for it. The game is the course, not a website.
2
A team or a system
PGA Jr. League and/or Operation 36. Friends, a coach, a level to beat.
3
A skills day
Drive, Chip & Putt. Free. Fun. Not the whole plan.
4
First individual start
U.S. Kids local. Early starters: 5 or 6. Tees that match the driver they actually have.
5
States, regionals, UA
By 7–10 on the scoring map this is the floor: U.S. Kids state/regional and Under Armour. Not a flex.
6
A weekend that travels
U.S. Kids major / Worlds, UA regional, first HJGT Open. One hotel. One number.
7
The national sheet
HJGT majors, AJGA Preview/All-Star, state amateurs.
8
The card that counts
AJGA Open, U.S. Junior, Junior PGA — only with a way in, not a wish.
The board
Official sites — not referral links. We don’t get paid if you enter a tournament.
Site
Start here
Youth on Course
6–18
Tee times at thousands of courses for about $5. The single best cheap-round tool in American junior golf.
Get the card before you buy a tournament series. Kids learn golf by playing holes, not by owning a ranking.
Start here
PGA Jr. League
9u · 13u · 17u
Team scramble, numbered jerseys, a coach, snacks. Built for kids who like teammates more than silent tee sheets.
This is the rec-league equivalent. Perfect first “season.” Not a recruiting vehicle, and that is the point.
Start here
Operation 36
Beginners of any age
Six levels. Start 25 yards from the green. Shoot 36 or better for 9 holes, move back (50, 100, 150, 200, then the full tee). 800+ sites, an app, a shop.
If you only join one development system, join this. It replaces “we went to the range and got mad.”
Local
Drive, Chip & Putt
7–15
Free nationwide skills contest. Local → subregional → regional → National Finals at Augusta National. Four age bands, boys and girls separate.
Enter it. The price is right and the day is a festival, not a 7-hour slog. It is not a substitute for playing holes.
Local
U.S. Kids Golf Local Tour
Mostly 5–12; some 13–14 divisions
Age-group events on Longleaf-scaled tees so a 6-year-old is not hitting 3-wood into a 400-yard par 4. For early starters this is the 5- or 6-year-old first start, not a maybe.
If they started at 3–5 and already score, put locals on the calendar at 5 or 6. World Championship is the carrot, not week one. Priority Status is how invitations actually work — rundown below.
Priority Status rundown ↓Travel
U.S. Kids Golf World Championship
5–12
The biggest 5–12 event on earth — 1,600+ players, 50+ countries. A week, not a trophy run.
Qualify through Priority Status, not a wish. Treat it as a family trip with a golf tournament attached. April 15 cutoff is how families miss a year.
Priority Status rundown ↓Local
The Junior Tour powered by Under Armour
6–18, all skills
National youth league / tour that takes beginners and grinders. Lower temperature than HJGT or AJGA. For kids who started early, this is on the sheet by 7–10 — at a minimum.
League first (9-hole weekends), Nationals if the average is there, Worlds only if that door is actually open. Rundown below.
How UA leagues and Nationals work ↓Travel
Hurricane Junior Golf Tour — Opens
8–18
Open events, all divisions, no invite required. This is where a lot of families first feel “real” junior golf — and first feel the cost.
Play Opens before Majors. If the round times and the hotel bills are the main memory, you entered too soon.
National
Hurricane Junior Golf Tour — Majors
8–18
Roughly 20 majors a year. Bigger fields, more travel, more ranking noise.
A handful, not a diet. Stack them only if local/open results say they belong.
National
AJGA Preview + Junior All-Star
Preview & All-Star: roughly 12–15
The American Junior Golf Association is the college-coach circuit. Preview and All-Star are how younger members start earning Performance Based Entry stars.
Join AJGA to earn the first star. More stars come from finishes and qualifiers — not from hitting Apply first. Full PBE rundown below.
AJGA qualifying (PBE) ↓The card
AJGA Open / Invitational
12–19
The events on the wall in a college coach’s office. Fields fill by PBE status and qualifiers, not by who registered first.
If you cannot explain how your player gets in (stars, exemption, or qualifier Monday), you are not ready to pay the entry.
AJGA qualifying (PBE) ↓The card
U.S. Junior Amateur & U.S. Girls’ Junior
USGA junior championships
National championships via local qualifying. Even a qualifier that goes nowhere is a high-quality, relatively local exam. PBE stars can come with finishes.
Put the qualifier on the calendar. Skip the fantasy of skipping qualifying.
How you actually get in
The board names the tours. This is the paperwork. They change tables every year — the official page wins.
U.S. Kids Golf
Priority Status — the ticket, not a ranking
Fifteen levels. You earn them by scoring (or finishing) in U.S. Kids events. That level decides how early you get invited to multi-day stuff: State, Regional, Worlds. It is not AJGA. It is not a college résumé. It is a line in a queue.
01
Locals: four events, same tour, same season
Play four Local Tour events on the same tour in the same season. They add your two lowest scores. That total (or your season order of finish, if the two-score total is 90/180 or better depending on 9 vs 18) sets a level. Four starts on Tour A and two on Tour B does not combine. No exceptions, they say.
02
Multi-day: two lowest rounds in that event
A Regional, Invitational, or Worlds week uses the two lowest scores inside that event. If you pick up two levels in one week, the higher one counts.
03
Pending, then one year
After the season or event ends, nothing usable happens for three months (Pending Status — that’s them giving you time to plan). Then Priority Status turns on and runs one year from the Tournament Age Date. Status has to still be alive on the Age Date of the event you want. Check that date on the event homepage.
04
Worlds is an April cutoff
Events with a Tournament Age Date of April 15 or earlier count toward this year’s World Championship. Play after that, and the status is for next year’s Worlds. Families miss this every spring.
05
It can feed AJGA later
Finish the year at Priority Level 12 or higher (or Lifetime) and, if they’re the right age, U.S. Kids can send 4 AJGA Performance Stars for the next season. Top finishes at Worlds, World Teen, Regionals, and some Invitationals also drop stars onto an AJGA account — even before they’re 12. Confirm on their AJGA PBE page; they retune the tables.
Do not chase Worlds in year one unless the two-score total on a real local season says they belong. A 6-year-old with status is allowed to stay local. Official tables for the 15 levels live on U.S. Kids — we don’t reprint a score chart they change.
U.S. Kids Priority StatusUnder Armour
The Junior Tour — league first, then Nationals
This is rec-league-plus, not AJGA. Regional 9-hole weekend matches. Ages 6–18. You qualify for Nationals by showing up and posting a number, not by a national ranking.
01
Join a regional league
Typical season: about six 9-hole individual stroke-play matches on weekend afternoons. Age bands: 6–8, 9–10, 11–12, 13–14, 15–18. Spring age is as of June 1; fall uses February 1 of the next year. Triple bogey max in league play.
02
Spring league → Summer Nationals; fall → Winter Nationals
Play the season, then the National Championship attached to it (recently PGA National in Florida). Worlds is a separate, tighter door.
03
Nationals need starts and an average
Example from Summer 2026: three spring league events with scores in Golf Genius, plus a 9-hole scoring average — boys 9–18 at 44.9 or better, girls 9–18 at 49.9, ages 6–8 at 49.9. They will move those numbers. Read this year’s event page before you book flights.
04
Worlds is not the league participation trophy
Recent Worlds paths: previous Worlds player, a low league average (they’ve used 39), top 20 at a National, international invite, or a résumé. That is a different temperature than making Nationals.
Use UA to learn a tee sheet, a max score, and a Sunday. It is on the 7–10 scoring map with U.S. Kids state/regional — not instead of holes at home, and not a shortcut to AJGA.
uagolftour.comAJGA
How you actually get in — PBE, not who registered first
American Junior Golf Association. College coaches watch this sheet. You do not buy a tee time. You collect Performance Stars (and exemptions), then apply. Highest status as of the deadline gets in.
01
Age 12 to play. Membership first.
Must be 12 to compete. Under 12 can hold a Future Player membership (no starts). Join or renew: you get 1 Performance Star. High-school sophomores and seniors get an extra; juniors get two extra. Membership stars expire at season’s end — they do not stack forever. Upload a birth certificate / passport before the first application.
02
Build stars, or go Fully Exempt
Stars come from finishes in AJGA events, AJGA Qualifiers, and approved outside juniors (state, regional, national — some U.S. Kids championships included). Fully Exempt (a top finish at a top-tier national) jumps the line for Opens and Junior All-Stars. More stars beat fewer stars. Everyone may apply; not everyone gets a spot.
03
The menu
Preview (mostly spring): for members who haven’t gotten into an AJGA event yet — a way to earn stars for summer. Junior All-Star: 12–15 (no older than 14 on January 1 of that year), max four plus an Invitational. Open: the main schedule; max five combined Open + All-Star in a year. Invitational: invite only, still apply. Qualifier: 18 holes the day before, roughly 10% play their way in.
04
Qualifiers are a real plan
Qualifier fields are not filled by PBE. Apply separately from the tournament. Top 50% of the qualifier typically earn at least one star whether or not they take the tournament spot. Getting in through the qualifier does not make you forfeit the stars you just earned.
05
From U.S. Kids
Priority Level 12+ at year-end can mean 4 AJGA stars the next year (age window applies). Strong Worlds / World Teen / Regional finishes post stars within about two weeks. They can land on an AJGA account before the kid is old enough to play — then they wait until 12.
If you cannot point at a star, an exemption, or a qualifier Monday, you are not ready to pay Open entry. Preview and qualifier days are how normal families start. Official: ajga.org/performance-based-entry.
AJGA Performance Based EntryBetween events: a place, and a number.
Tournaments don’t give them a range. Public vs private, Youth on Course vs initiation, and how to get a GHIN when they can actually finish 9.