Days before the pros arrive for the Presidents Cup, 24 juniors get the same stage — and nine of them are from families that started exactly where yours is.
The pros get Medinah on September 22. The juniors get it first. On Saturday, September 19, the 2026 Junior Presidents Cup puts the 24 best boys in the world — all 19 and under — on a special routing of Medinah Country Club, three days before the PGA TOUR’s Presidents Cup begins on the same property. Same venue, same match-play format, same flags. The difference is the age on the scorecard.
Per the AJGA, which conducts the event with the PGA TOUR, a 12-player U.S. Team faces a 12-player International Team drawn from everywhere outside Europe. Matt Kuchar, a five-time Presidents Cup player, captains the Americans; C.T. Pan, a 2019 Presidents Cup alum and Olympic medalist, leads the International side. The U.S. roster runs Miles Russell (FL), Jaden Soong (CA), Jessy Huebner (FL), Ronin Banerjee (CA), Giuseppe Puebla (FL), Grayson Baucom (NC), Rory Asselta (NJ), Sam Carraher (IN), Hayes Corcell (FL), Grant DeLorenzo (TX), Sohan Patel (FL) and Brady Barnum (OH). Nine of the twelve earned Rolex Junior All-American honors. Barnum claimed the final spot as the highest-ranked player not otherwise in — he won two AJGA events and finished runner-up at the Junior PLAYERS.
Here’s the Hub’s read on it, and this is our opinion, not a line from the release. It is easy to look at a field like this and file it under “generational talent” — a different tier, a different planet. We’d argue the opposite is the more useful truth. None of these 24 skipped the journey your family is on. They played the regional events. They built a record one tournament at a time. They were ranked before they were famous. The gap between the junior on this Medinah tee sheet and the junior grinding a fall schedule this weekend isn’t talent you either have or don’t — it’s a few years of the same reps, tracked and stacked.
For a junior watching this week, the takeaway isn’t “be them.” It’s “study them.” Watch how a match-play point is won and lost. Notice that half the U.S. side comes from two states — golf travels where the reps are, not where the weather is nicest. And notice that every one of these players is, first, a name on a ranking. That’s the part your family can act on now.
The 24 at Medinah are on the same board your junior is — just further up it. See where the country’s top juniors stack up, and where your own player sits, on the JGH Rankings.