A record 11-point margin sounds like a rout that built slowly. It didn’t. The United States led 6-0 before lunch on day one, and everything after that was margin.
The United States claimed its fifth straight Junior Presidents Cup this weekend, and the final margin — 17.5 to 6.5 — was the largest in the event’s history. But for a junior golfer or parent trying to learn something from how it actually happened, the scoreline from Sunday isn’t the interesting part. The interesting part happened Saturday morning, before the International Team had won a single point.
Per the AJGA, the U.S. Team swept all six Four-Ball matches in the opening session at Medinah Country Club — the first time the Junior Presidents Cup has shared a venue with the Presidents Cup, which follows this week on Course No. 3. Rory Asselta and Miles Russell rallied from behind by playing the back nine in 4-under to win 1 UP; Sam Carraher and Brady Barnum, Jessy Huebner and Giuseppe Puebla, Jaden Soong and Ronin Banerjee, Grant DeLorenzo and Hayes Corcell, and Sohan Patel and Grayson Baucom each added a point. By lunch, it was 6.0–0.0. The International Team got its first points of the event that afternoon, when Fernando Saravia and Tomas Del Grosso beat Russell and Asselta 2&1 in Foursomes — a result Del Grosso, only 15, called “a pretty special experience.” But the U.S. had already built a cushion that never came close to being in danger. Sam Carraher delivered the clinching point Sunday morning with a 6&5 win over Saravia.
Here’s the Hub’s read on it, and this is our opinion, not a line from the recap. Junior golfers watch team events and naturally focus on the ending — the clinching putt, the anchor match, the moment it becomes official. That’s not usually where the event was actually won. Six points went on the board before the International Team teed off in a single Singles match. The U.S. Team didn’t out-execute its way to a comeback; it never needed one. That’s a different skill than closing — it’s arriving ready on the first morning, when nerves are highest and nobody’s watching the team score yet.
For a junior reading this, the takeaway isn’t about clutch putts under Sunday pressure — it’s about the rounds nobody frames that way. A fast start in a qualifier, a solid opening round in a 36-hole event, the first match of a team week: those are the moments that quietly decide outcomes before anyone’s treating them like it matters. The International Team competed hard all weekend — Saravia, Del Grosso, and others kept winning matches even after the Cup was decided — but six points in one morning is a hole that’s almost impossible to climb out of. The lesson isn’t “finish strong.” It’s “start like it already counts,” because it usually does.
See where the top American and international juniors stack up heading into the next cycle in the JGH Rankings.
Photo: AJGA