The Washington Junior Golf Association recently held its Annual Meeting and we are excited to share some news and updates for the 2023 season:

• An update has been made to the scoring requirement to qualify for your district championship. To qualify for your district championship, you must place (plus ties) in at least one sub-district event as follows:

        +++PLUS+++

NEW in 2023: The qualifying score must meet the NEW WJGA District qualifying scoring requirement:

• There will also be a change to our WJGA Junior World Qualifier for our 14-18 year olds. Traditionally this event has been held the end of June, and it will now move to March to kickoff our WJGA season. This allows our qualifiers a better opportunity to secure and arrange their travel plans to San Diego. The qualifier will now be a one-day, 18-hole event at The Classic GC on Saturday, March 11, 2023.

• We are also excited to announce a new Invitational event for 14-18 year old boys and girls that will be held at Apple Tree GC on Friday, June 23^rd. This will be a one-day, 36-hole invitational where players will earn a spot into the event based on their play in our spring WJGA events. We expect this event to earn AJGA performance stars, and it will be the final qualifying event for the boys’ and girls’ Junior Americas Cup teams. The qualifying criteria has been posted on the new Invitational page HERE.

• There will also be an update to our Scoring Based Entry procedure that was used for the first time this season for our spring 14-18 year old events.

Determining tournament fields for the Jr World Qualifier, State Match Play and Western/Eastern/Players Opens will be determined by:

(1) Fully Exempt Players:
All 13-17 year old boys and girls that qualified for the WJGA State Championship the previous year are exempt into all spring events as long as they register prior to the entry deadline.

• In addition to the previous year’s State Championship qualifiers, any boy or girl that finished in the top-20 of the previous year’s Player of the Year standings is fully exempt.
• Any boy with a scoring average from the previous season of 75 or less, or girl with a scoring average of 80 or less is fully exempt.

(2) Scoring Average :

• Non-exempt players may register for any event and the field will be selected based on the players WJGA scoring average from the 2022 season after the entry deadline.
• New members with no WJGA scoring record may submit a tournament score resume to Executive Director, Tyler Johnsen, by email at johnsen@wjga.net to earn status. All resumes will be vetted.

We have eliminated the use of the “points” system that was used this year, and spots for each event will be filled by using a player’s scoring average from the previous year.

• The WJGA Cup will now be a two-day, 36-hole tournament for all ages (two 9-hole rounds for 8-11 year olds) on July 25-26, 2023 at The Cedars at Dungeness. The field will consist of the following:

Boys 14-18:         112 players         Girls 14-18:          48 players
Boys 12-13:         20 players           Girls 12-13:         10 players
Boys 8-11:           12 players           Girls 8-11:            6 players

The 14-18 year old division spots will be filled based on the scoring based entry criteria, and the 12-13, and 8-11 division spots will be filled based on a players scoring average in the 2023 Jr. Open events.

– Finally, the Boys’ and Girls’ Junior America’s Cup (4 players each) teams will be selected based on combined total points earned at the following events:

• IMG Academy Junior World State Qualifier
• Best three of four finishes at the Western Open, Eastern Open, Players Open and State Match Play.
  Contestants may play in all four events, but for points and team selection purposes, only the best finishes of three of the four events will be used.
• WJGA State Invitational (NEW)

*PLUS, new for 2023: Any boy/girl ranked in the top-100 of the Junior Golf Scoreboard Ranking as of June 1^st that plays in at least two of the six WJGA JAC/GJAC team qualifying events during the current season earns an automatic spot on the team.

Posted in Junior Golf