This USGA junior development program is four years ahead of schedule. Here's why

The idea is simple yet novel: identify the top junior golfers within a state and bring them together to expose them to creative training techniques from around the country while forming future friendships. Add some competition, and even a little bit of swag, and you’ve created something for up-and-coming boys and girls for which to aspire.

Indeed, Heather Daly Donofrio has had the elevator pitch for this next phase of the three-year-old U.S. National Development Program—a state junior team component that would create hundreds more opportunities to spotlight talented 13- to 18-year-olds nationwide—memorized since it was formally launched in January 2024. All the managing director of the USNDP needed was time to spread the word and get local buy-in to make it work.

Or so she thought.

When the USGA and its allied golf associations first established the program, the target date for having teams up and running throughout the country was 2033. Yet with 16 squads currently online and another 14 set to debut by early 2027, Daly Donofrio proudly boasts that the timeline has changed.

“As it relates to 50 states,” she says, doing little to hold back an approving smile, “I'm fairly confident we're going to get there by end of 2029.”

So what happened? How did things speed up so quickly?

“It’s a program that makes too much sense not to succeed,” says Scott Nye, the longtime professional and current director of championships at historic Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa., who was tapped as the captain of Team Pennsylvania when it launched earlier this year.

When that squad of 24 boys and girls gathered for a two-day camp at Lancaster Country Club this spring, the kids closed out the first afternoon playing a “super ball” scramble, guys versus girls, 12 on 12, at their request.

“The way they interacted with each other, it was so genuine,” said Nye, showing photos from his phone of the group as the overall match came down to the final hole. “Their expressions said it all. Show this to anyone and you’ll make them a believer.”

Coaches who have launched programs in other states have echoed Nye’s sentiment. Blake Jirges helped run the first two-day camp for Team Southern California at Rolling Hills Country Club earlier this year. The director of player development at Coto de Casa Golf & Raquet Club contends the kids walked away with a renewed commitment to the game.

“We talk all the time about the one camp and how cool a memory it is,” he says. “I think just even that one experience of doing the golf camp was better than some of their best experiences in junior golf.”

Another group that saw the possible benefits early: Augusta National Golf Club. In February, the club announced a commitment of $1.5 million over three years to help support the expansion of the program.

Chris Zambri, head coach of the USNDP, doesn’t hesitate when asked what the state junior team program is aiming to do. It’s not about providing swing instruction. Rather, it’s about identifying gaps in player development and filling them through a more holistic look at the game.

“We want them to get started doing things they will likely end up learning, but doing them at a younger age,” Zambri says. Among the areas of attention are course strategy, stat-tracking, nutrition, fitness and time-management. “No matter how good a player is at a young age, they definitely aren't doing everything that a 26-year-old on tour is doing to become great. There's some stones unturned, and so we're trying to help with that.”

Each state team has a local organizing committee that funds and operates its squad, with access to the grant from Augusta National to help with a portion of costs. Team sizes vary depending on the size of the state—as small as four and as big as 40, with equal numbers of boys and girls selected either off rankings, handicaps or a state-point system.

All teams must designate a coach or captain and commit to at least two in-person days per year with the team members. Before those camps are held, the USGA hosts an education session for the coaches to learn the USNDP’s athlete development philosophy (the model is called THRIVE, which stands for training, health, relationships, individual development, values, equipment).

As they conduct the camps, coaches also are asked to conduct assessments with each player, using TrackMan and other data gathering tools to capture baseline information that can be compared in the future to measure player progress.

“The camp was awesome,” says Hill Wang, a 17-year-old from Hacienda Heights, Calif., and a member of Team SoCal. “It was fun, but it was challenging. They gave us stuff that we can apply to our own practice back home. They had strokes gained/putting drills I use that a lot. Around the green stuff, identifying challenging spots because sometimes you don’t think about that at practice.”

Bodie Brumlow, a 17-year-old from Cartersville, Ga., says that during Team Georgia’s camp this year at Sea Island Resort, the discussion of how to make the most out of practice time stood out, too. So did a session on eating on the golf course where a trainer discussed ways for players to maintain their peak energy throughout the round.

“They talked about the idea of eating a little every three or four holes, and I definitely started to do that,” said Brumlow, who qualified for the first time this year for the U.S. Amateur. “It’s been a big benefit.”

All players named to state teams get access to stat-tracking programs and regular webinars available to national team members that expand on the development strategies. Meanwhile, the coaches are asked to stay in touch with the players during the year, helping them as sounding boards as they play in junior events.

“I know one of the coaches that was there has been following me around,” says Brayden Jones, 17, of Seal Beach, Calif., who connected with former LPGA pro Mo Martin during their camp. “She's actually taken me to one of their courses to play a course and see how she approaches it. She's come out to some of the tournaments I've been at. So, she's been really beneficial for me.”

Like Brumlow, Wang and Jones played in the U.S. Amateur for the first time summer. A total of seven state junior team boys played their way into the field at Merion Golf Club, including Charlie Barrickman. The 18-year-old from West Chester, Pa., was easy to spot with his Team Pennsylvania golf bag that he’s been using all summer. “Yeah, the swag is kind of cool,” Barrickman says.

It’s supposed to be. “When the kids put their uniform on, and they carry their golf bag, and they're seen, it's a different world,” Nye says. “Now it's aspiration for a lot of others.”

Barrickman says that he’s been paired with fellow Team PA members in local events during the summer, allowing him to bond as well as learn from them. “I feel like iron kind of sharpens iron, so, it's nice to be around people who are similarly minded,” Barrickman says.

Nye is excited to hear that because he believes the relationships that can be established through the state junior teams are an intangible benefit of the program.

“There’s a support system being put in place when they play poorly, where their parents are beating them up, that they have some friends to talk to,” Nye says. “Golf can be a rough ride and when you're down, that's when your friends come in. Oh, that's fine. That's the healthy side of USNDP.”

For the teams that have already picked players and held camps, the next stage is creating competitions with other states. Team PA held events against Team Ohio and Team Delaware this summer. The California teams are discussing a home-and-home series with Team Colorado, which has played Arizona.

Daly Donofrio sees the competitive element for teams growing, especially as the USGA builds out a regional component to the model, where every state will come under one of five regions that will have its own coaching staff that can help support the state teams.

In July, the Midwest regional hosted its first “showcase” event with teams from Ohio, Wisconsin and Minnesota traveling to SentryWorld in Wisconsin. And Daly Donofrio says that discussions of annual regional championships between the states are underway, with the winners potentially competing in a national championship.

“I don't think there's any limit to what can happen in these state teams,” Daly Donofrio says.

Selfishly, she also notes, as more states come online with teams, the program will serve as a feeder system for the national team, creating a domino effect of interest and motivation. “This gives us an opportunity to get our eyes on the best talent in every state,” Daly Donofrio

Another benefit is also encouraging players to continue to compete in state-level events, where points are awarded for finishes and then used to help determine who qualifies for the state team. While top players will no doubt play national and AJGA events, the hope is they also remain loyal to where they came from. With the state teams then giving players a local platform, the golfers can branch out after high school and become role models for the next generation of players.

“We want to get these kids prepared for college golf and get them prepared for professional golf one day,” Jirges says. “At least from a state level we can start doing that, to be pushing our best kids every year to give them the right resources and the right training and to get them prepared for the next level.”

Even if the state team program doesn’t produce the next Scottie Scheffler and Nelly Korda, the results from the exposure it’s giving young players to the game will have rewards well into the future, says Zambri.

“The lion's share of people who make it in golf will come out of the state teams rather than out of the national program,” Zambri says, “and so the state teams are just a really important thing and part of what we're doing.”

A simple yet novel idea indeed.