In Year 3, the USGA's national development program—and its junior national team—continue to grow

You could be forgiven for missing it, since it happened the same weekend Rory McIlroy won the Masters and wrapped up his career Grand Slam chase. In early April, the U.S. National Junior Team defeated Team Canada, 16-8, in a three-day, Ryder Cup-style competition featuring three different match-play formats at Champions Golf Club in Houston. It follows a victory last year against Australia, and more matches planned for the future.

You could be forgiven, also, for asking a follow-up: What is the U.S. National Junior Team?

That answer goes back to the 2023 launch of the U.S. National Development Program, a USGA initiative with a $3 million first-year budget designed to address the reality that golf was the only Olympic sport in America without its own nationwide development program and to address the schism between the U.S. and other countries who were decades down the road in such endeavors. True, America remains one of the great golf powers in the world, but forward thinkers like Heather Daly-Donofrio, a former LPGA player/executive chosen to oversee the new program, understood a gap was growing. By funding promising young golfers from ages 13 to 18 with a proven financial need, as well as facilitating tournament entries and providing coaching on all aspects of the game, the idea was to provide a concrete pathway from stardom at a young age to college scholarships and a professional career. (In fact, there’s a level above the national team called “elite amateurs,” designed to help college players prepare themselves for a professional career.) Not only would it close the emerging gap with other rising powers in the golf world, but it would go some way to leveling the economic playing field within the U.S.—high-level golf, they believed, didn't have to be the sole province of rich kids.

Two years later, and with a budget now of $5.5 million, not only is the national team a living, breathing reality—there are 11 men and 11 women on the roster, with six of each playing in Texas—but there are 109 players across 32 states receiving grants, from an original applicant pool of more than 500. The amounts dispersed are based on financial need, and most receive $10,000. More than half of recipients are athletes of color, and Daly-Donofrio says the hope is to increase the total number to 1,000 by 2027, with the goal of eventually funding 1,500 athletes across all programs.

"A lot of those grants were given to kids who aren't even ranked on Junior Golf Scoreboard,” Daly-Donofrio said this week. "We're trying to find the really talented individuals who have the financial need, who have the work ethic, the desire and the potential to continue to progress through the pathway."

In fact, though, this is just the start of the USGA’s efforts. The NDP is attempting to spread its influence across the country with the creation of state teams. Seven are already established, with the number set to jump to 16 soon. By 2027, Daly-Donofrio expects there to be 30. On the state level, the same principles apply, including talent identification, coaching, statistical analysis, camps, tournament entries and hands-on guidance. The state coaches and captains themselves are impressive, from figures like Scott Nye (the director of golf at Merion Golf Club) to former LPGA and PGA Tour stars like Mo Martin, Alison Walshe and Dean Wilson. With a country as large as the U.S., Daly-Donofrio says it's critical for the National Development Program to branch out across the states and to create a wider and more local network to facilitate talent spotting. In turn, this can enlarge the "pathway" so that it doesn't solely exist on a national level.

In the meantime, individual donations have poured in, to the point that Daly-Donofrio said they now represent the primary form of funding for the program.

In late 2023, Chris Zambri, the former college coach at USC and Pepperdine, was hired to become the first head coach of the National Development Program, and by extension, the junior national team. In the course of our conversation Monday, he outlined the conferences, seminars (on topics ranging from nutrition to strategies for picking targets into greens to learning about advanced statistics), camps and various other programs his team runs outside of national team competitions to help improve every player's chance to progress along the pathway. The short version of what he's doing, he said, is to teach them to act like a pro.

"Our goal is to get people to professional golf and to play really well, and to be great," he said. "One of the things I bring up a lot is, I always say 'hey, if you asked a 40-year-old pro what they've learned about golf since turning pro, they'd say 'how much time do you have?' So if they had that much to learn at 23, you probably have some stuff to learn at 15 and 16 and 17. And the goal is that we become a resource."

The national team itself meets as a large group only a few times a year—this year to date, 17 of the 22 players met at a February training camp at Desert Mountain Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., and then again at the match against Canada—but the engagement goes beyond team gatherings, and can take on varying levels of mentorship. Blades Brown, who recently turned pro, was in the program for a short time and still stays in touch with Zambri for statistical breakdowns of new courses he plays. Ryleigh Knaub, a talented 18-year-old heading to LSU to play college golf, was convinced she was a below average putter until Zambri introduced her to SG: putting to show her that in fact she was very good, and her energies might be spent on other parts of her game. Some players will have a very immersive experience, partaking of training camps and tournaments (everything from AJGA events to the British Amateur) and education initiatives, while others may use the funding but rely less on NDP resources otherwise. It's all part of expanding the program and creating more worldly, prepared American junior golfers.

At the conclusion of our conversation, I asked Zambri how he'd describe the "point" of the NDP, if he could distill the mission statement into a short description.

"I could say what the point is," he said, "but if you just look at the LPGA Tour result this past Sunday [at the Black Desert Championship], that's our point. You literally have to get down to the 10th player to find an American, and then you have to go down to 20th to find more. We want Americans on the top of leaderboards on the biggest tours in the world. Our goal is to make sure American golf stays huge. And clearly these countries that have federations have made a huge impact on the lives of their players. So the question became, why wouldn't we do it? And the USGA decided to make the investment."