California, Florida, and Texas vie for the hotspots of junior golf. These golf hotspot states benefit from year-round good weather and large golf populations. They all have multiple well-established junior golf organizations. Intrastate competitiveness between these golf organizations guarantees well-run tournaments on almost any weekend of the year. You can play with the interactive map developed by Chad Salinas using Leaflet. Kids competing in these junior golf hotspots are definitely the leading prospects for Division I collegiate golf programs. In fact, California has so many good high school golfers that coaches at Stanford, UCLA, USC could fill their rosters without even looking outside the state. Thankfully for those living above the the 33rd parallel, AJGA hosts tournaments around the country giving coaches exposure to the best golf prospects.

Little Fish in a Big Pond

From our own experience at the 2017 USKids World Championship in Pinehurst this past summer, 3 of the top 10 in the Girls 7-Under were from California. While those same girls, including my daughter, Zoë, trade wins during the year, you will also often find another 20 girls who will show up and beat those same girls in a local California tournament!

Next up: More Analytics in the golf domain