The Junior Golf Tour of Asia (JGTA) has announced the 2020 JGTA Pattaya Junior Championship, scheduled to take place March 18-20 at Burapha Golf & Resort near Pattaya, Thailand.

The event will feature 78 of the Asia-Pacific’s prominent student-athletes and top-prospects for U.S. college golf from over 10 countries, looking to advance their tour-ranking in pursuit of a golf scholarship and success in American university athletics.

This is the latest event to be added to JGTA’s official schedule for the 2019-2020 season and will be classified as a Major Event, giving juniors the chance to compete for top points on the Junior Order of Merit, the official ranking of the JGTA and the source for American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) Performance Based Entry (PBE) Status in the Asia-Pacific.

“We are extremely grateful to Burapha Golf & Resort for their support of the JGTA and the college aspirations its member athletes,” said Kyi Hla Han, Founding Director of the JGTA. “With more of our juniors taking their game to the next level in the AJGA and the U.S. college golf system, I believe we will see great benefits from many of those players returning to play professionally in Asia and contributing the success and talent they will have gained as a U.S. college golfer to help raise the bar on professional golf in the region even further.”

The JGTA Pattaya Junior Championship will be the first event hosted by Burapha Golf & Resort, and the JGTA’s second stop in Thailand since the Tour’s inception in 2017. Burapha Golf & Resort features two world-class links-style courses, by American designers Gary Panks and David Graham. Burapha Golf & Resort has hosted the Thailand Open (2010) and has been the host of the Singha Pattaya Open since 2002.

Since its inception in 2017, the JGTA has provided junior golfers with a platform to advance their college golf standing and hone their talent in AJGA-recognized without having to travel to the United States. AJGA PBE Status is commonly viewed as the gold standard of competitive recognition for junior golfers and is an important role in earning a U.S. college golf scholarship. AJGA and its PBE Status system have served as the preeminent path to playing collegiate golf and earning a college golf scholarship.

Alumni of the AJGA consist of some of the greatest professionals to ever play the game, including Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Danielle Kang, Inbee Park, Ariya Jutanugarn, Brooke Henderson, Lexi Thomson, Cristie Kerr, and many more. More than 300 AJGA alumni play on the PGA and LPGA Tours, having earned more than 900 Tour victories.

Today, junior members of the JGTA look to follow in the footsteps of such legends of the game by achieving success and honing their skill in the AJGA and the college golf systems.

The JGTA Pattaya Junior Championship joins a hallmark list of prestigious golf events taking place in the Pattaya area over the coming months, some of which – like Honda LPGA Thailand, the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific golf championship and the TrueVisions International Junior Golf Championship – encompass the very best in professional, amateur and junior golf.

- Advertisement -