The U.S. Girls' Junior, Explained

The next championship is the 2027 U.S. Girls' Junior at Canterbury Golf Club in Cleveland, Ohio. This is what the USGA had confirmed for it, and what it had not, when we checked on October 13, 2026.

Source: USGA Fast Facts for 2027 U.S. Girls' Junior and Future Sites: U.S. Girls' Junior, read October 13, 2026. The eligibility line gives the age date as July 17 and prints no year.

Entries are not open yet by the USGA's own schedule: it gives early spring 2027 for the opening and no date. The 2026 championship, played July 13 to 18 at Old Chatham Golf Club in Durham, North Carolina, is completed.

The U.S. Girls' Junior is the United States Golf Association's championship for junior girls. The USGA established it in 1949, one year after the U.S. Junior Amateur. Entry is open to any female amateur who meets the age and Handicap Index limits. A place in the field then comes from an exemption or from qualifying.

In 2027 the two junior championships are played in consecutive weeks: the U.S. Girls' Junior from July 12 to 17 and the U.S. Junior Amateur from July 19 to 24.

Source: USGA, U.S. Girls' Junior Champions; USGA Fast Facts for 2027 U.S. Girls' Junior and for 2027 U.S. Junior Amateur, Dates of Championship.

For 2027 the USGA's eligibility line reads: open to any female amateur players who have not reached the age of 19 by July 17 and whose Handicap Index does not exceed 5.4. The 2026 line was the same with July 18, that edition's final day, and the same 5.4 limit.

The under-19 line dates from the 2017 championship. Before that, the USGA's record says, a competitor could not have turned 18 by the end of the championship.

If your player does not have a Handicap Index, the guide to getting a Handicap Index and a GHIN number covers the steps.

The USGA's championship schedule page links Apply to Play to its application site. The USGA gives early spring 2027 for the U.S. Girls' Junior entry opening, so that link is where to go then, not a sign that you can enter today. The closing date and the fee were not on its page.

Source: USGA Fast Facts for 2026 U.S. Girls' Junior and for 2027 U.S. Girls' Junior, Eligibility and Entries Open; USGA, U.S. Girls' Junior Champions.

Qualifying is a single 18-hole round at one site. For 2027 the USGA gives late May to early July, at sites not yet announced.

Last season shows the scale. For 2026 the USGA accepted 1,486 entries for a field of 156, and qualifying was played at 42 sites from May 20 to July 1. The USGA's 2026 U.S. Girls' Junior qualifying page lists them by date, with a leaderboard link for each. Two were outside the United States: one in Canada and one in Mexico. Those are 2026 figures, and the 2027 sites can differ.

Exempt players skip qualifying. The 2026 page counted 71 of them and printed the reason beside each name. The reasons included the 2025 runner-up, semifinalists and quarterfinalists, players who had qualified for the 2026 U.S. Women's Open, the top 20 age-eligible point leaders in the Women's World Amateur Golf Ranking as of March 11, 2026 and the top 50 as of May 6, and winners of other named championships, among them state junior girls' championships. The 2027 list is not published yet.

Source: USGA Fast Facts for 2026 U.S. Girls' Junior, Entries Accepted, Qualifying and Exempt Players; USGA Fast Facts for 2027 U.S. Girls' Junior, Qualifying.

The fast facts pages do not say how many places a qualifying site offers. Look for that when the USGA publishes the 2027 sites, before choosing one.

The championship is two rounds of stroke play followed by match play. The USGA's record shows the 36-hole championship match has been in place since 2006.

Source: USGA Fast Facts for 2027 U.S. Girls' Junior, Field, Schedule of Play and Match-Play Cut; USGA, U.S. Girls' Junior Champions.

The U.S. Junior Amateur uses the same shape with a larger field: two stroke-play rounds, the low 64 into match play and a 36-hole championship match.

The USGA lists what the 2027 champion receives. Beyond the gold medal and a year's custody of the Glenna Collett Vare Trophy, the playing exemptions are:

• Every future U.S. Girls' Junior for which she is still age-eligible.
• The 2028 U.S. Women's Open at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania.
• The 2027 and 2028 U.S. Women's Amateurs.
• An invitation to the 2028 Augusta National Women's Amateur.

Source: USGA Fast Facts for 2027 U.S. Girls' Junior, What Champion Receives.

That is the published value of winning. The USGA's pages do not rank this championship against other results for college recruiting, and neither does this page. Ask the programs your player is interested in what they look at.

The USGA's record lists every champion since 1949. Hollis Stacy won three in a row, in 1969, 1970 and 1971, and no other player is listed as champion three times. Nancy Lopez won in 1972 and 1974. Later champions include Inbee Park in 2002, Lexi Thompson in 2008, Ariya Jutanugarn in 2011, Minjee Lee in 2012 and Rose Zhang in 2021.

Minjee Lee won the 2012 championship by beating Alison Lee 1 up at Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City, California.

The record's introduction names Amy Alcott, JoAnne Gunderson Carner, Inbee Park, Ariya Jutanugarn, Hollis Stacy and Mickey Wright among the champions who went on to win the U.S. Women's Open.

Source: USGA, U.S. Girls' Junior Champions, read October 13, 2026. Corrected October 13, 2026: an earlier version of this page gave the wrong 2012 champion.

For the boys' championship, read the U.S. Junior Amateur, explained guide, or how to qualify for the U.S. Junior Amateur for its limits and qualifying. For the wider calendar, see how USGA championships compare to the AJGA and other junior tours.