USNDP State Junior Teams: How Selection Works and How to Find Yours

USNDP stands for U.S. National Development Program, which the United States Golf Association runs. The USGA’s State Junior Team Program page, read on October 11, 2026, says the state program “will expand, strengthen, and diversify the junior golf pipeline by creating critical development, competitive and talent identification opportunities within each state for elite athletes ages 13-18”.

The same page says the program “launched in 2024 with 7 states” and “will continue to expand to new states each year with the goal of all states having a team by 2033”. On October 11, 2026 its list showed 30 states in 31 entries: California appears twice, as Northern California and Southern California. The Illinois and Texas pages each describe their state as one of 30 in the program.

State Junior Teams are one part of the wider program. The USGA’s program home page says the U.S. National Development Program launched in 2023 and has grown “through its USNDP Grants, State Teams, National Team, and more”. The menu on the USGA’s program pages lists the National Junior Team, the Elite Amateur Program, the Young Professional Program, State Junior Teams and USNDP Grants as separate items.

Three different teams can share the word. They are chosen by different bodies, and their rules are in different places:

A high school team and a State Junior Team are separate teams with separate rules. In all three examples on this page, the 2026 points documents award points for high school state championships. For the school side, see how high school golf works.

Each state has its own committee. The USGA’s page says: “The state committees will oversee team selection criteria and the operation of the state program based on guidelines provided by the USGA.” It describes the program as a collaboration “between the USGA, its Allied Golf Associations (AGAs), the PGA of America sections and relevant state junior programs”.

The three committees read for this guide show who that can be:

• Illinois. The Team Illinois Committee has representatives of the Chicago District Golf Association, the Illinois Junior Golf Association, the Metropolitan Amateur Golf Association, the Illinois PGA and the Gateway PGA.
• Texas. The Team Texas Selection Committee has representatives of the Texas Golf Association and the Northern Texas and Southern Texas Sections of the PGA of America.
• Pennsylvania. GAP’s February 27, 2025 announcement says the team is administered by GAP, the Pennsylvania Golf Association, the Western Pennsylvania Golf Association, the Philadelphia Section of the PGA of America and the Tri-State PGA Section, “following USGA guidelines”.

Two things follow for a family:

• The rules that decide a place are on the association’s page, not the USGA’s. The USGA’s page is a directory. Each state on it has a Learn More link.
• The association may not carry your state’s name. On October 11, 2026 the Illinois link on the USGA’s list went to the Chicago District Golf Association, and the Pennsylvania link went to GAP, the Golf Association of Philadelphia.

Two different years appear on a state team page. Keep them apart.

• The performance year is the season whose results earn the place.
• The team year is the calendar year the team is active: its programming, its benefits and its place in the USNDP.

In the three examples the performance year comes first and the team year follows it. This is what each association’s page said on October 11, 2026:

Two more points come from the same pages. All three say: “Players must earn their way onto the team each year.” And all three say a player named to the state team is part of the USNDP “for the following calendar year”. A place does not carry over.

Age dates follow the team year. For the team that is active in 2027, all three pages gave the same two dates on October 11, 2026: a player must be 13 years old by January 1, 2027 and must not have reached a 19th birthday by July 19, 2027. Pennsylvania’s dates for its 2026 team were January 1, 2026 and July 19, 2026. We did not read the USGA’s guidelines to the state committees, so check the dates on your own state’s page instead of assuming these.

How to read the year on a state team document. The labels below are the kind these three pages use. Before you rely on a rule, work out which year it belongs to.

These are three examples. They are not a ranking and not a template. Each table is that association’s own page as it read on October 11, 2026, and the words in quotation marks are the association’s. No rule in one table applies to another state. The three tables follow this summary, one state to a section.

Read together, the three pages say this:

• Team size differs. 16 players in Illinois, 20 in Texas and 24 in Pennsylvania.
• Committee places differ. Illinois’s committee may choose one boy and one girl. Texas’s selects two boys and two girls. Pennsylvania’s announcement gave its committee four boys’ places and four girls’ places on the 2026 team.
• Residency is worded differently. Illinois asks for U.S. citizens who are Illinois residents. Texas asks for a U.S. citizen whose parent or guardian files personal taxes in Texas, and says exceptions may be made. Pennsylvania’s FAQ says Pennsylvania residents.
• High school state championships earn points in all three. Illinois’s 2026 points lists include the IHSA State Finals. Texas’s 2026 list includes the UIL, TAPPS and SPC state championships. Pennsylvania’s 2026 distributions include the PIAA and PAISAA State Golf Championships. Our guide to how high school golf works explains the school season that leads to those championships.
• AJGA results earn points in all three, with limits. The Illinois and Pennsylvania documents count any in-state AJGA event and one best finish in an out-of-state AJGA event. The Texas list names AJGA Invitationals and in-state AJGA Open events. For how a player gets into those fields, see how to qualify for AJGA events.
• On October 11, 2026, none of the three pages stated a cost to the family, and none gave the day its team would be named.

Illinois: Team Illinois page of the Chicago District Golf Association, read October 11, 2026. Also read: 2026 boys’ points list, 2026 girls’ points list.

Texas: Team Texas page of the Texas Golf Association, read October 11, 2026. Also read: 2026 Team Texas Points List, August-October 2026 Tournaments.

Pennsylvania: Team Pennsylvania page of GAP, the Golf Association of Philadelphia, read October 11, 2026. Also read: February 27, 2025 announcement of the team for 2026, 2026 boys’ points distribution, 2026 girls’ points distribution.

In Illinois and Texas, and for Pennsylvania’s 2026 team, places are filled two ways. Most go to the players at the top of a points list. The committee chooses the rest in Texas and did for Pennsylvania’s 2026 team, and it may choose one boy and one girl in Illinois.

A points list is the association’s own table. It names the events that earn points and what each finishing place is worth. It is not a national ranking, and a total in one state cannot be compared with a total in another, because each committee sets its own events and values. One result shows the difference: winning the U.S. Junior Amateur is worth 850 points on Illinois’s 2026 boys’ list and 2,500 on Texas’s 2026 list.

Committee places use more than points. Texas names points standings “as the primary criteria” and then adds scoring average, competitive round statistics and character. Illinois says its committee looks at factors that “include, but are not limited to, the Team Illinois Points Lists, state rankings, junior rankings”, and it names Junior Golf Scoreboard, the American Junior Golf Association and the World Amateur Golf Ranking, along with top finishes, strength of field, graduation year and on-course observation. Those are two states’ lists. Ask your own committee for its own. Our junior golf rankings guide explains how the ranking systems Illinois names work.

An event that is not on the list. Illinois’s points lists say a player may email results from an unlisted event to the committee for consideration, and that the committee “has the right to award points for events not listed above”. Ask your own committee whether it does the same.

Standings. All three associations publish standings and link them from their own pages. We do not link them or repeat them here, and we list no roster, because they name junior players. Use the link on your own association’s page.

No. All three associations answer that question on their own pages:

• Illinois and Texas, in the same words: “No. The National Junior Team is determined by the USGA and will be a relatively small number of athletes compared to the number of athletes on State Teams.”
• Pennsylvania: “No. The National Junior Team will be for a select and relatively small number of athletes compared to the number of athletes on State Teams.”

What a state team place does carry, on the same three pages, is a place in the USNDP for the following calendar year. Each page lists benefits that “may include” recognition on the USGA and USNDP website and social media, a streamlined or expedited route to USNDP grants, exemptions into local events and access to the USNDP’s statistical platform. “May include” is the associations’ wording, so ask which apply in your state this year.

A state team place is not a grant. The three pages describe a streamlined or expedited grant application for team members, which is still an application. Our junior golf grants and financial assistance guide covers the USNDP grant and where the official application is.

We did not read a USGA page on how the National Junior Team is selected, so this guide states nothing about its size, its criteria or its dates. Start from the USGA’s program home page for that.

Work through these five steps in order.

1. Identify the association. Open the USGA’s State Junior Team Program page and find your state. Follow its Learn More link and note which organization’s site you land on. If your state is not on the list, the USGA lists no team for it yet. The USGA’s goal is a team in every state by 2033, and its page gives no date for any one state.
2. Check the year and the eligibility. Find the team year, the performance year and the two age dates, and make sure they belong to the team being selected now. Then read the residency, citizenship, Handicap Index and membership lines. If the player does not have a Handicap Index yet, start with how to get a GHIN number.
3. Find the points rules. Look for the points list for the current performance year, the events on it, and how many places come from points and how many from the committee.
4. Verify whether there is an application. Some pages carry an interest or application form. Read whether it is required and by when. If the page does not say, ask.
5. Confirm the next published update. Find out when the team will be named and where, and where the standings are posted during the season.

Then put these questions to the association. They are questions, not facts: every answer belongs to your own state’s committee.

Age and residency

• Which team year is being selected now, and which dates decide age eligibility for it?
• What counts as residency: where the player lives, where a parent or guardian files taxes, or something else?
• What happens if the family moves, the parents live in different states, or the player attends school in another state?
• Does the player need to be a U.S. citizen, a member of the association, or the holder of a Handicap Index with a minimum number of scores?

Which events count

• Which events earn points this season, and where is the list?
• Do high school state championships, national championships and out-of-state events count?
• On what date does the points season close, and what happens to an event that finishes after it?

How points work

• How many places are filled from the points standings, and how many by the committee?
• What does the committee weigh for its own places?
• How are ties handled, and is there a minimum number of events?
• Does a player have to apply or send a form to be considered, and by when?

What the team does

• What does a team member do in the team year: camps, coaching days, matches against other states? On which dates, and where?
• What is expected of a member, and is there a code of conduct?
• Does a place carry over, or is it earned again each year?

What it costs and what is covered

• Is there any cost to the family, and who pays for travel, lodging and entry fees for team activities?
• What does the team provide?
• Is the USNDP grant open to team members, and how is it applied for?

Write down who answered and on what date. The criteria on the three pages read here carry dates for one cycle, so an answer from one year is not the answer for the next.