U.S. Junior preview: Charlie Woods will draw crowds, but here are 10 other names to watch

Charlie Woods will undoubtedly grab tons of headlines entering this week’s U.S. Junior Amateur at Oakland Hills in Bloomfield Township, Michigan.

But expectations for the 15-year-old son of nine-time USGA champion Tiger Woods should be tempered.

While Tiger Woods captured three straight U.S. Junior titles, from 1991 to 1993, and reached the semifinals in his debut as a 14-year-old in 1990, Charlie is teeing it up in his first USGA championship – and the biggest tournament of his young career by far.

Charlie, a 2027 recruit, is ranked No. 817 in the Junior Golf Scoreboard rankings, which would indicate that the younger Woods qualifying for the 64-player match-play portion, which begins Wednesday following two rounds of stroke play, would be a tall task. Yet, Charlie is surely to compete under the largest of microscopes.

“Some of the things that happened to this poor kid, sometimes it’s just unfair,” Charlie’s high-school coach, Toby Harbeck of The Benjamin School, told the Detroit Free Press last week.

Harbeck added, “If you’ve watched Tiger play, you know the throngs of people that follow him. If you were standing on a tall porch or deck, and you could see the whole golf course, you can always tell where Tiger was exactly by the amount of people. Charlie’s the exact same way. You can tell where Charlie is because he’ll have 30 or 40 people following him.”

With Tiger already at Oakland Hills to watch Charlie play – he can’t caddie because of USGA rules; instead, Charlie’s teammate Luke Wise will handle bag duties – and thousands of spectators expected at the ticketless event, Charlie’s USGA debut will undoubtedly produce his biggest gallery to date. The Free Press reported that there were already big crowds following Charlie’s Saturday practice round, and that the USGA had to expand off-site parking and merchandise orders after Charlie qualified.

“I mean, if you didn’t know it was Charlie Woods, he just seemed like any normal kid,” competitor Jaxon Bandelier, who practiced with Charlie on Saturday, told the Free Press. “He’s got a really nice swing, just didn’t really strike the ball too well today. But, I mean, obviously, you’ve got a ton of people out here watching him, even in the practice round.”

While Charlie will have to deal with the extra attention once again, he will draw more eyes to one of the world’s top junior championships, which features top contenders such as Miles Russell and Blades Brown, both of whom have already made PGA Tour starts.

Here are the 10 biggest names to watch this week at Oakland Hills, listed in alphabetical order:

Kihei Akina, 18, Highland, Utah: A native of Hawaii and 2025 recruit, Akina spurned some of the nation’s blue-bloods in committing to BYU. He’s nearly cracked the top 300 in WAGR thanks to a strong year that’s included two junior wins, top-5s at Sage Valley and the Terra Cotta, and a T-15 at the Sunnehanna Amateur.

Joshua Bai, 18, New Zealand: Last year’s runner-up to Bryan Kim, Bai has played mostly pro events in his native country and Australia in the past year. He recently made the Round of 16 at the North and South Amateur and earlier this year was third at Sage Valley. This will likely be one of his final amateur events as he’s set to eschew college golf and turn pro in the coming months.

Blades Brown, 17, Nashville, Tennessee: The top player in the Class of 2026, Brown recently switched to full-time online classes to focus more on his budding golf career. He remains uncommitted, though he can start taking visits on Aug. 1. Brown has no wins this year, though he did post a top-5 at the Jones Cup, tied for 26th in his PGA Tour debut at the Myrtle Beach Classic and recently was T-15 at the Northeast Amateur. His mom, Rhonda, played in WNBA and was the league’s first player to make a 3-point basket. His dad, Parke, was diagnosed with hairy cell leukemia in December 2022.

TK Chantananuwat, 17, Thailand: GolfChannel.com’s top-ranked incoming college freshmen, Chantananuwat will look to bring a U.S. Junior title with him to Stanford next month. He’s been ranked as high as No. 10 in WAGR, though enters this week ranked No. 57. He’s also not played an amateur event since the U.S. Amateur, instead teeing it up in 12 pro events, mostly on developmental tours, since – his notable finishes included a T-4 at the Asian Tour’s Saudi Open and T-40 at the DPWT’s Malaysian Open.

Luke Colton, 17, Frisco, Texas: The 2026 lefty has arguably had the best year of any junior. He won the Terra Cotta Invitational and two starts later captured the Byron Nelson Junior. He has five other top-5s, including a runner-up at the Texas State Amateur, and most recently tied for 12th at the Northeast Amateur and made the Round of 16 at the North and South. His dad, Jim, started the Hundred Hole Hike in 2011 to initially raise money for a caddie at his club that had been paralyzed in a skiing accident; the idea has since evolved, being picked up by Youth on Course in 2016 to raise money for youth golf initiatives.

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Billy Davis, 18, Spring Valley, California: The twin brother of Auburn’s Anna Davis, Billy is also headed to The Plains this fall to join his sister. Last summer, Davis was a semifinalist at the U.S. Junior and a runner-up at the Boys Junior PGA. This year has been highlighted by top-5s at the Terra Cotta, AJGA Simplify Boys Championship and Toyota Junior World Cup.

Nicholas Gross, 17, Downingtown, Pennsylvania: The incoming Alabama freshman was a quarterfinalist at the 2022 U.S. Amateur, and though he hasn’t had the best of senior years, he did reach the quarters of the North and South last month. His parents are both college professors – dad, Shawn, at Villanova University (civil and environmental engineering) and mom, Jennifer, at Lehigh University (structural engineering).

Will Hartman, 17, Charlotte, North Carolina: Another reigning U.S. Junior semifinalist, Hartman was also third at last summer’s AJGA Junior Players. He’s a rising high-school senior and is verbally committed to Vanderbilt.

Miles Russell, 15, Jacksonville Beach, Florida: Speaking of Tiger, Russell broke Woods’ record as the youngest Rolex Junior Player of the Year in AJGA history. He did not play the U.S. Junior last year, though he did make match play in his debut two years ago. Last summer, Russell reached as high as No. 69 in WAGR while notching big wins at the Boys Junior PGA and AJGA Junior Players. With his T-20 finish at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Lecom Suncoast Classic earlier this year, not only did Russell become the youngest player to make the cut in a KFT event (at 15 years, 5 months and 18 days old he surpassed the previous mark held by Gipper Finau, Tony’s younger brother, who did so at the 2006 Utah Championship), but two days later he secured a T-20 finish, becoming the youngest on the KFT or PGA Tour (at least since 1983) to post a top-25.

Tyler Watts, 16, Huntsville, Alabama: Another strong 2026 recruit, Watts won the Jones Cup Junior last year and this year has posted top-4 finishes at the Alabama State Amateur (he became the youngest winner of that event last year), Terra Cotta, Dustin Johnson World Junior and AJGA Mayakoba Invitational.