For the past nine years, the Dustin Johnson World Junior Golf Championship has brought many of the best teenagers in the world to the Grand Strand.
Being juniors, they come largely in anonymity.
So none have been as famous as a commitment this year.
Charlie Woods, the 15-year-old son of 15-time major champion Tiger Woods, is registered to participate in the 10th annual 54-hole tournament from Feb. 28-March 2 at TPC Myrtle Beach in Murrells Inlet.
The tournament, being presented by LA Golf, will feature 60 of the top boys and 30 of the top girls ages 13-18 from around the globe.
Like his dad, Charlie has become a magnet for attention on the golf course.
With Tiger and Charlie participating, the PNC Championship set a new television one-day viewership record for the event during the first round on Dec. 21, averaging 2.92 million viewers, according to Sports Media Watch.
That was up 147 percent from last year’s first round.
The Woods duo lost to Bernhard Langer and his son, Jason, in a playoff, but all eyes were on Tiger and Charlie, who made a hole-in-one during the tournament.
Charlie Woods hasn’t competed in a lot of highly-regarded junior tournaments, instead competing largely for his high school team. He appears to be a sponsor exemption into the DJ Junior.
He did qualify for the 2024 U.S. Junior Championship conducted by the USGA, in which he missed the cut.
Will Tiger accompany his son at the event? If so, attendees may include two former No. 1 golfers in the world in Johnson and Woods.
Charlie Woods joins John Daly Jr. and Tristan Gretzky – son of hockey legend Wayne –as juniors who have famous father to have played in the event.
Others in the 2025 field include Tyler Watts of Huntsville, Alabama, who is in the top five in the American Junior Golf Association’s rankings and finished third last year at the TPC.
Watts was invited to stay an extra day last year to compete in “The Q at Myrtle Beach” qualifier for the PGA Tour’s Myrtle Beach Classic and finished third in that event as well.
Entrants Mason Howell of Thomasville, Georgia, and Asher Vargas of Spring, Texas, are also in the AJGA top 10. Howell, a Georgia commitment, tied for ninth in last year’s DJ Junior while Vargas, a North Carolina commitment, was a runner-up in the 2024 Boy’s Junior PGA Championship. Will Hartman of Marvin, N.C., is among the top-ranked juniors in the Carolinas.
The girls field features Madison Messimer of Myrtle Beach, a Tennessee commitment who is a consensus top-five girls recruit in the Class of 2025. She was on the victorious 2024 U.S. Junior Solheim Cup Team and is competing in her third DJ Junior, with finishes of 12th and third in the past two.
Her competition includes Elizabeth Rudisill of Charlotte, N.C., who is ranked third in the AJGA girls rankings, ninth-ranked Amelie Zalsman of St. Petersburg, Florida, who tied for seventh in last year’s DJ Junior, and Ryleigh Knaub of Debary, Florida, who won the 2023 DJ Junior and was a runner-up last year.
The tournament doesn’t have defending champions this year, as 2024 boys winner Ethan Paschal is competing for the University of North Carolina and girls winner Vanessa Borovilos is playing for Texas A&M.
Paschal was the first boys winner who wasn’t ranked No. 1 in the world by Junior Golf Scoreboard in the past four years, as then No. 1s Jackson Koivun (2023), Ben James (2022) and Nick Dunlap (2021) won the past three.
The event has already produced a trio of winners at the highest levels of professional golf in PGA Tour winners Akshay Bhatia and Dunlap and LPGA Tour winner Alexa Pano.
A cut will be made following the second round, with the top 36 boys and ties, and top 18 girls and ties, advancing to the final round.
So Charlie Woods will be playing at least two days.
With Johnson’s support, players receive treatment worthy of a college or pro tournament at the TPC. The tournament is open to spectators free of charge.
