MONTRÉAL — East Surry High School’s Pennson Badgett helped Team United States capture the 2024 Junior Presidents Cup on Sept. 25.
Badgett was one of only 12 golfers in the country selected for the event.
The Junior Presidents Cup is a two-day, team match-play competition features the top 24 male golfers between 12-19 years old. Teams are divided into 12 golfers from the United States and 12 from around the world, excluding Europe.
According to the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) the Junior Presidents Cup, which is held just days before the biennial Presidents Cup, was developed to give the world’s best non-European juniors a unique playing opportunity to compete in an international team match-play competition and showcase the global reach of junior golf.
The 2024 Junior Presidents Cup — the event’s fourth edition — was held Sept. 23-24 on the Blue Course at Le Club Laval-sur-le-Lac in Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Selections for Team United States were based on the Rolex AJGA rankings. Badgett automatically qualified as he ranked in the top 10 on Aug. 8, which is when the initial selections were made. An 11th player was also selected by the U.S. Team Captain in August. The 12th and final spot for Team U.S. was awarded to the leading player in the AJGA Rankings as of Sept. 5 that hadn’t already qualified.
Team United States consisted of golfers from eight different states: Florida, Texas, North Carolina, California, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and Virginia. The Captain of Team United States was Charley Hoffman.
Selections for the International Team were made with similar criteria but are based on world rankings. Eight countries were represented on the International Team: China, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, New Zealand, India, Canada and Colombia. The International Team Captain was Graham DeLaet of Canada.
Best of the Best
Team United States captured its fourth Junior Presidents Cup by a score of 15 to 9, which marks the largest margin of victory in the Cup’s history.
The Presidents Cup consisted of three matches: four-ball, foursomes and singles matches.
Badgett began the Cup by teaming with Georgia’s Jackson Byrd to take on Hanjie Yu and Liangliang Gu, both from China, in four-ball. Each team takes the better of their two individual scores on each hole as their official team score.
The teams tied on 12-of-18 holes then split the remaining six. Each pair earned 0.5 points for their team. Badgett had the best score in his group at an even par.
Team United States led 4.5 to 1.5 after four-ball.
The golfers resumed that afternoon for foursome, a format in which players alternate shots. Badgett teamed up with fellow North Carolinian Will Hartman to face Thanawin Lee and Warut Boonrod, both from Thailand.
The international pair took the victory by winning 8-of-18 holes to Badgett and Hartman’s seven; the teams tied on three holes. Individually, Badgett finished 3-over par.
Overall, Team International won 4-of-6 foursome holes to cut Team United States’ lead to 6.5-5.5 entering the final day of the event.
The final competition featured 12 singles matches. The final results tilted heavily in the United States’ favor as the they only lost one match. Team U.S. won 6-of-12 matches and tied five of the remaining six.
Badgett took on Canada’s Antoine Jasmin in the individual competition and tied at 4-under par. Each competitor won seven holes.
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