The United States National Development Program announced its 2027 U.S. National Junior Team on Wednesday, and the fourth edition of the roster is the biggest yet: 12 boys and 13 girls from 10 states, up from 24 players a year ago.
Eleven of the 25 are returners, led by U.S. Women's Amateur champion Asterisk Talley, who is back for a fourth straight year. Fourteen are new, and six of those newcomers came up through the USNDP State Junior Team program, which expanded to all 50 states last month.
Team members get year-round support: coaching and analysis, sports psychology, performance training and nutrition, plus spring and fall training camps and a WAGR-sanctioned international match. Last year's team made 41 combined starts in USGA championships.
Our take: the pathway is starting to look like a pathway
When the USGA launched the USNDP in 2023, the concern from a lot of corners of amateur golf was that it would simply be a badge for players who were already going to be good. Three years in, this roster is the first real evidence that the structure underneath it is doing work. Six of the 14 newcomers were elevated from state teams, and the names behind them (Grayson Baucom from Team North Carolina, Connor Wolfe from Team South Carolina, Hailey Kim, Amber Lee and Zude Xu from Team Southern California, Alexa Takai from Team Hawaii) are not the usual junior-ranking fixtures. That is exactly what head coach Chris Zambri said the program was designed to produce, and it is the first time the state-to-national step has been visible on the roster at this scale.
The grant side matters just as much. Two of the 25 are USNDP Grant Program athletes, and the USGA put more than $1.1 million into 124 junior golfers in 2026 for travel, coaching and equipment. The cost of competitive junior golf is the single biggest filter on who reaches this level, and the grant program is the piece of the USNDP most likely to change who shows up on these rosters five years from now.
Still a two-state team
The flip side: 11 of the 25 players are from California and six are from Florida. That is 17 of 25 from two states, with the other eight players spread across eight states. The 50-state junior team expansion is the obvious answer to that, but it will take a few cycles before players from Oklahoma, Texas and the Carolinas show up in numbers rather than as single representatives.
Talley, year four
Talley's résumé reads like an elite amateur's, not a junior's: the 2026 U.S. Women's Amateur at The Honors Course, a winning Curtis Cup, the Junior Invitational, the ANNIKA Invitational, starts at the U.S. Women's Open, Chevron and Evian, a T-4 at Augusta National Women's Amateur, and the No. 4 spot in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Her staying on the junior team for a fourth year says something about how the USGA sees the USNJT: it is a support system that follows the player, not a stepping stone she is expected to vacate. She graduates in 2027, so this is almost certainly her last year on it.
On the boys' side, Jessy Huebner returns for a third year as the top-ranked boy after winning the Wyndham Invitational and playing the Junior Presidents Cup. Giuseppe Puebla's year was defined by one week in June: back-to-back 68s in final qualifying put him in the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills as a high school junior.
Mia Clausen and Anna Fang return after teaming with Amelie Zalsman to win the World Junior Girls Championship gold medal, the first for the United States since 2014.
The turnover is coming
Ten of the 25 are in the high school class of 2027, including Talley, Fang, Huebner, Puebla and Ronin Banerjee. By this time next year most of them will be on college rosters, which should open the door for the next wave of state team graduates. At the other end, 14-year-old Kelly Zhang of Hillsborough, Calif., is the youngest player on the team with a 2030 graduation year.
2027 U.S. National Junior Team: Girls
| Name | Age | Hometown | HS Grad Year | Year on USNJT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grace Carter | 16 | Jupiter, Fla. | 2029 | 2nd |
| Mia Clausen | 16 | Carlsbad, Calif. | 2028 | 2nd |
| Madeleine Conser | 17 | Portland, Ore. | 2027 | 1st |
| Anna Fang | 17 | San Diego, Calif. | 2027 | 3rd |
| Hailey Kim | 15 | Simi Valley, Calif. | 2029 | 1st |
| Amber Lee | 16 | San Diego, Calif. | 2029 | 1st |
| Lily Peng | 17 | San Ramon, Calif. | 2027 | 1st |
| Macie Rasmussen | 17 | Chesapeake, Va. | 2027 | 1st |
| Eliana Saga | 17 | Stevenson Ranch, Calif. | 2027 | 2nd |
| Alexandra Snyder | 16 | Orlando, Fla. | 2028 | 1st |
| Alexa Takai | 17 | Honolulu, Hawaii | 2028 | 1st |
| Asterisk Talley | 17 | Chowchilla, Calif. | 2027 | 4th |
| Kelly Zhang | 14 | Hillsborough, Calif. | 2030 | 1st |
2027 U.S. National Junior Team: Boys
| Name | Age | Hometown | HS Grad Year | Year on USNJT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rory Asselta | 17 | Ramsey, N.J. | 2028 | 1st |
| Ronin Banerjee | 18 | Irvine, Calif. | 2027 | 3rd |
| Grayson Baucom | 16 | Hickory, N.C. | 2028 | 1st |
| Jessy Huebner | 17 | Port St. Lucie, Fla. | 2027 | 3rd |
| Chase Hughes | 16 | Oklahoma City, Okla. | 2028 | 2nd |
| JP Lynch | 15 | Austin, Texas | 2028 | 1st |
| Ryan Nana Tanke | 16 | Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. | 2028 | 1st |
| Sohan Patel | 17 | Weston, Fla. | 2027 | 2nd |
| Giuseppe Puebla | 18 | Royal Palm Beach, Fla. | 2027 | 2nd |
| Jaden Soong | 16 | Burbank, Calif. | 2028 | 2nd |
| Connor Wolfe | 16 | Blythewood, S.C. | 2029 | 1st |
| Zude Xu | 16 | Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. | 2028 | 1st |
What's next
The team's calendar runs through biannual training camps and a spring international friendly. In April 2026 the USA side beat Team Sweden 15.5-8.5 at Vaquero Club in Westlake, Texas, in a mixed foursomes, four-ball and singles format. The 2027 USNDP grant recipients will be announced in the spring; applications closed Oct. 31.
Source: USGA / USNDP announcement, Nov. 4, 2026.