This week, some of the best young talent in golf is teeing it up in Central Wisconsin for one of the most prestigious events in junior golf: the 2025 AJGA Rolex Girls Junior Championship. Hosted at the spectacular Robert Trent Jones, Jr.-designed SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, this event brings together 72 of the top-ranked girls aged 12-19 from around the world for a three-day, 54-hole stroke play tournament that has helped launch the careers of some of the biggest names in the game.
Since its inception in 1992, the Rolex Girls Junior Championship has become a proving ground for future stars. Past champions include Rose Zhang, Inbee Park, Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel – names that have gone on to claim major titles and climb world rankings. This year’s field is once again stacked, led by Aphrodite Deng, Clara Ding, Lily Peng, Alice Ziyi Zhao and Yujie Liu – the current top five playing from the AJGA’s priority rankings.
Read more about the current field for the 34th Rolex Girls Junior Championship
For golf fans and families in Wisconsin, this is a rare opportunity to see elite-level golf played up close – and by the next generation of stars. It’s not just a great spectator experience, either. With free access for spectators and a welcoming, championship-caliber venue, this is a phenomenal event to bring your kids to – whether they play or are just venturing into the game.
I’ll be on site at SentryWorld from Tuesday through Thursday, covering the event with photography, commentary and on-site impressions for WiscoGolfAddict.com and social media. I’m excited to witness this championship firsthand – especially at a venue as dramatic and beautiful as SentryWorld, which most recently hosted the 2023 U.S. Senior Open and previously the 2019 U.S. Girls’ Junior. The course is pristine, the greens are pure, and the experience promises to be second to none.
Be sure to follow along throughout the week and, if you’re in the area, make the trip to SentryWorld. Your kids will get to see what hard work and dedication to the game looks like, and they may even walk away inspired to pick up a club themselves.
That’s what tournaments like these do – they inspire the next generation.
Six Holes That Could Decide the Championship at SentryWorld
Along with throngs of beauty, SentryWorld is chocked full of great championship golf holes. These are the six I see as being most instrumental for contestants to manage this week if they want any hopes of capturing the title.
6. The par three 7th
The seventh is the longest of SentryWorld’s four par threes, and the most challenging. At over 200 yards from the two back sets of tees, players will need to groove a long shot into a well-guarded green, making it one of the most demanding tee shots of the week.
5. The par four 17th
The penultimate hole at SentryWorld gives players a last chance to make up a shot before the treacherous 18th. A sharp left-to-right dogleg, most players will hit hybrid or fairway wood off the tee to set up a short iron or wedge in on this short four, but beware the downward path from fairway to green that can send shots skipping off the back of the green and down toward the water.
The 17th plays as short as 284 from the gold tees and up to 368 from the tips – this could be a great scoring opportunity.
4. The par five 5th
The fifth at SentryWorld is one of the best risk/reward holes in the entire state of Wisconsin, and even without its stately oak guarding the approach zone should prove to be a monstrous test for AJGA Junior Girls at this week’s Rolex national championship.
Struck down by lightning just weeks ago, the oak tree forced players to lay up to strategic areas of this par five’s fairway as hitting long shots greenward meant a good chance of hitting tree limbs and finding a watery grave. With the tree gone, I think we’ll see a lot more players going for it in two – and likely a lot more balls in the 30-foot-deep stocked pond (which I know about all too well from my Wisconsin Captured experience).
A crescent-shaped hole, this was my favorite spot to watch the 2023 US Senior Open from, especially hearing caddie chatter about how much risk players were willing to take for a shot at eagle or birdie.
3. The par five 9th
Finding the right target off the tee is crucial on nine, where a man-made stream (that was engineered to flow both ways!) crisscrosses the fairway on each shot.
The further left players aim off the tee, the higher the chances they’ll find the water, although long hitters can still catch it to the right.
Where nine gets the most challenging is on the green, where the small, tremendously contoured putting surface runs hard from back to front and is backed by a series of deep bunkers that, if caught, will have players hitting back out toward the creek.
There is nothing easy about nine, and not a single shot that can be hit without careful consideration.
2. The par four 2nd
The hardest hole on the course, the second is a beast of a par four that plays between ponds to the tune of 506 yards from the tips, and as short as 412 from the gold tees, which are the fourth set from the back.
With water left and right off the tee and a raised green that demands a long approach, the second hole forces players to be both precise and bold early in the round.
1. The par four 18th
Closing out SentryWorld is the par four 18th, a staunch finisher that can play as far back as 446 yards from the black tees. Teeing off uphill, the 18th bends right-to-left and has a massive, elevated green that demands a well-judged second shot after a semi-blind, uphill drive.
While the AJGA preview page shows it as playing from 375, my assumption is that it will be lengthened significantly for at least one of the rounds.
The Honorable Mention, Of Course!
While I would not say the par three Flower Hole 16th is going to be one of the most influential holes in tournament play at SentryWorld, it does always deserve to be mentioned as players will need to keep from gawking too long at the 55,000 flowers surrounding the greens complex long enough to hit a solid mid-iron.
Played from 176 yards from the tips, 168 from the next tees up and 145 from the whites, the Flower Hole has plenty of bite with its bunkering, but competitors will not have to worry too much about winding up in the flowers as a shot into them always allows for a free drop – “The Chairman’s Rule” – to avoid damaging the spectacular landscaping.
Be There to Watch the Championship Unfold
The Rolex Girls Junior Championship is one of the premier junior events in golf, and SentryWorld is an ideal stage for it. If you’re near Stevens Point this week, come see the future of the game in action!
The 2025 AJGA Rolex Girls Junior Championship website
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