The Money Behind Junior Golf

Breaking down the costs to play competitive junior golf.

Every Monday, I write a newsletter breaking down the business in golf. Welcome to the 67 new Perfect Putt members who have joined us since last Monday. Join 2,785 intelligent and curious golfers by subscribing below.

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Hey Golfers —

During Tiger Woods’ World Golf Hall of Fame speech, he discussed the sacrifices his parents made during his junior golf career. This quote from his speech has stuck with me since.

Obviously we didn’t know that we were going to have enough money for me to go to college or be recruited. So my family made a tough decision, and at the age of 14 we took out a second mortgage so I could go out and play the AJGA Tour.

I’ve been curious about the money behind junior golf and wanted to dig into it.

There are several junior golf tours in the United States — most are local or regional golf tours run by the local PGA section. There are only a handful of nationwide junior golf tours.

• American Junior Golf Association (AJGA)

• Hurricane Junior Golf Tour (HJGT)

• International Junior Golf Tour (IJGT)

The AJGA has been the gold standard in junior golf — it’s highly competitive and provides exposure to college coaches for recruiting. The AJGA has 6,700 members and over 60 full-time employees. The AJGA is a nonprofit 501(c)(3), meaning its financial records are public.

Let’s dive into them.

Below are revenue numbers from 2015 to 2019.

Here is a quick breakdown of their 2019 Form 990.

• $15.89 million in revenue

• $15.52 million in expenses

• $9.9 million in total assets

• $5.2 million cash on hand — beginning of the year

Revenue is recognized in two main buckets for the AJGA.

• Player fees — $3.99 million

• Contributions, gifts, and grants — $11.77 million

Without fundraising, contributions, gifts, and grants, the AJGA would not be profitable — it makes sense they are a 501(c)(3).

The AJGA executive team is paid well — the CEO made $499,000 in 2019, and three other officers made over $250,000.

These numbers are relatively meaningless unless we have something to baseline them against — the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is a great place to start. The AAU has over 700,000 member athletes and over 30 sports, including golf.

The AAU’s Form 990 stated revenues of $20.4 million and expenses of $20.7 million in 2019. Their CEO made $212,000 in 2019, and four other directors made over $100,000. The AAU doesn’t rely on contributions, gifts, and grants near as much — they recognized $895,000 in 2019.

Keep in mind that the AAU is a parent organization to a group of 3,900 other AAU organizations.

Now back to the AJGA.

It is expensive to play in AJGA events.

Here are the membership costs.

• Junior Plus — $285

• Junior — $195

• Future — $95

There are five tournament types the AJGA has — here is the cost of each tournament.

• AJGA Qualifier — $105

• AJGA Preview — $210

• AJGA All-Star — $295

• AJGA Open — $295

• AJGA Invitational — $375

You are limited to five AJGA Open and All-Star events per season as a player. I want to note that the AJGA does have scholarships available.

Like PGA Tour and LPGA Tour players, travel is a varying cost depending on various factors. Let’s look at it two different ways for a three-night hotel stay.

Flying:

• Airfare for two — $1,000

• Hotel — $600

• Rental car — $300

• Meals — $200

• Fuel — $100

Driving:

• Hotel — $600

• Fuel — $200

• Meals — $200

These are estimations to illustrate the difference between flying versus driving.

Let’s assume a junior will play in three AJGA events in one year. Two events driving and one event flying. The estimated total is $5,370.

• Tournament membership — $285

• Tournament fees — $885

• Airfare — $1,000

• Hotel — $1,800

• Rental car — $300

• Meals — $600

• Fuel — $500

Throw on a golf course membership, equipment, and lessons, and we could end up north of $10,000 a year to compete in junior golf. If a golfer plays AJGA events for five years, a parent could shell out $50,000 for their child to compete.

It isn’t necessary for a junior to play in AJGA events to play high-level collegiate golf. I know several former Division I golfer’s that didn’t compete on the AJGA and had successful careers. Conversely, I know a handful of juniors that played well in AJGA events and didn’t have as successful collegiate careers as they would’ve liked.

Have yourself a great Monday. Talk to you next week!

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