All hail the juniors

Writing from Lake Forest, Illinois

Wednesday, June 17, 2026

If golf is the last bastion of sportsmanship – and judging from the Greg Louganis-level diving seen so far in the World Cup, it seems to be – then the junior wing of the game is the last bastion of good manners.

It’s not that touring professional golfers, that select band of the highly skilled with driver, wedge and putter, are complete louts. Many are fine fellows, and the percentage increases on the ladies’ circuit. But there are enough of the entitled throughout the play-for-pay game that one who follows it closely can be excused for wishing the hockey season never ended.

The worst among them berate volunteers, without whom there would be no tournaments. They demand locker room attendants break speed records getting them a cold drink or hot towel. They glare at marshals, curse the wind, and if there’s a raindrop in the air, expect to have ball in hand whether in the rough or in the fairway. They blame bad shots on the butterfly flapping its wings too loudly in the next fairway. Some cheat, or try to.

The best among them are good people and understand how lucky they are to be playing for millions every week while the real world works.

It’s that latter group that never forgot where they came from. That place, along with having parents who understand excellence is not a synonym for entitlement, is junior golf.

That brought us on a wet Wednesday to Knollwood Club, one of Chicagoland golf’s hidden gems. Designed by Charles Alison just over a century ago, with an iconic men’s locker building designed by Howard van Doren Shaw – some members never see the fine clubhouse unless they dine with their wives – Knollwood exudes style without being stuffy, even as the course knocks the stuffing out of you.

This week, Knollwood is hosting the 108th Western Junior, conducted by the Western Golf Association – the Evans Scholar folks – and thus giving the elite youth of golf’s wide world a taste of what a real test is. Tuesday, with the sun out, the wind howled off Lake Michigan and only two players broke par. Wednesday, it poured in the morning and the wind came from the southwest in the afternoon. Unlike the PGA Tour, which would have invoked “lift, clean and cheat” rules  before sunrise to protect the players’ egos, the WGA plays proper golf.

By day’s end, the original leader, Cole Pregler of Fulshear, Tex., and S.J. Thomas of Birmingham, Ala., were the only players in red numbers, and tied for the lead at 1-under 141.

By Thursday night, after the 36-hole double round completes the exercise, that may still be the case. Knollwood, which hosts the Western Amateur next year, will be the real winner.

So, too, are the participants, for their civility. That was also true, according to reports reaching this desk, at last week’s Women’s Western Junior, conducted at Meridian Hills Country Club on the leafy north side of Indianapolis. Not far from where Booth Tarkington penned “The Magnificent Ambersons,” 13-year-old Iris Lee played magnificent golf and became the youngest winner in WWJ history, which spans 99 playings over 107 years. Lee, a tyke from Orlando who is eligible to play in the championship through 2031, knocked off Athena Singh of Morehead, Ky., 1 up in the 18-hole championship match, charming one and all in the process.

Pregler, 18, speaks loudly with his clubs. No. 80 in the AJGA rankings, he recorded an ace this year in the Texas high school championship, which further endeared him to Texas-San Antonio, where he’ll be a freshman in the fall. He made no aces at Knollwood – at least so far – but his run of four birdies in five holes in the opening round served notice on the field that he’s yet another Texan who can play in the wind. He would have been sole leader but for a double-bogey 6 at the last.

Meanwhile, 15-year-old Thomas started in the rain, chipped in three times on his first nine and rattled off a closing string of five pars in blustery winds to finish off his 1-under 70 for a 36-hole aggregate of 1-under 141.

“It’s different,” Thomas said. “You’ve got every condition out here. I just focused on the shot at hand. I did pretty solid on that.”

All these lads play a regular series of tournaments on the AJGA circuit. Thomas might have been speaking for the majority when he said of the WGA’s operation, “It’s awesome. Conditions are hard and the golf course is about as pure as it gets.”

Smart kid. Polite, too. That's a winning combination.

– Tim Cronin