Best of for 2012 Best Junior Golf Tour and Junior Program

     There are several junior golf organizations both nationally and based in Michigan. From a national standpoint, The American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) is undoubtedly the one with the best golfers skillwise. The tournaments are extremely well run and they think of everything from national sponsors to having a emergency evacuation plan from rain to the Red Cross attending their events just in case. The AJGA has both national and local sponsorship. College recruiters are routinely at their stops and many relationships are cemented at their events.

From a local standpoint, both the Meijer/Adams Tour and the Top 50 Junior Tours hold events in the southern half of Michigan and have championships at resort type courses.

While the AJGA has the best infrastructure and with entry fees of roughly $300 per golfer times 150, they can afford to have a staff of a half dozen and employ dozens of volunteers.

For my buck, the best run tournament is by the Top 50 Junior Tour by Dan Thomas and his family. He does not have nearly the amount of golfers of the AJGA and they are local golfers that are mostly a cut below the AJGA fields. Saying that, Thomas is very friendly and his family helps him out along with a handful of volunteers. Thomas' tour is a gem and could hit the next level with television/press coverage and more sponsorship. Their website allows people to navigate their tournament results and statistics pretty easily. Dan Thomas believes that if you shoot low scores, the colleges will find you.

The Meijer/Adams Tour also attracts some pretty good golfers and they tour all over Michigan with an emphasis of covering from the Lansing areas to both Kalamazoo to Macomb Counties. Tournament results lag behind and they are not used to anyone covering their tournaments and phone calls need to be returned more promptly. Still, a few changes can take care of that. The website needs to be updated more frequently during the season.


In my mind, the Top 50 Tour has the best infrastructure for a small tour. The AJGA is the choice for a national organization.