Aphrodite Deng has made history, becoming the first Canadian to win the U.S. Junior Girls Championship.<\/p>\n
Deng, who is just 15, defeated Singapore’s Xingtong Chen at Atlanta Athletic Club 2 and 1 in the 36-hole final match.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really means a lot,\u201d Deng said. \u201cI just can\u2019t believe that I won.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the win, Deng earned an exemption into the 2026 U.S. Women\u2019s Open \u2013 which will be contested at the iconic Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles \u2013 along with next year\u2019s Augusta National Women\u2019s Amateur. That likely means there will be two Canadians in the field of that event for the first time in its history.<\/p>\n
Deng was 4 up after the first 18 holes after winning Nos. 10, 12, and 13.<\/p>\n
Chen cut the lead to just 2 up through 26 holes, but Deng battled back to win the 27th and 28th holes. Chen cut the lead again as the match inched closer to its conclusion, winning the 33rd and 34th holes before Deng closed the door.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think (this week) definitely gave me a lot more confidence because previously I had a lot of doubts about myself \u2013 just like, would I be able to make it even just as an amateur golfer, trying to get into college. But I think after this week, I definitely have a lot more confidence and just trust my game a bit more,\u201d Chen said.<\/p>\n
Deng, who is from Calgary but lived in Montreal before moving to the United States, has had a spectacular summertime already. She won the Junior Invitational (one of the most prestigious events on the junior golf calendar that takes place the week prior to the Masters at Sage Valley, which is just 25 minutes from Augusta National) as well as the American Junior Golf Association\u2019s Mizuho Americas Open, which takes place at the same time as the LPGA Tour event of the same name and is hosted by Michelle Wie-West.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Winning the Mizuho) definitely helped a lot. I think, without that experience, I would not be able to be that calm this week,\u201d Deng said.<\/p>\n
She also won The Nelly Invitational \u2013 hosted by the LPGA\u2019s No.1-ranked golfer Nelly Korda \u2013 last year.<\/p>\n
Deng, who said the key to her success through the week was her recovery shots and managing her energy over a long six days, headed into the week No. 36 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. She\u2019ll obviously climb the ranking with her victory, but it remains to be seen if she\u2019ll top Lauren Kim as Canada\u2019s top-ranked amateur come Monday when the new rankings are official. Kim, who attends the University of Texas, is No. 18.<\/p>\n
Other notable winners of the U.S. Girls\u2019 Junior include Inbee Park, Lexi Thompson, and 2025 KPMG Women\u2019s PGA Championship winner Minjee Lee.<\/p>\n
Next up for Deng is competing in the U.S. Women\u2019s Amateur at the beginning of August at Bandon Dunes, and then \u2013 although not official \u2013 she will likely receive an exemption into the CPKC Women\u2019s Open at the Mississaugua Golf and Country Club.<\/p>\n
Deng\u2019s performance also caught the eye of multi-time PGA Tour winner Billy Horschel who also practices and plays out of TPC Sawgrass where Deng \u2013 and Horschel \u2013 work with the director of the performance center, Todd Anderson, at the club.<\/p>\n
Anderson tells Sportsnet that Deng (who he began working with in February 2023) is \u201cobviously very talented\u201d but her work ethic (upwards of eight hours per day), poise and self-belief, and commitment to their improvement plan are all things that really stand out about her.<\/p>\n
Horschel wrote on X, formerly Twitter, a note of congratulations to the Canadian.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a stud and a future star on the LPGA Tour!\u201d Horschel said.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t be surprised if that happens sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aphrodite Deng has made history, becoming the first Canadian to win the U.S. Junior Girls Championship. Deng, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-9495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}