Junior Golf Scoreboard

What it is

The Junior Golf Scoreboard, usually shortened to JGS, is an independent service that has followed competitive junior golf since 1998. It gathers results from junior tournaments and publishes rankings of junior golfers built from them.

How the ranking is calculated

JGS ranks a player against others in their high school graduation class, using three weighted criteria:

• Individual scoring, 65 percent. The average difference between a player's scores and the course rating of the courses they played, taken over their better scoring rounds.
• Strength of field, 25 percent. A measure of how strong the fields were in the tournaments the player entered.
• Strength of finish, 10 percent. Where the player finished, weighted by the size of the field they beat.

The weighting leans deliberately toward how a player actually scores rather than how large the events were, which lets ordinary multi day stroke play tournaments contribute rather than only marquee events.

Eligibility

To be ranked, a player generally needs to have completed four multi day stroke play tournaments in the previous 365 days, submitted under a consistent name and hometown, with a graduation year on their record. The counting age groups have their own conditions, including completing at least 36 holes and a minimum field that finishes every scheduled round.

These rules are set and changed by JGS. Check their site for the current version before relying on any of it.

How a junior becomes ranked

By playing qualifying tournaments and having the results reach JGS. Players are not required to register or pay to appear in the rankings.