The Junior World Golf Championships are held in San Diego, California

San Diego, California

San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...

, USA each year, currently in July. They include tournaments for six age groups ranging from under-6 to 15–17 and for both boys and girls. Each age group plays at a separate course, ranging from a par-3 course for the youngest to Torrey Pines

Torrey Pines Golf Course

Torrey Pines Golf Course is a municipal public golf course owned by the city of San Diego, California. It sits on the coastal cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the community of La Jolla south of Torrey Pines State Reserve. It has two famous golf courses, the North Course and the South Course....

 for the 15–17s, which is also the venue for the Buick Invitational

Buick Invitational

The Farmers Insurance Open is a PGA Tour professional golf tournament played in the San Diego, California area in the early part of the Tour season, known as the "West Coast Swing." The tournament was noted for having singer-actor Andy Williams as a celebrity host from 1968 to 1988. The tournament...

 on the PGA Tour

PGA Tour

The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...

 and the site of the 2008 U.S. Open

U.S. Open (golf)

The United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour...

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The event was founded in 1968. The inaugural tournament numbered 475 entrants from 20 U.S. States and six other countries. By 2003 there were 1,040 participants from 43 U.S States and 45 other countries. Qualifying events are held in the U.S. and elsewhere. However, European golf has largely opted out of participation; of around 30 countries that hold qualifying events, not one is in Europe, though a few European compete by other means. In 2005 the top 10s of the 15–17 boys' and girls' tournaments featured golfers from 10 different countries between them. The most notable trend in the results in recent years is a dramatic increase in the number of wins and top-10 finishes by boys and girls from East Asia

East Asia

East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...

. This trend has already translated to LPGA Tour level, but not so much onto the PGA Tour

PGA Tour

The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...

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Past boys' champions include Notah Begay III

Notah Begay III

Notah Ryan Begay III is an American professional golfer. He is the only full-blooded American Indian golfer on the PGA Tour. He is currently an analyst with the Golf Channel.-Amateur career:...

, Ernie Els

Ernie Els

Theodore Ernest "Ernie" Els is a South African professional golfer, who has been one of the top professional players in the world since the mid-1990s. A former World No. 1, he is known as "The Big Easy" due to his imposing physical stature along with his fluid, seemingly effortless golf swing...

, Phil Mickelson

Phil Mickelson

Philip Alfred Mickelson is an American professional golfer. He has won four major championships and a total of 39 events on the PGA Tour. He has reached a career high world ranking of 2nd in multiple years. He is nicknamed "Lefty" for his left-handed swing, even though he is otherwise right-handed...

, Corey Pavin

Corey Pavin

Corey Allen Pavin is an American professional golfer on the PGA Tour. He spent over 150 weeks in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Rankings between 1986 and 1997.-Biography:...

, Nick Price

Nick Price

Nicholas Raymond Leige Price is a South African-Zimbabwean Professional golfer and an inductee in the World Golf Hall of Fame. In the mid-1990s, Price reached number one in the Official World Golf Rankings.-Background:...

, Craig Stadler

Craig Stadler

Craig Robert Stadler is an American professional golfer who has won numerous tournaments at both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour level....

, David Toms

David Toms

David Wayne Toms is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. He has won a total of thirteen events on the PGA Tour including the 2001 PGA Championship...

 and Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods

Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Formerly the World No...

. 1984 was a vintage year, with David Toms winning the 15–17 event, "Ernest" Els the 13–14s (with Mickelson finishing second), and "Eldrick" Woods the 9–10s (despite still being age 8).

Past girls' champions include Amy Alcott

Amy Alcott

Amy Alcott is an American professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1975, and won five major championships and 29 LPGA Tour events in all. She is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame....

, Brandie Burton, Lorena Ochoa

Lorena Ochoa

Lorena Ochoa Reyes is a Mexican professional golfer who played on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour from 2003 to 2010, and was the top-ranked female golfer in the world for over three years, from April 2007 to her retirement in May 2010...

, and Jennifer Rosales

Jennifer Rosales

Jennifer Rosales is a Filipino professional golfer who plays on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour.-Amateur career:Rosales was born in Manila, Philippines. She won the Philippine Ladies Amateur Golf Championship five times in a row from 1994 to 1998...

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