Northern Michigan golf's PJ Maybank playing for Team USA in Junior Presidents Cup – Detroit News

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PJ Maybank, just 17 years old, has had no shortage of memorable golf experiences.
In 2018, at hallowed Augusta National Golf Club, he won the Drive, Chip and Putt National Championship. The next year, he nearly defended his crown. In 2021, he was named the Golf Association of Michigan’s Junior Boys player of the year.
But the highlight, so far, well that comes next week, when Maybank will represent his country, Team USA, in the Junior Presidents Cup. The international showcase, which leads into the actual Presidents Cup, is Monday and Tuesday at Myers Park Country Club in Charlotte.
“I’m pumped,” Maybank said. “It’s been a goal of mine for the last four, five years now. To make the team means a lot, to represent your country.
“It’s the most prestigious team you can make as a junior golfer. It means a lot.”
Maybank is one of 12 players on the Team USA squad, which will face off against 12 of the best juniors in the world (not including Europe). There will be six fourball matches and six foursome matches on the opening day, followed by 12 singles the next day.
Team USA’s top 10 came from the top 10 on the American Junior Golf Association points list as of Aug. 19. Maybank was 10th on the points list at that point, based on top two-five finishes and two other top-10s in seven AJGA events this year. He also won two AJGA championships last summer.
Maybank was keeping close tabs on the points list as the season went along.
“Oh yeah, definitely,” he said. “We can see the rankings and how it works and stuff like that, and I was doing math at the end. To get the text I got in was pretty special.”
This is the third installment of the Junior Presidents Cup, which leads into the Presidents Cup, which is set for Tuesday through Sept. 25 at Quail Hollow.
The captain for Team USA in the Junior Presidents Cup is four-time PGA Tour winner Notah Begay, who said, “I look forward to leading this team into a competition that will be memorable for all of us.”
Tim Clark, two-time PGA Tour winner, is captain of the international team.
Maybank is from Cheboygan, and still lives there during the late spring and in the summer, but he lives the rest of the year in Orlando so he can play year-round. He takes online classes through Cheboygan. He committed to Oklahoma, choosing the Sooners over other finalists North Carolina and Auburn.
He’s looking forward to the college experience, most notably the team competition.
He’ll get his first taste of that next week.
“For sure, the team atmosphere is fun,” Maybank, a two-time winner of the Michigan Junior State Amateur, said over the phone from Florida, having just left the golf course.
“There’s not a whole lot of events like this. You might play one per year, but there’s not a whole lot of team events in junior golf, or really any golf.”
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tpaul@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @tonypaul1984

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