Bruising Loss for International Team at Junior Presidents Cup

Chicago, United States: CT Pan’s International Team suffered a bruising loss to their United States counterparts in the fifth edition of the Junior Presidents Cup.

A team containing nine rising stars from the Asia-Pacific region proved no match for a powerful American line-up that triumphed 17½-6½ at Medinah Country Club. The 11-point margin was the largest in the event's history.

Following the fourball and foursomes sessions, the US built a seemingly unassailable 10-2 advantage heading into the singles.

Despite brave showings that brought victories for Nguyen Tuan Anh, Taisei Nagasaki, Wu Qiyou and Settawut Kenanan, the International Team added just 4½ points from the 12 points on offer in the singles.

In addition to the successes of Vietnam’s Tuan Anh, Japan’s Nagasaki, China’s Wu and Thai Settawut, Korean Son Je-yi secured a half-point.

But there were defeats for Ethan Tian, a member of Hong Kong, China’s triumphant Nomura Cup team at the start of the month, 2025 Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation Junior champion Cooper Moore of New Zealand, China’s Li Zhi and Korean Kim Min-su.

Earlier, Kim and Son combined to gain a point for the International Team in the foursomes, which the hosts won by a 4-2 margin.

However, the tone had been set in the fourballs with the United States winning all six contests in the opening session. Kim and Son, Nagasaki and Li and Tian and Wu all reached the final hole in their matches, only for all to suffer defeat by one-hole.

The International Team was represented by players from 10 countries, the most ever in the event’s history. China and Korea were the only countries represented by two players on the team. The other countries were Vietnam, Japan, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Thailand, Argentina, Guatemala and Colombia. 

The Junior Presidents Cup is a two-day, team match play competition featuring 24 top junior boys, aged 19 years old and younger. The juniors are split into teams of 12, half from the United States and the other half from around the world, excluding Europe.

Taking place just days before the start of the biennial Presidents Cup, the Junior Presidents Cup was developed to give the world’s best non-European juniors a unique playing opportunity to compete in an international team match play competition and showcase the global reach of junior golf.

Five-time Presidents Cup participant Matt Kuchar captained the US Team as they claimed their fifth-consecutive victory in the competition after lifting the cup at Le Club Laval-sur-le-Lac (2024), Plainfield Country Club (2017), The Royal Melbourne Golf Club (2019) and Myers Park Country Club (2022).