GRANITEVILLE, S.C. (March 11, 2026) – After the first round of the 2026 Junior Invitational at Sage Valley Golf Club, Defending Champion Miles Russell opened up a commanding lead of the boys field while 2024 Champion Asterisk Talley took a one-shot lead in the girls field.

Russell leads by three shots after today’s round with an impressive 8-under par 64 that included four straight birdies to start the back nine. Tyler Watts from Huntsville, Ala., sits in second place at 5-under par followed closely by Ronin Banerjee from Irvine, Calif., at 4-under par. 

After multiple appearances and one win at the Junior Invitational, Russell knows his way around Sage Valley and it showed today with eight birdies and no bogeys. 

“I was swinging nicely and a couple unlucky breaks ended up getting luckier than they probably should have been. But, I played really solid and made a lot of putts,” said Russell. 

Asterisk Talley sits at a familiar place at the top of the girls leaderboard after finishing the first round at 3-under par 69. She’s one stroke ahead of a trio of players that includes Defending Champion Aphrodite Deng, China’s Yujie Liu and France’s Louise Landgraf.

After finishing runner up in last year’s tournament, Liu is happy to be back at the Junior Invitational and says it’s one of her favorite tournaments ever. This year, she’s focused on staying patient and enjoying the moment.

“I’m just trying to be patient and trying to do the best I can do without caring about the results too much,” said Liu. “I’m super happy to be back and happy to see so many familiar faces.”

The second round of play begins at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday. Live scoring and pairings can be found at www.juniorinvitational.com. 

About the Junior Invitational

The 14th annual Junior Invitational features 24 of the top junior girl players and 36 of the top boy players in the world. Recognized by Golfweek as the No. 1 junior event in golf, the Junior Invitational welcomes the best golfers from around the world to Sage Valley Golf Club in Graniteville, S.C. Founded in 2011, the Junior Invitational has become one of the most desired invitations in the world of competitive junior golf. Past participants have included some of the top names in golf: Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas, Colin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland, Cameron Young, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Anna Davis, Megha Ganne and more. For more information and tickets, visit www.juniorinvitational.com.