WORDS BY HUGO CORNELL

It is a hard task to discuss Sage Valley as a golf club without mentioning Augusta National at some point. The Sage Valley Junior Invitational is known as ‘The Masters of Junior Golf’ in the golfing world, with the winners being presented with a gold jacket. The first playing of the tournament was in 2011, and much has changed since. It has gone from a boys only 54-hole stroke play tournament to including girls as of 2022, and last year adding another round to make it 72 holes.

For the 34 boys and 26 girls that partook in it this year, there really is no better organised tournament nor greater test on their schedules. It is immaculately run by the event organisers. Players stay in on-site lodging together, with wonderful food, fun events and inspiring talks put on for them. In past years Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player have rolled out their old material with stories and advice for the next generation, all while framed on stage by washing machines from one of the event’s sponsors. Golf coach Sean Foley, with his permanently done-up top button, has given ‘fireside’ candid chats about the next steps from junior golf to a life on tour. There is a huge emphasis on camaraderie and creating friends for life. There is a wonderful ‘AM-AM’ event where the tournament participants play alongside members of the First-Tee programme which aims to showcase just how someone’s dreams in golf can be achieved and the immense opportunities that come with it, a great way of giving back. The participants from the First-Tee even hit the opening tee shots to ceremonially start the first round.

It is hard to talk down the significance of this event when it comes to the talent it has challenged and names that have come through it. Past champions of the boys section include tap dancer Scottie Scheffler (2014), LIV’s Joaquin Neimann (2017), southpaw pinup Akshay Bhatia (2018), side-bend phenom Caleb Surratt (2022) and human biltong Aldrich Potgieter (2023). The names don’t stop, with runner-up’s that include the likes of stinger icon Min-Woo-Lee, sunglasses advocate Patrick Rodgers, long bomber Cameron Champ and friend to all club lockers Wyndham Clark. The tournament course record of -10 (62) is co-shared by Justin Thomas.

The golf course opened in September of 2001 and was the vision of Weldon Wyatt, who had made his money as the leading developer of Walmart stores across The States. Weldon wouldn’t exactly be considered a George Crump (Pine Valley), Henry Fownes (Oakmont) or a Marion Hollins (Cypress Point) in the golfing world at this point, but give it time. Weldon collaborated with his son Tom Wyatt and they sought out the services of Tom Fazio to build a course that was big, beautiful, challenging and bold. It is located just 15 minutes away from Augusta National, and for a casual eye it is impossible not to draw comparisons when looking at the two layouts and their settings. The course is set amongst rolling hills and towering yellow pines. When it comes to agronomy and conditioning Sage Valley doesn’t hold back one bit, everything is pristine and manicured to within an inch of its life. Cut heights ranging from 750mm all the way down to 325mm, triple cuts, triple rolls and pristine sheer white sand and crisp bunker edges.

For the 2026 tournament the course measured 7,437 yards, which is just over the current average length of a course on the PGA Tour, though with a few elevated drives it doesn’t quite play that full length in practice. The Fazio layout requires precise carries with long irons, deft touch around the greens and a fearless putter. When using this year’s yardage book a player pointed out that when a pin location is described as being “6 paces on and 4 from the left” because of the slopes on the greens the area to land and hold the ball without it rolling off into a swell becomes “3 paces on and 2 from the left” such is the challenge of the green complexes.

There has been a persistent rumour since Sage’s inception that the inspiration for it is indeed Augusta National, with seemingly far too many ‘coincidental’ similarities. The jackets donned by Sage Valley members are funnily enough…green, just like the Augusta members wear, except greener, on any Dulux colour chart they’d be considered a lot greener, the sort of green Tolkien would take over a paragraph to describe in any of his great works. The caddies all wear white boiler suits…just like at Augusta. The holes are all named after flowers such as ‘Magnolia’, ‘Azalea’ and ‘Dogwood’…just like Augusta. Sage’s former head professional was a former employee of Augusta, as was the head sommelier (who looks after a cellar at the club containing 31,000 bottles of wine) and a handful of caddies in the club’s formative years.

One charming eccentricity that they have is that a pre-recorded bagpipe rendition of ‘Amazing Grace’ is blasted out over speakers across the whole property every evening at 6pm. Imagine playing a match in the summer and you’re faced with a sliding and snarling downhill six feet putt for a half… and bagpipes start playing. It would either inspire you to make it or perhaps you would end up feeling like you are in Christopher Nolan’s ‘Inception’ and you’re about to wake up from a dream and be faced with Ken Watanabe and DiCaprio on a plane…“well, did you make it or not?”. There were two excellent winners this year in Miles Russell and Asterisk Talley, both repeat winners for the first time in the tournament’s history (and the first back-to-back champion in the case of Miles). Both Russell and Talley are great friends and were teammates for the 2025 U.S Junior Ryder Cup team, contributing to both the mixed foursomes and fourball sessions as a pairing nabbing 1½ out of 2 points. Miles clipped off a final round 67 to finish at 15 under par for the week, beating the likes of reigning U.S Amateur Champion Mason Howell by 8 shots. The lefty is a commanding ball striker with a maturity far beyond his years. Asterisk also carded a final round 67 to finish at 5 under par to win by 3 shots over Japan’s Anna Iwanaga. For Talley she will be back in the local area next month for the Augusta National Women’s Amateur looking to go one better than her runner up in 2025, I wouldn’t bet against her taking that title.