Drive Chip and Putt national finals held at Augusta National

Augusta National Golf Club hosted the Drive Chip and Putt National Finals on Sunday, the day before the property goes quiet ahead of the Masters Tournament beginning April 9. Junior golfers from across the country competed on the same course that the world's best professionals will play within the week, testing their skills in three disciplines: driving distance and accuracy, chipping, and putting.

Getting access to Augusta National at any age is rare. For a child, it is the kind of experience that tends to stick. The course is private year-round, and the only public-facing events held there are the Masters itself and this junior competition. That alone tells you how seriously Augusta National takes the program.

How Drive Chip and Putt works

Drive Chip and Putt is a free youth golf development program run jointly by Augusta National, the PGA of America, and the United States Golf Association. It is open to boys and girls between the ages of 7 and 15. Participants compete in local qualifiers, then regional events, with the top finishers in each age and gender category earning a spot at the national finals at Augusta National.

The competition itself focuses on the three most basic and high-frequency skills in golf. Driving tests raw distance and accuracy off the tee. Chipping evaluates how close a player can land the ball to the hole from the short grass around the green. Putting measures precision on the green itself. Each skill is scored separately, and the competition is structured so that a player can win their category without needing to be exceptional across all three.

Why Augusta National hosts this event

Augusta National has a long-standing interest in growing the sport beyond its traditional demographic. The club admitted its first female members in 2012, and the Drive Chip and Putt program, which launched in 2013, extended that effort toward youth participation. Hosting the national finals at Augusta National rather than at a neutral venue makes the event tangible in a way that a generic venue cannot.

Kids who compete here are not just playing golf. They are standing on the same fairways and greens they will watch on television a few days later during the Masters. That is a deliberate choice by Augusta National, and it works as an incentive at the qualifier level too. The chance to play at Augusta drives participation throughout the local and regional rounds of the program.

The timing ahead of the Masters

Scheduling the national finals on the Sunday before the Masters opens is intentional. It gives the junior competition its own dedicated moment at the course without overlapping with Masters week preparations. Augusta National is meticulous about how the property is managed in the days leading up to the tournament, so fitting the Drive Chip and Putt finals into that window requires tight coordination.

For parents and families traveling to Augusta, the timing also provides an opportunity to stay for the Masters if they hold tickets, which are famously difficult to obtain. The combination of watching their child compete at Augusta National and then attending the Masters as a spectator in the same week is, by any practical measure, an unusual few days.

What the program has produced so far

Drive Chip and Putt has processed more than 500,000 participants since its launch in 2013, according to Augusta National's own program figures. Not all of those players will pursue competitive golf beyond youth events, but the sheer volume of participation has introduced the sport to a substantial number of children who might not have had easy access to formal instruction or competitive junior golf infrastructure.

Several past participants have gone on to competitive junior and collegiate golf careers. The program does not track professional outcomes specifically, but the age brackets it targets, ages 7 through 15, cover the window when most competitive golfers first develop serious technical skills. A player who competes at the Augusta National finals at age 10 will be college age by 2030, which means the pipeline from this program to higher-level competition is still relatively young in its output.