At the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley, widely known as the Masters of junior golf, Charlie Woods stumbled and finished dead last with a 26-over par, a whopping ten shots behind his nearest competitor. Woods’s future teammate and current rival, Miles Russell, won the tournament with a total score of 15-under par. For Charlie, the disaster in Sage Valley started quite early.

On Wednesday, he recorded two triple bogeys, but then he showed some fight by making five birdies. Sadly, he still ended the day at 3-over par. The second round brought more trouble for him. The teenager tried to fight back with two early birdies, but his short game let him down. Late double bogeys on holes 15 and 16 pushed his score to a 4-over 76. During the third round, everything that could go wrong went wrong for the youngster.

Woods Jr. shot a painful 83, which was his worst score of the entire week. He bogeyed seven holes and carded a triple bogey while finding only one birdie all day. The final round was better than Friday’s disaster, but he still carded an 8-over 80 with four doubles on the 3rd, 8th, 12th, and 18th holes. The 18-year-old will definitely be bummed because the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley is not just any tournament.

Only the top 36 junior golfers get an invitation to tee off. The list of past winners includes Scottie Scheffler (2014), Akshay Bhatia (2018), Joaquin Niemann (2017), and Austin Eckroat (2016). This year featured the strongest field ever, with all the top 10 AJGA players present. Stars like Tyler Mawhinney and Luke Colton were there to compete. Charlie Woods entered the week ranked 20th, hoping to show he could beat the top-ranked kids. However, the pressure of playing against the elite seemed to weigh on his young shoulders.

The AJGA Rolex Junior Player of the Year and the ultimate winner, Russell, shot 64-70-72-67 to clinch the title. The 17-year-old became the first player to win back-to-back Junior Invitational titles. Asterisk Talley won the women’s tournament by three shots, becoming the first female winner to have multiple victories at Sage Valley.

Notably, Charlie Woods and Russell have committed to Florida State University, which means they’ll soon be teammates. They have practiced together before as well. However, the sharp difference in the two players’ performance is more surprising because Charlie had a good season last year.

Top Stories

Akshay Bhatia Ready to Take His ‘Shirt Off’ to Silence Cheating Allegations

Justin Thomas’s Game in Trouble After Ball Finds Penalty Area at TPC Sawgrass

‘I’m Quite Traumatized’: Brooks Koepka’s Wife Addresses Pregnancy Rumors With Strong Message

Deadly Shooting Near The Players, Suspect Flees After Crossing PGA Tour Property

Charlie Woods and Miles Russell will carve a new legacy at Seminoles

In May 2025, Charlie shot a career-best 15-under par at Streamsong Resort to claim his first AJGA title, beating a field that included four of the top five-ranked players. Then he played the anchor role for his high school, firing a standout 4-under 68 in the final round to lead the Bucs to their second FHSAA Class 1A state title in three years. And his rise from 838 to No. 21 in the AJGA rankings earned him a spot on the Rolex Junior All-America First Team.

Interestingly, Charlie surprised many when he chose Florida State over Stanford as his university. Tiger Woods famously starred at Stanford from 1994 to 1996, and Charlie’s sister, Sam, is currently a freshman student there. So when Woods Jr. picked the Seminoles after finishing high school, it was quite a move.

But the rumors of him joining the Seminoles were already there, and it started when FSU head coach Trey Jones was spotted following Charlie’s rounds and discussing the round with Tiger Woods at the Mission Inn Resort. And Woods Jr. officially announced his choice in February, saying he was very excited to join the ‘Noles.’

And it made sense. Trey Jones, the head golf coach at FSU, has played a pivotal role in developing talents like Brooks Koepka and Daniel Berger. Luke Clanton, who is blazing a trail in pro golf, was also mentored by Jones. Miles Russell has also verbally committed to play college golf at FSU in June 2025.

He is the #1 junior golfer in the AJGA rankings. In 2024, he became the youngest player to make the cut in Korn Ferry Tour history at the LECOM Suncoast Classic, eventually finishing T20. And most recently, in March 2026, he made his first cut in his fifth PGA Tour start at the Puerto Rico Open, finishing T50 at 5-under par before coming to Sage Valley.

Now, with these two on the roster for the coming years, the FSU golf team surely expects to blaze a trail.