The seventh annual Dustin Johnson World Junior Golf Championship will be played March 4-6, and TPC Myrtle Beach, one of South Carolina’s premier courses, is poised to challenge America’s best young golfers.

A 54-hole, college style event, 70 of the 90 players (60 boys, 30 girls) participating in the DJ World Junior are ranked among America’s top 100 junior golfers. TPC Myrtle Beach, which overseeded wall-to-wall, is in impeccable condition, and the course has proven adept at crowning worthy champions.

Among the DJ World Junior’s previous winners are Akshay Bhatia (pictured right), who already has a Korn Ferry Tour victory to his credit, Georgia’s Trent Phillips and Michael Brennan of Wake Forest. Phillips and Brennan are two of college golf’s brightest stars.

Based on the quality of this year’s field, several future PGA/LPGA Tour players might be teeing it up at TPC Myrtle Beach and here is a look at some of the most likely candidates: (Click Here to View the Entire 2022 Field)

– A University of Virginia signee, Ben James is the No. 1 junior boy in America, according to Junior Golf Scoreboard. In the last six months, James has won The PING Invitational and the Junior Players Championship on the American Junior Golf Association Tour. Expect him to contend.

– Luke Clanton, a Florida State signee, is the nation’s No. 4 junior and he is due to win the DJ World Junior. In three previous appearances, he has three top 10s, including a pair of runner-up finishes. A semifinalist in the U.S. Junior Am last summer, Clanton will almost surely be near the top of the leaderboard.

– Jonathan Griz, a University of Alabama signee, is America’s No. 7 junior and a resident of Hilton Head. He will enter the event coming off a strong finish to the 2021 season, including a third-place showing at the Junior Players and a ninth-place finish at the PING Invitational.

Twenty-six of the 30 girls are ranked among the nation’s top 100 and here are three of the favorites heading into the event:

– Junior Bailey Shoemaker is America’s No. 3 junior girl and she will enter the event as a co-favorite. She won a pair of AJGA events in 2021 – Kathy Whitworth Invitational, Sung Hyun Park Junior Championship – so she knows how to close.

– Defending champion Jacqueline Putrino, a Florida State signee, will be back to defend her 2021 crown. The seventh-ranked Putrino will likely be a factor over the tournament’s closing holes.

– Gianna Clemente, who led after round 1, finished fifth in last year’s DJ World Junior and she won twice later in the year on the AJGA Tour. Just an eighth grader, Clemente appears to be one of the game’s rising young stars and she is certainly a player to keep an eye on.

With a field as deep and talented as the DJ World Junior’s, the winner could certainly come from outside our group of favorites, but if you will be following the scoreboard, keep an eye on these six players.