Charlie Woods will return to the TPC Sawgrass on Labor Day Weekend. Woods, the son of two-time Players champion Tiger Woods, was added to the field for the 20th Junior Players Championship, Sept. 4-6 at the Players Stadium Course. Woods is a sponsor exemption to the field of the American Junior Golf Association invitational.
Woods played last year and tied for 31st, 16 shots behind winner and future Florida State teammate Miles Russell of Jacksonville Beach. Woods qualified for last year's tournament by being among the top 58 on the AJGA Rolex rankings (he was as high as 14th) but is 306th on the current list. Woods was also notable for making a hole in one at the par-3 third hole in the final round, when he posted his best score of the week with a 72.
Tiger Woods won The Players in 2001 and 2013. The son of a past Players champion has never won the Junior Players.. Russell, first on the AJGA rankings, will miss the Junior Players because he'll be playing for the U.S. in the Walker Cup Sept. 5-6 at the Lahinch Golf Club in Ireland. Kevin Copeland to lead 2027 Players The Players Championship has elevated one vice-chairman and added another to the team for the 2027 tournament at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. Kevin Copeland will be the 2027 Volunteer Chairman, succeeding Marc Hassan in overseeing the 2,000 or more volunteers who support the PGA Tour's flagship event that will be played March 11-14, 2027. As the chairman, Copeland will oversee 48 committees that deal with the operation of the tournament, including transportation, parking, player services, scoring, marshalling on every hole and assisting players on the practice areas.
Copeland, a Jacksonville resident for nearly 30 years and a UCF graduate, is entering his 11th year as a Players volunteer and has served in multiple leadership roles with the tournament. He is the Director, Head of Deposit and P&C Fraud Strategies and Analytics for USAA. Copeland is the Board Chairman for the Children's Home Society of North Florida and as a member of the board for the DePaul School for Dyslexia Literacy. He is the father of two sons, Aiden and Sebastian. "The Players has been an important part of my life for the last 11 years, so it's a tremendous honor to serve as Tournament Chairman," said Copeland in a statement. "This championship brings together an incredible group of volunteers, and I'm looking forward to working alongside them as we continue to grow the tournament's impact throughout Northeast Florida." In addition to Copeland's elevation, Frank Streva was added to the volunteer leadership as a Vice-Chairman, joining First Vice-Chair Laura Renstrom and Vice-Chairs Luke Pritchett, Hamilton Neal and Ryan Sitnik. Steva, a Ponte Vedra Beach resident, is a 10-year Players volunteer and is a Senior Vice-President at Ring Power. He has a marketing degree from LSU and an MBA from the University of New Orleans and is involved in local charities such as Golf Fights Cancer's Jacksonville Golf Marathon, Children Are Rock Stars (C.A.R.S.) benefiting Community Hospice Northeast Florida and Blessings in a Backpack. Miles Russell set for second Junior Presidents Cup Miles Russell of Jacksonville Beach was named to the 2026 Junior Presidents Cup team and will play in the matches for the second time Sept. 19-20 at the Medinah Country Club near Chicago. Matt Kuchar is the U.S. captain and C.T. Pan the International Team captain. The matches will be a prelude to the Presidents Cup Sept. 24-27. Russell and Ronin Banerjee of Irvine, Calif., are the two returning players on the U.S. team. He is the No. 1 player on the American Junior Golf Rolex Rankings and No. 4 on the World Amateur Rankings. He is coming off a championship match berth in the U.S. Junior Amateur, a semifinal spot in the Western Amateur and he qualified for match play in the U.S. Amateur. Russell was the stroke-play co-medalist in the U.S. Junior, the medalist in the Western Amateur, and tied for fifth in the U.S. Amateur. He will play for the U.S. in the Walker Cup Sept. 5-6 at the Lahinch Golf Club in Ireland. Russell went 1-2 in the 2024 Junior Presidents Cup. This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Charlie Woods gets sponsor exemption into Junior Players Championship