Prattville’s Julie Waldo qualifies for U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship
Prattville’s Julie Waldo took Alabama’s lone berth into the 2026 U.S. Girls’ Junior, sending her to Durham, N.C., for one of junior golf’s top stages.
Julie Waldo gave Prattville a rare national qualifier to celebrate, winning Alabama’s only spot in the 2026 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship field. Courtney Grace finished as first alternate and Ein Kim was second alternate at the state qualifier, but Waldo was the one who advanced from a crowded path that leaves no margin for error.
Her berth carries her from Prattville to Old Chatham Golf Club in Durham, North Carolina, where the championship will be played July 13-18, 2026. The USGA describes the U.S. Girls’ Junior, established in 1949, as the world’s premier championship for female golfers 18 years old or younger, and the event has long been a proving ground for players who later contend for major amateur and professional titles.
Waldo’s qualification also puts a local spotlight on Prattville’s junior golf pipeline. Her American Junior Golf Association profile lists her as a 2026 graduate from Prattville and shows a verbal commitment to Jacksonville State University, a sign that her game has already drawn attention beyond Autauga County. The same profile shows she has been active in AJGA competition this season, including a tied-for-16th finish at the Junior Orange Bowl International Championship on Jan. 3, 2026, with rounds of 73, 75, 77 and 71 for a 296 total.
That record helps explain how a player from Prattville reached the national stage through an Alabama qualifier that was one of many held across the country. For a community that measures its athletic reputation in local gyms, on baseball fields and in high school stadiums, Waldo’s result points to a different kind of competitive depth, one built on coaching, repetition and the ability to prepare a junior golfer for medal-play pressure.
The Alabama qualifier did not just produce one winner and two alternates. It gave Prattville a direct link to a championship that the USGA places among the highest levels of junior golf, with Waldo now set to test her game against the best young players in the country in mid-July.
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