Cauley First To Graduate From
Junior Players to The Players
When Bud Cauley received the news on
May 4, his tweet said it all: “@BudCauley IM
INNNNNNNNN!!!!!”
Since The Junior Players Championship
presented by TaylorMade-adidas Golf began
in 2007, 310 players have competed at TPC
Sawgrass in the world’s premier junior event.
With his entrance into The Players Champion-
ship field, Cauley is the first of the 310 juniors
to advance to the Tour event.
“I had a great time out here when we had
the AJGA tournament,” Cauley said at his press
conference Wednesday. “This is obviously a
step up from that, but feel very lucky to have
played both of them.”
For Billy Dettlaff, tournament chairman,
Cauley embodies the vision he had more than
five years ago.
“When I first had the concept of The Junior
Players Championship, it was to afford the best
junior golfers in the world an opportunity play
in a tournament that would as closely as pos-
sible emulate The Players. A second goal was
to inspire those players through that experi-
ence to continue working on their games so
one day they might return to compete in The
Players,” Dettlaff said. “Since our first event, I
have been waiting and wondering who the first
junior player might be and when it would hap-
pen. It is an honor to see it happen so quickly. It
is also very special to have a local Jacksonville
AJGA player be the first.”
At the 2007 Junior Players, Cauley’s third-
place finish was highlighted by a final-round 69
that included an eagle-birdie-eagle stretch on
Nos. 2-4. He posted an even-par 216 (74-73-69)
total on a course that mirrored the yardages and
hole locations used by the Tour during the second, third and final rounds of the 2007 Players
Championship.
Bill Hughes, general manager of TPC Sawgrass, has played an integral role through the
first five years of The Junior Players, shared
Dettlaff’s vision that inspired the creation of the
AJGA event in 2007.
“I remember clearly addressing the players
and families during the media training component to The Junior Players Championship that
first year of the event. I said to each of them,
‘You are the best 78 junior golfers in the world.
If you have the passion, work hard, stay focused
and keep developing your game, one day you
could be walking the fairways here during The
Players Championship,’ ” Hughes said. “Little
did I know that one of the young men in that
first Junior Players class would do exactly
that. It has been a real pleasure to get to know
Bud on a personal level and to see him take a
dream that he has had since a young boy, and
make it become a reality.” l
