New Youth Golf Circuit Launches With David Blitzer's Backing

David Blitzer is all in on youth golf.

The Unrivaled Sports co-founder is launching the Arnold Palmer Junior Golf Tour through Bolt Ventures, his family office. He is partnering with the late golf legend’s brand management and charitable organizations.

Scheduled to begin in January
About 400 annual events nationwide
Boys, girls competitions for ages 8-18
$199 player registration for season

Bolt acquired the Hurricane Junior Golf Tour in April and then quietly added the Texas Junior Golf Tour in June; the latter has a partnership with the Rocky Mountain Junior Golf Tour, which was not acquired. Bolt also has several other golf industry holdings.

The Associated Press — which first reported the news — said the APJGT is designed to complement the American Junior Golf Association, which runs about 150 events each year, as well as other PGA of America events.

The circuit said it emphasize character development and prioritize accessibility; Palmer’s foundation will provide awards to families facing financial obstacles to golf participation both on and outside the tour.

"Good business doing excellent things for kids is a wonderful combination," Blitzer told the AP.

Weatherford Capital is among the investors in the tour; it is joined by Blair Mill Capital, Blumenfeld Development, Heights LLC and The Team.

The bulk of the headlines surrounding the announcement so far have focused on a) accessibility and b) participation.

But the real story here is something we have written about previously — creating competitive and developmental infrastructure for kids who project as future collegiate and professional players.

The sport’s youth participation boom generated renewed attention last week when Project Play highlighted the National Golf Foundation figures via SFIA — up 55% among ages 6-12 and 73% among ages 13-17 since 2019.

Those numbers are driven in large part by base-of-the-pyramid entry points — Topgolf, simulators, venues projects, low-cost or free rounds through myriad corporate-backed initiatives and sponsorships, etc. But not much has changed to improve opportunities for top-level youth players — the inverse of pretty much every other modern youth sport.

This seems like an effort to change that. Arnold Palmer Junior Golf Tour’s listed membership and event registration fees appear to be pretty comparable — and perhaps a bit lower — than AJGA. But the key is it will run over double the events and have them all over the country — yet another example of the regionalization trend we are seeing everywhere.