Andover golfer Lunden Esterline leads Team USA to Junior Ryder Cup glory
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- Lunden Esterline led Team USA with three wins at the Junior Ryder Cup in New York.
- His victories included a key singles win and two dominant mixed team performances.
- Esterline continues rise with national titles and Auburn commitment for 2025.
Andover native Lunden Esterline has the past few years proving he belongs among the nation’s best young golfers. This week, he left no doubt on one of junior golf’s biggest stages.
The 17-year-old Wichita Collegiate junior delivered three victories for Team USA at the Junior Ryder Cup in New York, tying for the mixed team’s top point scorer and helping the Americans reclaim the trophy with a 17.5-12.5 win over Team Europe on Thursday.
Esterline, fresh off his record-setting win at the Junior PGA Championship earlier this summer, was the only boy on the U.S. roster to win three of his four matches. His run was capped Thursday at Nassau Country Club, where he clinched a 3-and-2 singles victory over France’s Callixte Alzas.
Esterline’s week actually started with his only loss, as he and teammate Hamilton Coleman dropped a tight morning foursomes match on Tuesday, falling 1 up to Europe’s John Doyle and Kris Kim. But in the afternoon, Esterline quickly found redemption. Teaming with Zoe Cusack, he helped deliver the Americans’ largest win of the day, a dominant 6-and-4 rout over Doyle and Alice Kong in mixed foursomes.
On Wednesday, Esterline and Cusack teamed up again for a 2-and-1 victory over Charlotte Naughton and Kim in mixed four-ball. That momentum carried into the deciding day of singles, when Esterline rallied from an early deficit to win five of the last nine holes to close out Alzas and clinch his third point of the week.
His performance was part of a statement by Team USA, which reclaimed the Junior Ryder Cup after Europe snapped their six-in-a-row streak in 2023.
For Esterline, the week added another milestone to a rapidly growing resume. He captured a Kansas high school state championship as a freshman in 2024 before committing to Auburn, where he is expected to be one of the program’s cornerstone recruits. Now one of the top-ranked junior golfers in North America, he’s chosen to skip high school competition to focus on the national stage — and weeks like this show why.
The Junior Ryder Cup has long been a launchpad for future stars, with PGA Tour heavyweights like Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy once playing in the same event. Esterline will now get the rare experience of celebrating with his teammates while watching golf’s biggest names compete in the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black this weekend.
This story was originally published September 26, 2025 at 5:03 AM.
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