How many U.S. Girls' Junior winners have success as a pro? A look back on last 25 years

The 76th U.S. Girls' Junior is underway at Atlanta Athletic Club, where 156 players hoped to join an elite list of past champions that includes Mickey Wright, JoAnne Carner, Nancy Lopez and Lexi Thompson.

This year's championship is a global affair, with 16 different countries represented, including six from Thailand and Australia. The average age of the field: 16.42.

The adage "anything can happen" is often applied to match play, and success at the Girls' Junior certainly doesn't guarantee future success. And yet, it takes something special to survive and advance over the course of two rounds of stroke play and six matches.

Plenty of past champions have gone on to win some of the biggest titles in golf.

Over the past 25 years, nine U.S. Girls' Junior champions have won a total of 67 LPGA titles, including 14 majors.

The impressive list includes LPGA Hall of Famer Inbee Park, who her first USGA title in 2002 and then finished runner-up to Sukjin-Lee Wuesthoff in 2003 and In-Kyung Kim in 2005.

Girls' Junior winners who went on to win majors in that timeframe include In-Kyung Kim (1), Lexi Thompson (1), Ariya Jutanugarn (2), Minjee Lee (3) and Park (7).

Four of the nine have won more than 10 LPGA titles: Park (21), Jutanugarn (12), Lee (11) and Thompson (11).

Yealimi Noh (2018) became the latest Junior champion to break through on the LPGA last February at the LPGA Founders Cup.

Rose Zhang, who won in 2021, claimed her first LPGA title two years after she beat Bailey Davis at Columbia Country Club.

Julieta Granada won only once on the LPGA, but it was a big one. In her rookie season on tour, Granada won the season-ending ADT Championship and the tour's first $1 million prize.

Notable runner-ups who have also won the LPGA include Alexa Pano (2018), Andrea Lee (2016) and Angel Yin (2015).

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: How many U.S. Girls' Junior champs win as pros? The list is impressive