An Amazing Season of Golf For One of Socal’s Standout Juniors

The photo easily is one of the best in golf from 2024. On a sunny July day at The Saticoy Club in Somis, Jaden Soong smiles brightly as he holds aloft the hefty SCGA Amateur Championship trophy. He might as well be on ice skates trying to hoist the Stanley Cup.

Soong is 5 feet 2 inches and weighs 126 pounds. The trophy for the 125-year-old SCGA Am stands at 2.5 feet and weighs in at 31 pounds. “Ginormous,” says Jaden’s mom, Sandra. “That was quite the scene to see him hold it,” adds his dad, Chris. “It was all pretty surreal.”

FROM OCT. 2023 TO SEPT. 2024, JADEN SOONG HAS WON THE SOCAL BOYS JUNIOR AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP, SCGA AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP, AJGA QI 10 ALL-STAR CHAMPIONSHIP, UGT NOTRE DAME WARREN GC TOURNAMENT, CURRY CUP AND SCGA MIXED TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP.

The best observation comes from Jaden himself, who says, “Behind that smile and confidence is a kid shaking a lot and trying to hold up that trophy.”

HAZELTINE BOUND

The beauty of the moment was how Jaden Soong, already the 2023 champion of the SoCal Junior Amateur, came into possession of such a significant prize. At only 14 years old, he produced a nearly flawless closing 66 at Saticoy and with a 10-underpar total, won the SCGA Amateur title by five shots, making history by being the youngest to do so. He added his name to a trophy that includes Tiger Woods, Patrick Cantlay, Beau Hossler and Sahith Theegala.

“You look back on it and say, ‘Wow, I really did that,’” Soong, of Burbank, said in a late-summer interview after his first week of high school at St. Francis in La Cañada Flintridge. “It’s a great feeling and something you can really build off.”

In what was truly the Summer of Soong, the SCGA triumph capped a remarkable few months. Just a couple of weeks before the SCGA Amateur, as the youngest player in the field, Soong reached the match-play semifinals of the 113th California Amateur Championship at Sherwood CC. There’s a trend here: A very young man excelling in very old and venerated tournaments.

Soong signed with Vayner Sports in early September after notching big junior golf wins in the AJGA and two more in Steph Curry’s Underrated Tour. Because of his SCGA victory, he qualified for the 124th U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine National GC.

In the latter event, on the layout where major championships have been contested, Soong didn’t advance out of stroke play but got maybe his best golf education yet by playing against many of the top-ranked amateurs in the world. There was a practice round with Noah Kent, the University of Iowa standout who eventually lost in the final.

“It’s really cool to see how their game was compared to mine at this age,” Soong said. “The guys talked to me and said, ‘You’re way, way advanced at your age. It was great to hear that they respected my game.”

SHOOTING FOR HISTORY

Soong’s competitors don’t have much of a choice in that regard — no matter their age. Torey Edwards is 42 and a two-time champion of the SCGA Mid-Amateur. The Long Beach State alum has shot 58 twice in his life and played alongside some of the finest golfers to come out of Southern California. And Edwards could not be more impressed with Soong’s game and demeanor, having seen it up close during the summer.

In the California Amateur, Edwards and Soong faced off in the semifinal at Sherwood, and despite Edwards taking a 5-up lead early in the back nine, an unfazed Soong clawed back, chipped in for birdie at 15, and was only 1 down going into 18. Edwards closed him out by making a nervy 12-footer for par, but the kid got Edwards’ attention.

It figures, then, that the two would be paired again in the final round of the SCGA Amateur. Edwards was no match that day for Soong, who bested him by 6 shots with the 66 fashioned by the youngster hitting 11 fairways and 14 greens in regulation while needing only 27 putts.

“It was fantastic. He just ran away with it,” Edwards said. “It was one of the better final rounds of a tournament. To play that way and be so poised at such a young age, it was really fun to watch. It’s hard to even fathom and appreciate the achievement at his young age.”

Soong, a decidedly public-golf kid who plays many of his rounds at Brookside GC in Pasadena and DeBell GC in Burbank, first got the attention of the SCGA in 2023 when, at 13, he emerged from a three-for-two playoff in U.S. Open local qualifying to reach the 36-hole sectional at Hillcrest CC. Again, he was shooting for history, trying to become the youngest golfer ever to play in the U.S. Open.

Soong missed reaching for a hometown major at The Los Angeles CC, but reasoned, “It showed me that my game was there.”

STAYING GROUNDED

Introduced to the game by his dad at two years old, Soong has been on some golf fans’ radar since he was six. There is a video interview in which Jaden, missing his front teeth, is asked if he has anything to say to other golfers out there, he responds with a mischievous grin, “Good luck.”

Of course, there have been the “Is he the next Tiger Woods?” headlines — an always ridiculous and unfair label to apply to young phenoms. But Soong’s sensibilities and humility seem to have remained intact.

“I have a lot of friends who keep my ego down,” said Jaden, who has more than 30,000 Instagram followers. “We’re all really competitive, and when one of us wins something, we don’t get our heads too big. Even when I’m not winning, I love competing. Winning is just the cherry on top.”

There would seem to be a lot more cherries ahead. ▪