Ringkamp climbs world amateur ranking after latest win at TPC San Antonio
Larry Bohannan- High school senior Luke Ringkamp won the Rolex Tournament of Champions, a major American Junior Golf Association event.
- Ringkamp secured a nine-shot victory at TPC San Antonio, finishing at 15-under par.
- The win has pushed his World Amateur Golf Rank to 143rd, putting him close to qualifying for the U.S. Amateur.
It is becoming a bit of a habit for Luke Ringkamp: play in a big event with some of the best players in the state or the country in the field, and then run away for a big victory.
Ringkamp, a senior at Palm Desert High School in California, has done that twice in the last two years at the Champions Invitational event at Tahquitz Creek Golf Resort in Palm Springs, an event with the best high school boys golf teams from California and other states. But those two wins don’t measure up to Ringkamp’s latest big win, the Rolex Tournament of Champions, the season-ending championship for the American Junior Golf Association.
Playing in the invitational featuring first-team, second-team and honorable mention players from the AJGA 2025 season, Ringkamp rolled to a nine-shot victory over the 42-player field in the four-day event at TPC San Antonio’s par-72 Canyons Course.
“It’s the most stacked field in junior golf I would have to say,” Ringkamp said. “There is really no other bigger tournament except for the U.S. Junior, but that’s a different format.”
Ringkamp opened the tournament with rounds of 71 and 68, but it was an 8-under 64 in the third round that opened up a lead the rest of the field couldn’t overcome. With a final-round 70, Ringkamp finished the event at 15-under 273 and as the only golfer in the field to break par each day. Three other players tied for second at 282.
“It was really cool, but I was just fortunate to get the opportunity to even play golf,” Ringkamp said. “Any day I get to play golf is a good day no matter where I am. I was just really grateful to even be there and compete.
“It was fantastic to win it, but the next day you still have to get up and brush your teeth and go back to the putting green and do it again,” he added.
The Rolex Tournament of Champions is the latest event for Ringkamp, who has already committed to played Division I college golf at Pepperdine University starting in the fall of 2026. The winner of the Desert Empire League individual championship each of the last two years at Palm Desert, Ringkamp has played in nine big junior events as well as the Southern California Golf Association Amateur Championship since the end of the school year last June, winning twice and never finishing worse than sixth in any event.
It all has pushed Ringkamp’s ranking in the World Amateur Golf Rank to 143rd. That ranking is important because if he should continue to rise on that list, Ringkamp can qualify automatically for other big events.
“I think that I am only like 30 spots away from being exempt into the U.S. Amateur [in 2026], so that’s pretty cool,” Ringkamp said. “I’m 143 and I think it is 110 that is exempt.”
Ringkamp said his current run of success comes in part from a more consistent practice routine, waking up at 5:30 a.m. to putt before school and working on his mental game.
Ringkamp’s next big event will be the Elite Invitational, a junior event in Jacksonville, Fla., later this month. He is also already in the field of all the AJGA invitational tournaments in 2026 as well as some other junior and amateur events. It is that kind of schedule, travel and the desire to keep his world ranking as high as possible that may stop Ringkamp from playing golf for Palm Desert High School in the spring.
“I don’t think I am going to play. No, I’m not going to play,” Ringkamp said. “I called my agent and we were talking about it with my parents. (High school golf) done fantastic things for me the last three years, but I’m grateful to be in the position I am in, and I think I need to seize that opportunity.”