On April 5, 2026, at Augusta National Golf Club — the same hallowed ground where the Masters is played every spring — two young golfers made history with AutoFlex shafts in their bags. Ava Chen of Brooklyn, New York and Lucy Cui of Honolulu, Hawaii each won their respective divisions at the 2026 Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals, one of junior golf's most prestigious competitions.
Drive, Chip and Putt is a free youth development initiative run jointly by the Masters Tournament, the USGA, and the PGA of America. It draws tens of thousands of junior golfers every year, with the top performers in each age division earning a spot in the national finals — held on the Sunday before the Masters, on Augusta National's legendary course.
In 2026, two of those eight national champions were AutoFlex players.
Brooklyn, New York · Age 11
Honolulu, Hawaii · Age 12
Ava Chen's path to Augusta National started during the COVID-19 pandemic, when she picked up a club at age 5. By 11, she had competed through local New York qualifiers, regional rounds, and finally the national stage — one of the most competitive junior fields in the country.
At Augusta, Ava opened with a 195.5-yard drive earning 8 points, followed by a chip that settled just 10 inches from the pin for 9 points. In putting, she drained a long uphill 30-footer and finished the regulation round tied for first with 27 points. She then won the title in a playoff on the No. 18 green, draining a 15-foot putt to claim the Girls 10-11 championship.
Ava Chen was equipped with an AutoFlex shaft — the same KHT-powered technology used by LPGA and PGA Tour Champions players, scaled to fit the swing profile of a junior golfer who generates real speed with a lighter, more reactive shaft.
Lucy Cui traveled from Honolulu, Hawaii, having qualified through local events at Hawaii Prince Golf Club and Kapolei Golf Club before advancing through the regional stage at Four Seasons Hualalai Resort. At Augusta, she delivered one of the most complete putting performances in her division's history.
Lucy became the first girl in the Girls 12-13 division's history to sink both of her putts, earning 10.5 points in the putting discipline alone. Her combined performance across all three skills gave her a final score of 24.5 points and a clear division victory.
Like Ava, Lucy competed with an AutoFlex shaft — a choice that reflects how the SF Series has expanded from tour professionals to become the shaft of choice for serious junior golfers who need maximum performance from a lighter, speed-optimized design.
The same engineering principle that makes AutoFlex effective for senior golfers applies equally to junior players: matching shaft weight and flex profile to actual swing speed produces better results than fitting a junior into a scaled-down adult shaft.
Most junior golfers are fitted into generic lightweight shafts that lack the frequency-matching precision of adult performance shafts. The AutoFlex SF Series, specifically the SF305X at 37g with a 170 CPM rating, delivers:
Ava's 195.5-yard opening drive in the Girls 10-11 division is a real-world data point. For an 11-year-old competing at the national level, that distance reflects both exceptional ability and equipment that isn't holding her back.
2026 has been a remarkable year for AutoFlex across the full range of competitive golf. The same shaft family that powered Lee Trevino at the 2023 PNC Championship and Yana Wilson — Dumina's official 2026–2027 LPGA partner — at the Chevron Championship is now appearing in the bags of junior national champions at Augusta National.
That's not a coincidence. It's the result of engineering built around swing physics rather than the traditional assumption that stiffer and heavier means better.
The lightest and most flexible shaft in the SF Series. Available at autoflex.us — the exclusive US retailer for Dumina shafts.
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