Juliet Vongphoumy will test her mettle against top players in an American Junior Golf Association tournament in Mattapoisett, Mass.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

PROVIDENCE — It turns out that Juliet Vongphoumy, the Rhode Island Interscholastic League golf champion, is going to have a busy summer, after all.

Vongphoumy will spend several days this week in Mattapoisett, Mass., competing in an American Junior Golf Association tournament with top players from the United States. Later this summer, she will compete in at least two other AJGA events. Then there will probably be several in-state tournaments, with both women’s organizations and the U.S. Challenge Cup.

The La Salle Academy sophomore, who just celebrated her 15th birthday, is going to go through what so many standout young golfers hope to experience — test herself against the best competition she can find.

She is going to do it because a number of people have rallied to her side. Vongphoumy has received a boost with a grant given by the American Junior Golf Association. And the Rhode Island golf community has jumped in to provide assistance, as well.

“Juliet’s going to have plenty to do,” said Bernie McCrink, one of the advisers to Vongphoumy and her family. “It’s really kind of a nice situation. So many people are helping her.”

McCrink was among the first to recognize Vongphoumy’s potential several years ago as she was learning the game at the Button Hole Short Course and Learning Center. Vongphoumy’s parents are both Laotian immigrants.

“Her parents just don’t know a lot about what Juliet is doing. It’s all new to them,” McCrink said. Button Hole officials, led by director David Hanna, have done what they could and have been successful as the 90-pounder won the Interscholastic League championship as a ninth grader.

“She’s at the point now where she needs more than Button Hole,” McCrink said.

McCrink was discussing Vongphoumy’s situation with Dave Adamonis Jr., director of the Rhode Island-based U.S. Challenge Cup organization, when Adamonis opened a huge door. He told McCrink about the Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE) grant program offered by the AJGA.

“It’s a great program,” Adamonis said. “It’s designed to help kids like Juliet who need some financial support. It has a local connection. One of the people who have helped with it is Seth Waugh, who runs the PGA Tour’s Deutsche Bank Championship at the TPC of Boston on Labor Day weekend.”

“Five years ago, the AJGA board of directors realized there were more and more kids who had a lot of talent and were not being given the same opportunity to earn a college golf scholarship as others,” said Bob Miller, the AJGA’s director of the ACE grant program. “We had seen through the years juniors who would show up for one event because it was near their home, but couldn’t do much beyond that because they couldn’t afford the costs.”

Miller met with numerous groups, including the National Association of Independent Schools and the Ouimet Scholarship program in Masschusetts to gather ideas and suggestions and make sure that whatever was done would be in compliance with both the USGA and the NCAA.

The result was the ACE program, a campaign financed by donations from corporations and individuals. The Deutsche Bank donated $100,000 to endow a grant. The Hewlett Packard company and numerous others joined in. In the first year, 13 youngsters were awarded grants up to $3,700.

“When I got the first mother on the phone crying because she was so happy we had been able to help her son or daughter, I knew we were on to something pretty good,” Miller said.

Last year, 50 grants were awarded. This year, Vongphoumy is among 87 students who have been given grants. The program now has paid more than $1.1 million in expenses to allow players to take part in AJGA events.

While the grant from the AJGA is the biggest boost, Vongphoumy has been getting money locally, as well. Metacomet Country Club has been a huge help, granting her playing privileges. The people at Button Hole have been there from the start. The Challenge Cup has provided entry into events. Larry Demers has helped with lessons.

“It’s like an all-star lineup of Rhode Island golf,” Adamonis said. “Eugene DiSarro, Skip Haugen, so many people have helped her.”

Even the owner of a gym — Dave Walker from Gold’s Gym in North Providence — has offered her a free membership. Just last week, Vongphoumy was in Sports Illustrated, one of those highlighted in Faces in the Crowd.

“Juliet hasn’t lacked for anything,” McCrink said. “It’s been wonderful how many people have helped her.”

With everything happening so quickly, Vongphoumy’s schedule is being arranged. She will compete with fellow Rhode Islanders Jeff Ray, Owen Lynch, Eddie Hjerpe and Joshua Padwa in the Fidelity Investments Junior Classic at The Brad Faxon-designed Bay Club in Mattapoisett. She had planned to go to New York after that to qualify for an AJGA event, but instead has accepted an invitation from the Ocean State Women’s Golf Association to compete in that group’s state championship.

She probably will go to Philadelphia to compete in an AJGA event there, but otherwise is working with her parents and McCrink to decide what to do. Much will depend on how she plays. That is a key with the AJGA.

“We at the AJGA are not giving players like her anything,” said the AJGA’s Miller. “They have earned what they are getting through the skill they’ve shown on the course.”

In its brief history, the ACE grant program is nearing 50 students who have gone through the AJGA programs with the help of an ACE grant and who are now receiving a scholarship for college, Miller pointed out.

Anyone interested in the ACE grant program, as a player or to contribute, can get more information at AJGA.ORG.

pkenyon@projo.com