On January 9, 1948, the Executive Committee decided to inaugurate a Junior Amateur Championship for boys who had not reached their 18th birthday. The first Championship was conducted by the USGA Championship Committee at the University of Michigan Golf Course, August 11-14, 1948.

There were 495 entrants, of whom 128 were qualified for the Championship proper through sectional rounds at 41 locations.

The lowest sectional round score was a 69 by Warren Higgins at the Dallas Country Club. This Championship, like the Amateur, was conducted entirely at match play, and Dean Lind, a 17-year-old high school graduate from Rockford, Ill., came through the seven 18-hole rounds to win. He defeated Ken Venturi, of San Francisco, 4 and 2, in the final.

The youngest qualifier was Mason Rudolph, 14, of Clarksville, Tenn., who went to the quarter-final round, where he was beaten by Lind.