Junior America’s Cup is a Ryder Cup for kids, a way to bridge the self-absorption necessary to compete when you begin in golf with the team concept you grow to appreciate as you get older.

For the first time in 18 years, the bridge is in Hawaii Girls’ Junior America’s Cup will be played at Wailea’s Gold Course next week (Boys’ Junior America’s Cup is at Wailea next year). There will be 15 teams from different regions of the Western United States, two from Canada and one from Mexico, all here to golf, bond and “promote understanding.”

Hawaii hasn’t finished out of the top five since former USC coach Cathy Torchiana took over in 2007. Two years ago, the Hawaii team caught Cassy Isagawa’s golf fever and sizzled to its second team championship. Last year it tied for second, behind Northern California.

“We’ve been really, really good since I took over,” says Torchiana, an LPGA teaching pro at Wailea who was inducted into the National Golf Coaches Association in 1999. “It’s got nothing to do with me. Just great golfers.”

This year, Torchiana hopes Ciera Min, Eimi Koga, Rose Huang and Mariel Galdiano take Maui’s no ka oi mantra seriously. They are young — Galdiano hasn’t started high school yet — and can leave you breathless. “I,” Torchiana says, “am very enthusiastic about this team.”

Koga heads into her senior year at Moanalua with one state high school championship. She hasn’t finished worse than third at Junior Worlds the last three years, winning the international title two years ago.

Min, a Waiakea senior, is headed to Gonzaga on a scholarship and played on Hawaii’s winning Mary Cave Cup team in 2010.

Galdiano played the U.S. Women’s Open before she got into Punahou, where she starts this fall as a freshman.

Huang, an ‘Iolani sophomore, might be the hottest golfer among the girls here the last three months. She was second at the Jennie K. and state high school championship and third at the U.S. Women’s Open qualifier in May. She is coming off a runner-up showing at Junior Worlds, where she was a shot better than Galdiano among all 13-14 year olds.

Torchiana’s goal is to nurture four girls with very little team experience into a walking, talking, cohesive, birdie-producing unit. Next week it will be Hawaii against the Western World and four “sweet little things used to playing against each other” will have the honor of representing paradise as a team. They will be in an idyllic setting that is a 20-minute plane ride from home, hosted by a Hawaii State Junior Golf Association family. There can be no excuses for a team used to much longer overseas excursions.

“What I like is taking girls who are very individual- or mommy/daddy-oriented and trying to work them into a team,” Torchiana says. “Over the years now they’ve started buying into it — ‘This is the thing Aunty Cathy tells us, this is what we’re doing.’ The older girls told them this is a good thing. College coaches encourage them to be on this team.

“I’m not a magician, this is just a really good atmosphere. This is a segue to the next part of your life.”

She enjoys watching them come together and says, without reservation, these four girls “will be friends for a long time.”

Whether they will win Hawaii’s third Cup is yet to be seen. Southern California has taken home 17 since the event began in 1978. Northern California has won eight. Mexico, usually led by Lorena Ochoa, has four titles. Hawaii is next.

Isagawa was the fourth from Hawaii to earn medalist honors, following Natalie Nakamura (1994), Elisha Au (1995) and Mari Chun (2004).