3 Things to Know: 124th U.S. Amateur, Stroke Play

Tickets

Four years after COVID-19 canceled the 2020 U.S. Junior Amateur scheduled for Hazeltine National Golf Club – and stroke-play co-host Chaska Town Course – the venerable Chaska, Minn., club returns to the national spotlight by hosting the 124th U.S. Amateur Championship.

This will be the second U.S. Amateur for Hazeltine, a Robert Trent Jones Sr. design that has previously hosted a pair of U.S. Opens (1970 and 1991), two PGA Championships (2002 and 2009) and a memorable Ryder Cup (2016). 

The assembled 312 players will play one round at Hazeltine and Chaska Town Course after which the field will be trimmed to 64 for match play, which runs Wednesday through Sunday’s 36-hole championship match. The champion and runner-up both will receive exemptions into the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club as well as likely invitations to the Masters Tournament in April. The winner also gets a spot in the 2025 Open Championship at Royal Portrush.

Hazeltine National G.C. has undergone several revisions since the course first opened in 1962 and hosted the U.S. Women’s Open four years later.

When the U.S. Open was conducted there in 1970, many professionals voiced their disapproval of the layout, mainly Dave Hill who famously said the only thing missing was “80 acres of corn and a few cows.” Since then, multiple renovations have turned the venue into a world-class facility. Nearby Chaska Town Course witnessed history in the 2006 U.S. Amateur when future PGA Tour winner Billy Horschel carded a 60, still the lowest round posted in any USGA competition.

That year, Richie Ramsey, of Scotland, a member of the 2005 Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup Team, left Minnesota with more than the Havemeyer Trophy. That week, the now-four-time winner on the DP World Tour met his future wife, Angela, then a member of the Hazeltine staff.

It’s unknown if this year’s champion will also find romance on the links, but here are 3 Things to Know going into the stroke-play portion of the championship:

United Nations of Golf

Thirty years ago, it would have been unimaginable to see multiple players from Vietnam and the Cayman Islands, or a native of Uganda, in any USGA championship. But the global explosion of the game has seen golf expand to areas that once seemed unattainable for the sport.

Including the United States, which makes up the bulk of the field, 37 countries are represented. There are the usual suspects such as Canada, England, Japan, Scotland, the Republic of Ireland, Sweden, Northern Ireland and Spain. But you also have Nsubuga Godfrey, who will be the first player from Uganda to ever tee it up in a USGA competition. A decade ago, Anita Uwadia became the first Nigerian to compete when she qualified for the U.S. Girls’ Junior.

According to the Winston-Salem (N.C.) State University website, Godfrey is the first player from WSSU to ever qualify for a USGA event. He is joining the team this fall as a soon-to-be 24-year-old freshman.

At last month’s U.S. Junior Amateur, Nguyen Anh Minh, of Vietnam, reached the quarterfinals, a first for the nation. And in 2022, Aaron Jarvis, of the Cayman Islands, won the Latin America Amateur Championship.

Those aren’t only the non-traditional golf countries represented at Hazeltine. Trinidad & Tobaga, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates and Panama also each have a golfer competing.

Who said the Olympics ended with Scottie Scheffler winning the gold medal?

Ending the Drought?

Golf fans in Minnesota certainly are familiar with the name John Harris. In the 1970s, he helped the Gophers win the 1974 NCAA Division I hockey title while also starring on the school’s golf team. In 1993 at the age of 43, Harris reached the pinnacle of his amateur golf career by hoisting the Havemeyer Trophy at Champions Golf Club in Houston, Texas. Little did anyone know he’d be the last mid-amateur (25 years and older) to win the U.S. Amateur.

Since then, George “Buddy” Marucci (1995) and Tom McKnight (1998) have reached the 36-hole final, and Austin Eaton III made a run to the semis in 2005. More recently, three-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion and four-time USA Walker Cupper Stewart Hagestad has come the closest, advancing to the quarterfinals in 2020 and 2022, losing both times to the eventual champion.

Hagestad, at No. 15 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking®/WAGR®, is the highest-ranked mid-amateur in the field, followed closely by 2023 U.S. Mid-Amateur runner-up Evan Beck, who enters the championship at No. 28.

Northern Ireland’s Matthew McClean, the 2022 U.S. Mid-Amateur champ and 2023 Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup member, and Omar Tejeira Jean are the only other mid-ams inside the WAGR top 100 in the field at Nos. 74 and 95, respectively.

Another mid-am to watch is 29-year-old Colorado Springs science teacher Colin Prater, who qualified for the U.S. Open in June and recently won the Colorado Amateur. Prater advanced to match play a year ago at Cherry Hills C.C.

While all five are capable of making deep runs, especially Hagestad and Beck, the odds and recent history are working against these talented working men.

Chips Off Old Block

Recently crowned U.S. Junior Amateur champion Trevor Gutschewski, the first Nebraskan to ever win that esteemed title, isn’t the only player in the U.S. Amateur with a well-known dad. Scott Gutschewski is a longtime touring professional who has bounced between the PGA and Korn Ferry Tours (he owns three KFT wins). Fellow U.S. Junior Amateur champ Preston Summerhays (2019) also has a well-known father (Boyd) who played professionally before getting into the instruction side of the game. One of his clients is six-time PGA Tour winner Tony Finau.

Of course, the biggest name among those with well known fathers is John Daly II, who followed his dad’s footsteps to the University of Arkansas. The elder Daly, a two-time major champion, twice played Hazeltine when the PGA Championships were held there (2002 and 2009). Daly famously won the 1991 PGA at Crooked Stick as the ninth alternate, and then defeated Constantino Rocca in a playoff to claim the 1995 Open Championship at St. Andrews. This will be the second USGA championship for Daly II following the 2021 U.S. Junior Amateur at The Country Club of North Carolina.

Ryan Hart followed his dad, Dudley, to the University of Florida. Dudley won a pair of PGA Tour events, including the 2000 Honda Classic, and six times overall as a professional. Ryan, who is a triplett, is competing in his first USGA championship.

Nate McCoy’s father, Mike, hasn’t won any elite professional competitions, but he did claim the 2013 U.S. Mid-Amateur, represented the USA in the Walker Cup at age 51, and then captained the 2024 team to victory at St. Andrews. Mike will caddie for Nate as he did in last year’s U.S. Mid-Amateur shortly after returning from St. Andrews.

Jake Ackerman doesn’t have a famous father, but his mom, Vicki Goetze-Ackerman, twice won the U.S. Women’s Amateur (1989, 1992), beating Annika Sorenstam in the latter, and was on two USA Curtis Cup and two USA Women’s World Amateur Teams before playing on the LPGA Tour. His uncle, Nicky Goetze, was the runner-up in the 1986 U.S. Junior Amateur.

Outside of golf, many might remember Rich Aurilia as a shortstop who played 15 big-league seasons, most of them with the San Francisco Giants. His two sons, Gavin (20) and Chaz (23), however, gravitated to golf, and both qualified for this year’s championship. Cole Rueck, of Corvalis, Ore., is another player who didn’t follow his father’s vocation. Scott Rueck has been a highly successful women’s basketball coach at Oregon State, guiding the Beavers to a Final Four appearance in 2016. Before that, he won an NCAA Division III title at George Fox University in Newburg, Ore. Cole, meanwhile, teed it up in this year’s Genesis Scottish Open by virtue of winning the Genesis Open Collegiate Challenge at Riviera Country Club in February. This will be the Boise State golfer’s second USGA event after the 2022 U.S. Junior Amateur at Bandon Dunes.

David Shefter is a senior staff writer at the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.