There's no doubting the American golf fan's extreme interest in the Ryder Cup. The biennial matches pit the top professional golfers from the U.S. against their equally-impressive counterparts from Europe.

If you're starving for a bit of international competition among the world's elite players and just can't wait until the next Ryder Cup in 2014, you're in luck. This is a Walker Cup summer and in the amateur game, all roads lead to the National Golf Links of America for the Sept. 6-8 matches.

Of course, there's plenty of work to be done before the rosters are filled out. Starting last week, an eventful slate of high-level summer events. Some of the top amateurs in the game began what they hope is a summer that ends in Southampton, N.Y.

Here are the events amateurgolf.com will be focusing its coverage on as the summer progresses and the nation's top collegiate-aged amateurs and mid- amateurs pad their resumes in hopes of making the U.S. Walker Cup squad:

• U.S. Amateur Public-Links Championship, 7/15-7/20, Laurel Hill Golf Club, Lorton VA
• Southern Amateur, 7/17-7/20, Club at Carlton Woods, The Woodlands, TX
• Northern Amateur, 7/24-7/26, Sand Creek Country Club, Chesterton, IN
• Porter Cup, 7/24-7/27, Niagara Falls Country Club, Lewiston, NY
• Western Amateur, 7/29-8/3, Alotian Golf Club, Roland, AR
• U.S. Amateur Championship, 8/12-8/18, The Country Club, Chestnut Hill, MA

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