Olympia Fields Country Club (USGA photo)
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OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. — Two non-American
finalists met in the U.S. Amateur championship
match for the
first time in 2013 at The Country Club. It was
Englishman Matthew Fitzpatrick facing Australian
Oliver
Goss.
Crazy that it took 113 years for that to occur.
Interesting that it happened for a second time
just a year
later, last year at Atlanta Athletic Club, when
Gunn Yang of Korea defeated Corey Conners of
Canada.
Will an American return to the finale at Olympia
Fields? Fitzpatrick's victory two years ago ended
a small
string of three consecutive American winners,
beginning with Peter Uihlein in 2010 at
Chambers Bay.
Many of the hottest amateur players in the world
right now are of American blood, but that hasn't
stopped
the international field from running the table.
Regardless of nationality, let's take a look at the
top-5 candidates to win this year's U.S.
Amateur, with a
few dark horses thrown in on top for good
measure. Hey, we are just a year removed from
Yang's
triumph, who was the lowest ranked player to
ever hoist the Havemeyer Trophy.
Jon Rahm — The obvious
choice.
The Spaniard Rahm is the No. 1 ranked player in
both the Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com World
Rankings and
the World Amateur Golf Rankings. He won the
individual portion of last year's World Amateur
Team
Championship — a top-5 international field each
year — and more recently repeated in Spain at
the
Spanish National Stroke Play. He won the NCAA
Southwest Regional before snagging a top-25 in
the
National Championship, and even placed
fifth at the PGA Tour's Waste
Management Open. He
would have made proud the former Sun Devil
Phil Mickelson, the most recent amateur to win a
PGA Tour
event. Now he'd like to check another event off
his list that Mickelson already accomplished —
win a U.S.
Amateur.
Maverick
McNealy — The
second highest-ranked amateur in the world.
Likely being overshadowed by Rahm's
remarkable year. But
in the United States, no one has been better
than the Stanford Cardinal junior. The 2015 Pac-
12 Player-of-
the-Year destroyed golf courses this spring,
winning four times in major college events,
including the Pac-12 Championship and the NCAA
Southeast
Regional, and even finished runner-up at the
Pacific Coast
Amateur two weeks ago.
Aaron Wise — We can
go ahead
and make this University of Oregon the hottest
amateur golfer in the nation right now. The Lake
Elsinore,
Calif. native will enter next week's event having
almost won both the Pacific Coast Amateur and
the
Western Amateur in consecutive weeks. He lost
to
Dawson
Armstrong's hole-out eagle on the second
playoff hole at Rich
Harvest Farms a week after beating out both
McNealy and Beau Hossler at the Pacific Coast
Amateur. He
also finished runner-up to McNealy at the Pac-12
Championship.
Robby Shelton —
Like Rahm,
Shelton has unparalleled success this year in a
professional setting. He placed third at the
Barbasol
Championship, which was played concurrently
during the British Open and in his home state of
Alabama.
Though not as strong of a field as Rahm's top-5
at the Waste Management, Shelton can still add
the
performance, in which he defeated professionals
like Aaron Baddeley, Johnson Wagner, and
Trevor
Immelman, to his 2015 resume. Other than the
NCAA Regionals and National Championship,
likely the
strongest collegiate field of the spring was the
Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters, which
Shelton won
by six. He placed third at the SEC Championship
and is fresh off a medalist and semifinal
performance at
the Western Amateur, where he lost to eventual
winner Dawson Armstrong.
Romain
Langasque —
Match play takes a special breed of golfer to
succeed. Some golfers are just
good at
the format.
Well, then who better than to pick (if you're
picking) to win this year's U.S. Amateur than the
champion of
the most recent 64-player, match play bracketed
tournament? Frenchman Romain Langasque was
victorious over Scotsman Grant Forrest at
Carnoustie back in June for the British Amateur
Championship. Let's just hope he fairs
better than the
previous year's British Amateur winner, Bradley
Neil, did at Atlanta Athletic Club, missing the
match play cut
by nine strokes.
DARK HORSE PICKS
Gunn Yang was a dark horse last year. Dawson
Armstrong was certainly
a dark horse last week at Rich Harvest Farms.
No reason not to think
someone might come out of the woodwork to
claim improbable victory at
Olympia Fields. Here are two in particular that
we like:
Carter Jenkins — The UNC
transfer junior is the three-time
defending champion of the Carolinas Amateur,
reached U.S. Open
Sectional Qualifying, and made a furious
comeback to tie Denny McCarthy
and force a playoff at the Porter Cup. He's
ranked outside the top-100 in
the Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com World Rankings
(124).
Sean Crocker — As a true
freshman, Crocker led his USC
Trojans to the championship match of the NCAA
Men's National
Championship. The native of Zimbabwe doesn't
have a major victory to
his name in 2015, but his time could come at
Olympia Fields, and he's
shown signs of coming close this year. Important
top-5 finishes include
the Sahalee Players Championship (2nd), The
Prestige at PGA West (T4),
and the Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters
(5th).
ABOUT THE U.S. Amateur
The U.S. Amateur, the oldest USGA
championship, was first played in 1895 at
Newport Golf Club in Rhode Island. The
event,
which has no age restriction, is open to
those
with a Handicap Index of 2.4 or lower. It is
one
of 14 national championships conducted
annually by the USGA, 10 of which are
strictly
for amateurs. It is the pre-eminent
amateur
competition in the world.
Applications are typically placed online in the spring
at www.usga.org.
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