Western Am Preview: Best Field of the Year Heads to Skokie

August 1, 2017 | by Chris Brauner of AmateurGolf.com

Skokie Country Club hosts the 115th Western Amateur Championship

63 of the top 100 world ranked players are on the course at one of the oldest and most prestigious amateur championships

GLENCOE, IL (July 29, 2017) - The 115th Western Amateur is set to tee off at Skokie Country Club, with the strongest field of the year ready to face what might be golf's most demanding tournament format.

Here's what to look for at one of amateur golf's oldest and most prestigious championships, and who might put his name on a champions list that includes Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods.

A Grueling Format

156 players will begin the tournament on Tuesday with the first stroke play round. After the second round on Wednesday, the field will be cut to the low 44 players and ties. Those players will then play two stroke play rounds on Thursday to determine the low 16 players (with a playoff if necessary). Those making the "Sweet Sixteen" will play match play on Friday and Saturday. The champion will have played eight competitive rounds in five days.

A Deep and Talented Field

The field for the 115th Western Amateur includes the winners of some of the most prestigious tournaments in amateur golf:

The defending Western Amateur champion (Dylan Meyer)
The current NCAA champion (Braden Thornberry)
The current Northeast Amateur champion (Collin Morikawa)
The current Sunnehanna Amateur champion (Braden Thornberry)
The current Trans-Mississippi champion (Cameron Champ)
The current Jones Cup champion (Braden Thornberry)
The current Players Amateur champion (Philip Knowles)
The current Monroe Invitational champion (Derek Bard)
The current Porter Cup champion (Brandon Wu)
The current Dogwood Invitational champion (Lloyd Jefferson Go)
The current Pacific Coast Amateur champion (Doug Ghim)
The current Southern Amateur champion (Karl Vilips)
The current Azalea Amateur champion (Christopher Petefish)
The current Terra Cotta Invitational champion (Chris Nido)
The current Australian Amateur champion (Matias Sanchez)
The current English Amateur champion (Kyle McClatchie)
The current Scottish Amateur champion (Liam Johnston)
The current Australian Master of the Amateurs champion Charlie Dann)
The current Mexican Amateur champion (Joaquin Niemann)
The current African Amateur champion (Liam Johnston)
The low amateur at The Masters (Stewart Hagestad)
The low amateur at The U.S. Open (Scottie Scheffler)

Top Players

Braden Thornberry

Sam Burns

Cameron Champ

Dylan Meyer

Collin Morikawa

Doug Ghim

Alejandro Tosti

Scottie Scheffler

Brad Dalke

Joaquin Niemann

The Western Amateur field is always one of the deepest of any major amateur championship, and this year 63 players currently in the top 100 of the Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com World Rankings will be competing. Top-ranked players include:

#1 Braden Thornberry, Olive Branch, MS
#2 Sam Burns, Shreveport, LA
#3 Cameron Champ, Sacramento, CA
#4 Dylan Meyer, Evansville, IN
#5 Collin Morikawa, La Canada Flintridge, CA
#8 Doug Ghim, Arlington Heights, IL
#9 Alejandro Tosti, Argentina
#11 Theo Humphrey, Greenwich, CT
#12 Nick Hardy, Northbrook, IL
#14 Zachary Bauchou, Forest, VA
#17 Scottie Scheffler, Dallas, TX
#18 Dylan Perry, Australia
#19 Doc Redman, Raleigh, NC
#21 Gavin Hall, Pittsford, NY
#21 Matthew Perrine, Austin, TX
#23 Derek Bard, New Hartford, NY
#23 Bryson Nimmer, Bluffton, SC
#26 Brad Dalke, McKinney, TX
#26 Connor Syme, Scotland
#28 Min Woo Lee, Australia
#28 Jimmy Stanger, Tampa, FL
#30 Kyle Mueller, Watkinsville, GA
#34 Dawson Armstrong, Brentwood, TN
#34 Kyle McClatchie, South Africa
#38 Kristoffer Ventura, Norway
#40 Harrison Endycott, Australia
#44 Lloyd Jefferson Go, Philippines
#44 Patrick Martin, Birmingham, AL
#44 Nick Voke, New Zealand
#44 Dylan Wu, Medford, OR
#49 Christopher Petefish, Cumming, GA
#51 Chandler Phillips, Huntsville, TX
#54 Travis Smyth, Australia
#55 Lee Hodges, Elkmont, AL
#56 Liam Johnston, Scotland
#56 Joaquin Niemann, Chile
#58 Charlie Dann, Australia
#60 Stewart Hagestad, New York, NY
#61 Ian Holt, Stow, OH
#61 Carl Yuan, China
#63 Andrej Bevins, Elk Grove, CA
#63 Franklin Huang, Poway, CA
#63 Davis Riley, Hattiesburg, MS
#69 Shae Wools-Cobb, Australia
#71 Cooper Dossey, Austin, TX
#72 Danny Walker, Bradenton, FL
#73 Philip Knowles, Bradenton, FL
#74 John Augenstein, Oweneboro, KY
#74 Ben Griffin, Chapel Hill, NC
#78 Brandon Wu, Danville, CA
#79 David Micheluzzi, Australia
#80 Norman Xiong, Canyon Lake, CA
#81 Grant Hirschman, Collierville, IN
#86 Luis Gagne, Orlando, FL
#89 Garrett Rank, Canada
#90 Braden Bailey, Groves, TX
#91 Nick Carlson, Hamilton, MI
#91 Gordon Neale, Trabuco Canyon, CA
#91 Blake Windred, Australia
#94 Will Grimmer, Cincinnati, OH
#95 Hayden Wood, Edmond, OK
#96 Chun An Yu, Chinese Taipei
#100 Stephen Franken, Raleigh, NC

History of the Western Amateur

The Western Amateur is one of the oldest amateur championships in the United States, having been first contested in 1899. It was originally held at various courses in the Midwest but eventually was held at venues across the western United States including the Pacific Coast. In 1971 the championship was moved to Point O'Woods Golf & Country Club in Benton Harbor, MI, where it would be held annually until 2008. It has since returned to its roots as a rotating venue and is now held at various clubs throughout the Midwest.

Past champions include Chick Evans, Francis Ouimet, Frank Stranahan, Charlie Coe, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf, Lanny Wadkins, Ben Crenshaw, Curtis Strange, Hal Sutton, Phil Mickelson, Justin Leonard and Tiger Woods, Ryan Moore and Danny Lee.

Skokie Country Club

Skokie Country Club is listed among Golfweek Magazine’s Top 100 Classic courses. Founded as a nine-hole club in 1897, the core of Skokie’s current routing was laid out by course architect Donald Ross. In addition to the 2010 Western Amateur, Skokie hosted the 1909 Western Open, the 1922 U.S. Open, the 1998 U.S. Senior Amateur, as well as a number of qualifiers for major USGA events.

About the Western Amateur

Western Am Preview: Best Field of the Year Heads to Skokie

Invitational event, and the most important tournament in American amateur golf outside of the U.S. Amateur. With a grueling schedule, it's quite possibly the hardest amateur tournament to win. 156 invited players come from across the globe to play on...

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