Another year in amateur golf will start this week with the prestigious Jones Cup Invitational at Ocean Forest Golf Club on Sea Island. 

The annual affair, played along the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in coastal Georgia, is set for Friday through Sunday and once again features one of the strongest fields in any amateur tournament in 2025. 

“While there is always a vibrant energy at Ocean Forest, this time of year brings an extra level of excitement as we prepare to welcome some of the world’s top amateur players,” said John Wade, tournament director and also the director of golf at Ocean Forest.

This will be the 21st edition of the Jones Cup, one of the major championships in the amateur game. The tournament began in early 2001 as a prelude to the Walker Cup, which Ocean Forest hosted that same summer. 

Once again, it will have a distinct international flavor as this year’s field includes players representing 14 different countries around the world. 

The field will be as strong as ever for this 54-hole invitational as well. Twenty-two players set to compete are currently ranked among the top 50 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. The 84-player field includes 43 players ranked among the world’s top 100 heading into the new year, and 70 players are inside the top 200. 

“The average rank of this year’s field is an impressive 162, down from 260 in 2024,” Wade pointed out while also noting that this year’s invitational will have 54 players making their first appearance at the Jones Cup.  

Three players currently ranked among the world’s top 10 will headline the field, including Auburn standout Jackson Koivun. Koivun led the Tigers to their first-ever national championship last year and had one of the best-ever individual seasons in collegiate golf as a freshman.

Koivun, who opens 2025 as the No. 2-ranked player in the world, won the SEC championship at Sea Island’s Seaside Course by six shots last spring and finished tied for runner-up in the NCAA tournament while helping his team to the national title. 

With a 67.3 adjusted scoring average - the best in college golf last season - Koivun never finished lower than sixth in any of his 13 starts in his freshman campaign. He would become the first player to sweep the four major collegiate awards - the Haskins Award, the Jack Nicklaus Award, the Ben Hogan Award, and the Phil Mickelson Award. 

Koivun tied for second last year at the Jones Cup, shooting even-par 216 over the three rounds and settling for second as he finished a stroke behind tournament winner Jacob Modleski, who plays at Notre Dame. He won with a 1-under 215 total and was the only player in the field to best par over the three days. 

Back to defend his title a year later, Modleski was a true long-shot to win when the tournament began last January. He arrived at Sea Island as an alternate and was ranked 404th in the world. He was the final player gaining entry into the star-studded field when a spot freed up on the eve of the opening round. 

Also set to tee it up this week on the Georgia coast are Vanderbilt seniors Gordon Sargent and Jackson Van Paris, who are ranked fifth and ninth respectively in the world as the new season begins. Sargent finished tied for seventh last year in the Jones Cup while Van Paris tied for 21st. 

Sargent, ranked No. 1 in the world last year, won the 2022 NCAA championship as a freshman and was co-runner-up with Koivun in the 2024 national championship. In October 2023, he also became the first player to earn a PGA Tour card through the PGA Tour University Accelerated Program. 

Sargent is one of four players in this year’s Jones Cup who played in the British Open last summer and he also is one of six players in this week’s field who competed in last year’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst. 

Other top-ranked players set to compete in this week’s event are world No. 11 Tommy Morrison (Texas), No. 12 Jackson Buchanan (Illinois), No. 14 Calum Scott (Texas Tech), No. 16 Michael La Sasso (Ole Miss), No. 22 Josiah Gilbert (Auburn) and No. 24 Max Herendeen (Illinois). 

It’s not unusual for the Jones Cup to be played in some of the coldest temperatures of the year on the Georgia coast which often are accompanied by strong winds that make for tough playing conditions with the challenging Ocean Forest course becoming increasingly difficult. 

This week, the field could get that very weather as the long-range forecast calls for an overnight low of 34 degrees on Thursday with temperatures in the low 40s when the tournament opens Friday before climbing into the 50s later in the day. 

Saturday’s round could get 12 to 15 mph winds with similar temperatures while Sunday could be partly cloudy with temps reaching into the mid-50s. 

This also will be the second year of tournament on  the new-look Ocean Forest course which opened a few months prior to last year’s event following a major renovation which produced new tee and green complexes and also more sandy areas that now give the course added definition and a coastal-area feel. 

Last January, the undulating greens which can always be fast and firm were more firm than usual and made the course at least a few strokes more difficult according to many players in the field. 

“The grass was dormant, and the greens were notably firm,” Wade said, adding that course reviews from the players were still overwhelmingly positive. 

“Now, with a full year of maturity and routine maintenance, the course is playing as it was originally designed. While we did overseed, the course remains firm, yet well-struck irons to the green will now hold.”

Wade also mentioned that several new hole locations can be put into play this year that weren’t available last year. 

“Our superintendent Lucas Walters and his team have the course in phenomenal condition, and we cannot wait to kick off this premier amateur tournament.”

Past Jones Cup champions include Justin Thomas, Patrick Reed and Ludvig Aberg.