What do J. Clark Espie, Jerry Pate, Lee Trevino and Eun Jeong Seong have in common?
Hint: they all won USGA championships at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, NJ, which will play host to the 122nd U.S. Amateur beginning on Monday.
Hailing from 43 states and 30 countries and ranging in ages from 15 to 60, 312 of the best male amateurs have hopes of becoming the fifth USGA champion crowned at Ridgewood, located in Bergen County northwest of New York City.
The competitors will play 36 holes of stroke play at Ridgewood and nearby Arcola Country Club in Paramus, NJ, with the lowest 64 scorers advancing to match play on Aug. 17. The championship will conclude with a 36-hole match on Aug. 21.
CLICK HERE for Pairings and Tee TimesCLICK HERE for Live Scoring
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After 48 years, the U.S. Amateur Returns to Ridgewood
The U.S. Amateur returns to Ridgewood for the first time in 48 years, when Jerry Pate, then a 20‐year‐old University of Alabama senior, defeated John Grace, a Fort Worth real estate man, 2 and 1 on the 35th hole to claim the 1974 title. Two years later, Pate won the U.S. Open at Atlanta Athletic Club in his first year on the PGA Tour.
Two years later, Pate won the U.S. Open at Atlanta Athletic Club in his first year on the PGA Tour.
Opened in 1929, the A.J. Tillinghast-designed Ridgewood Country Club is no stranger to hosting championship events.
1974 U.S. Amateur champion Jerry Pate Ridgewood was the site for the 1935 Ryder Cup, where Walter Hagen captained the United States team to a 9-3 win over Great Britain. In 1957, J. Clark Espie defeated Fred Wright to win the U.S. Senior Amateur Championship.
In 1990, Lee Trevino defeated Jack Nicklaus in a playoff to win the 1990 U.S. Senior Open at Ridgewood and following a mid-1990s course restoration led by Gil Hanse, the club held the 2001 Senior PGA Championship, won by Tom Watson. The club also hosted 2016 U.S. Girls’ Junior won by 15-year-old Eun Jeong Seong of South Korea, who would win the U.S. Women's Amateur a few months later.
It will be the first U.S. Amateur in New Jersey since 2000, when Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield hosted the event.
The layout for the championship will be a composite of the three nine-hole layouts at Ridgewood. The routing will start with Holes 1-7 of the East Nine, followed by Nos. 2-6 on the Center Nine and Holes 4-9 on the West Nine.
“We’ve invested a lot of thought and money and time in creating what we think is arguably one of the best championship venues in the world," said co-host chairman Kevin Shea. "It’s uniquely suited for an event like the U.S. Amateur because it has the mix of holes that require a lot of thought and a lot of skill and a lot of grit."
Did you know? The legendary Byron Nelson worked as an assistant professional at the club in the mid-1930s, early in his career and represented Ridgewood for several of his early significant victories.
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Name Dropping
The U.S. Amateur is filled with future stars in the game of golf.
Eighteen of the top 20 amateurs in the Men's World Amateur Golf Ranking will be in the field, including
Ludvig Aberg (No. 2),
Sam Bennett (No. 3), NCAA Champion
Gordon Sargent (No. 4), Stanford's
Michael Thorbjornsen (No. 5), North Carolina's
Dylan Menante (No. 6), British Amateur runner-up
Sam Bairstow (No. 7), Western Amateur champion
Austin Greaser (No. 8), Spaniard
David Puig (No. 9) and two-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion
Stewart Hagestad (No. 10), who will be making his 13th U.S. Amateur appearance.<
Greaser, Bennett, Hagestad and Texas Longhorn
Travis Vick all made the cut at the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., with Vick
earning low-am honors tying for 43rd.
Austin Greaser (No. 16), who became the first male USGA champion from China after winning the
U.S. Junior Amateur last month, is also in the field, as
Elite Amateur Series Cup winner
Caleb Surratt (No. 19), who Ding defeated at Bandon Dunes.
There are 12 former USGA champions in the field, including
Garrett Barber (2018 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball),
Frankie Capan (2017 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball), Kiko Francisco Coehlo (2021 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball), Wenyi Ding (2022 U.S. Junior Amateur),
Nick Dunlap (2021 U.S. Junior Amateur),
Gene Elliott (2021 U.S. Senior Amateur), Hagestad (2016, 2021 U.S. Mid-Amateur),
Matt Parziale (2017 U.S. Mid-Amateur),
Preston Summerhays (2019 U.S. Junior Amateur), Thorbjornsen (2018 U.S. Junior Amateur),
Chad Wilfong (2022 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball),
Davis Womble (2022 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball).
The Garden State is represented by
Mark Costanza (Morristown),
Austin Devereux (Brielle),
Dougie Ergood Jr. (Mount Laurel),
Matthew Mattare (Jersey City),
William O’Neill (Morristown).
Jerry Gunthorpe, 59, is the oldest player in the field, while 15-year-old Ratchanon "TK" Chantananuwat (3/4/07), who won the Trust Golf Asian Mixed Cup – becoming the youngest male player to win on one of the game’s major Tours - is the youngest.
Did you know? The USGA accepted 7,749 entries for the 2022 tournament, which was the fourth-highest in history.
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A Look Back at Last Year
James Piot, of Canton, Mich., and a standout at Michigan State, rallied from a 3-down deficit midway through the second 18 of the 36-hole final to defeat Austin Greaser, 20, of Vandalia, Ohio, 2 and 1, at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club. Piot became the first player from the state of Michigan to hoist the Havemeyer Trophy.
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Broadcast Schedule
Wednesday, Aug. 17 (Round of 64): 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. EDT (Peacock)
Wednesday, Aug. 17 (Round of 64): 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. EDT (Golf Channel)
Thursday, Aug. 18 (Round of 32): 11 a.m. to Noon EDT (Peacock)
Thursday, Aug. 18 (Round of 32/16): Noon to 2 p.m. EDT (Golf Channel)
Friday, Aug. 19 (Quarterfinals): 11 a.m. to Noon EDT (Peacock)
Friday, Aug. 19 (Quarterfinals): Noon to 2 p.m. EDT (Golf Channel)
Saturday, Aug. 20 (Semifinals): 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. EDT (Golf Channel)
Sunday, Aug. 21 (Championship Match, Afternoon 18): 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. EDT (Golf Channel)
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Future Sites
2023: Cherry Hills Country Club, Cherry Hills Village, Colo. (Aug. 14-20)
2024: Hazeltine National Golf Club, Chaska, Minn. (Aug. 12-18)
2025: The Olympic Club, San Francisco, Calif. (Aug. 11-17)
2026: Merion Golf Club, Ardmore, Pa. (Aug. 10-16)
2027: Oak Hill Country Club, Pittsford, N.Y. (Aug. 9-15)
2030: Atlanta Athletic Club, Johns Creek, Ga. (Aug. 12-18)
2031: The Honors Course, Ooltewah, Tenn. (Aug. 11-17)
2032: Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, Bandon, Ore. (Dates TBD)
2041: Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, Bandon, Ore. (Dates TBD)
2047: Oakland Hills Country Club, Bloomfield Hills, Mich. (Dates TBD)
The USGA contributed to this report.