Golf

  1. Home
  2. Sports
  3. Golf

U.S. Amateur Championship

By Brent Kelley, About.com

See More About:

U.S. Amateur Championship - Nick Flanagan

Nick Flanagan holds the Havemeyer Cup after winning the 2003 U.S. Amateur Championship.

Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images

About the U.S. Amateur Championship:

The U.S. Amateur Championship, conducted by the USGA, is open to amateur golfers who have a USGA Handicap Index of 2.4 or lower. A series of stroke-play qualifiers is played around the country. A handful of U.S. Ams have been played fully at stroke play, but nearly all have culminated in match play. The U.S. Amateur Championship was first played in 1895.

Format
A field of 312 golfers is cut to the top 64 following two days of stroke play. Those 64 move on to single-elimination match play culminating in a 36-hole championship match.

2009 Tournament
A year after 18-year-old Danny Lee set a record as the youngest winner of the U.S. Amateur, along comes 17-year-old Byeong-Hun "Ben" An to lower that record. An, a native of Korea, defeated Ben Martin 7 and 5 in the championship match.

2008 Recap
Danny Lee def. Drew Kittleson, 5 and 4, breaking one of Tiger Woods' records in the process. Woods previously held the record as youngest U.S. Amateur champion. Lee, 18, was nearly seven months younger than Woods was when Tiger won the first of his three U.S. Am titles.

Official Web site

U.S. Amateur Championship Records:

Most Wins
  • 5 - Bobby Jones (1924, 1925, 1927, 1928, 1930)
  • 4 - Jerome Travers (1907, 1908, 1912, 1913)
Most Consecutive Wins
  • 3 - Tiger Woods (1994-96)
  • 2 - H.J. Whigham (1986-7); Walter Travis (1900-01); H. Chandler Egan (1904-5); Jerome Travers (1907-8, 1912-13); Bobby Jones (1924-5, 1927-8); Lawson Little (1934-5); E. Harvie Ward (1955-6); Jay Sigel (1982-3)
Youngest Champion
  • Danny Lee, 2008 (18 years, 1 month)
Oldest Champion
  • Jack Westland, 1952 (47 years, 3 months, 9 days)
Largest Winning Margin in Final
  • 12 and 11 - Charles B. Macdonald def. Charles Sands, 1895

U.S. Amateur Championship Golf Courses:

The U.S. Amateur rotates to different courses each year. Here are the coming sites and most recent sites:

Future Sites

Recent Sites
  • 2007 - Olympic Club, San Francisco, Calif.
  • 2006 - Hazeltine National Golf Club, Chaska, Minn.
  • 2005 - Merion Golf Club, East Course, Ardmore, Pa.
Full List of U.S. Amateur Golf Courses

U.S. Amateur Championships Trivia and Notes:

  • The USGA was founded in 1894, and in 1895 the U.S. Amateur Championship debuted.

  • Charles B. Macdonald won the first U.S. Am. Yes, he's the Charles B. Macdonald - the renowned golf course architect who designed such courses as Chicago Golf Club, National Golf Links of America and the Yale University course.

  • The first U.S. Amateur and first U.S. Open were played simultaneously, but the Open started one day later than the Amateur. That makes the Amateur the oldest golf tournament in America.
  • The U.S. Amateur has usually included stroke-play qualifying rounds, and has almost always concluded with match play. However, from 1965-72, the Amateur was played entirely at stroke play.

  • The trophy of the U.S. Am is known as the Havemeyer Cup, and the winner receives possession of it for one year.

  • Bobby Jones is the only 5-time winner of this event. He reached the final 7 times (the record), losing in 1919 and 1926.

  • Tiger Woods is the only golfer to win this tournament three times in a row. Woods also holds records as the youngest champion, and for most consecutive matches won (18, over three championships).
  • Chick Evans (1916) and Bobby Jones (1930) are the only golfers to win the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open in the same years. Nine other golfers won both tournaments during the course of their careers. But two of those - Francis Ouimet and Johnny Goodman - won the Open before they won the Amateur.

  • Two-time winner and five-time finalist Chick Evans played in the U.S. Amateur a record 50 times. William C. Campbell, a onetime USGA president, played every year from 1941-77 (excluding 1942-45, when the championship wasn't played), a record 33 straight years.

    • U.S. Amateur Championship Winners:

    Recent Winners
    2009 - Byeong-Hun An def. Ben Martin, 7 and 5
    2008 - Danny Lee def. Drew Kittleson, 5 and 4
    2007 - Colt Knost def. Michael Thompson, 2 and 1
    2006 - Richie Ramsay def. John Kelly, 4 and 2
    2005 - Edoardo Molinari def. Dillon Dougherty, 4 and 3
    2004 - Ryan Moore def. Luke List, 2-up
    2003 - Nick Flanagan def. Casey Wittenberg, 1-up (37 holes)
    2002 - Ricky Barnes def. Hunter Mahan, 2 and 1
    2001 - Bubba Dickerson def. Robert Hamilton, 1-up
    2000 - Jeff Quinney d. James Driscoll, 1-up (39 holes)
    Full List of U.S. Amateur Champions

    Explore Golf

    About.com Special Features

    Learn to Pitch

    Strike out the competition with these step-by-step pictorials. More >

    Introduction to Pilates

    Learning Pilates fundamentals can help you get the most out of your exercise regime. More >

    Golf

    1. Home
    2. Sports
    3. Golf
    4. Tours / Events
    5. Amateur Golf
    6. USGA Tournament Schedule
    7. US Amateur Championship - U.S. Amateur Championship Golf Tournament>

    ©2009 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.

    All rights reserved.