Junior Amateur starts Monday at Bandon Dunes
Jul. 23—BANDON — The U.S. Junior Amateur, the eighth different national United States Golf Association championship to be contended at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, starts Monday.
The event continues through the 36-hole final on Saturday and is open to the public. Portions of the final two days of the event also will be televised nationally by the Golf Channel.
The event brings together 264 golfers from 38 states and 25 countries battling for the prestigious title. They range from 12 to 18 in age, with an average age of 16.7.
Starting Monday, the golfers will play two 18-hole qualifying rounds, one on the resort's original Bandon Dunes course and the other on Bandon Trails — with half the field on each course each day. Following the two qualifying rounds, the top 64 players advance to the match-play portion of the event, when they will need to win six matches over four days to be crowned champion.
The event uses the same two courses as the U.S. Amateur two summers ago, with nearly the same length, with Bandon Dunes playing to a par 72 at just over 7,100 yards and Bandon Trails playing to a par-71 at about 6,700 yards.
Following the two qualifying rounds, the surviving players will play the round of 64 on Wednesday, followed by the rounds of 32 and 16 on Thursday and the quarterfinals and semifinals on Friday.
The Golf Channel will air live coverage from 3 to 5 p.m. both Friday and Saturday.
The U.S. Junior Amateur title has been won by Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth, Johnny Miller, David Duval, Will Zalatoris and Scottie Scheffler, among others. In addition to the title, the winner receives an invitation to the next two U.S. Amateurs and the 2023 U.S. Open.
The defending champion is Nick Dunlap of Alabama, who beat Cohen Trolio of Mississippi 3 and 2 in the final match at The Country Club of North Carolina's Dogwood Course in the Village of Pinehurst.
Dunlap is back to defend his title, along with 32 others who played in last year's event and 10 who played in the U.S. Amateur last summer. Four different golfers are playing in the event for the third time — Luke Clanton, Jonathan Griz, Drew Miller and Luke Potter.
The field includes five Oregonians — Miles Eastman of Portland, Jordan Giles of Talent, Collin Hodgkinson of Beaverton, Cole Rueck of Corvallis and Drew Woolworth of Lake Oswego.
Eastman and Rueck, the son of Oregon State University Women's Basketball Coach Scott Rueck, were co-medalists at the qualifier in Oregon, where each shot 69.
Giles, who is 13, is the third-youngest player in the field and converted a chip-in birdie on the first playoff hole of the qualifier in Woodburn. Hodgkinson, the runner-up in the Class 6A state tournament, also birdied the first playoff hole as he and Giles survived a playoff of eight players for two spots in the championship.
Four of the players are in the top 50 of the World Amateur Golf Rankings — Wenyi Ding (No. 19), Christiaan Maas (No. 21), Caleb Surratt (No. 37) and Jose Luis Ballester (No. 50).
Other players of note include Jack Cantlay of California, the younger player of PGA Tour veteran Patrick Cantlay, and Jake Maggert of Texas, the son of longtime PGA Tour player Jeff Maggert, the 2015 U.S. Senior Open champion.
The U.S. Junior Amateur is the latest in what will become a long line of USGA championships at the resort.
Previously, Bandon Dunes hosted the Curtis Cup in 2006, the U.S. Mid-Amateur in 2007, the U.S. Amateur Public Links and U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links in 2011, the inaugural U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball Championship in 2015 and the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship in 2019, as well as the 2020 U.S. Amateur.
On the calendar in the coming years are 12 more events — the 2025 U.S. Women's Amateur, the 2028 Walker Cup, the 2032 U.S. Amateur and U.S. Women's Amateur, the 2035 U.S. Girls Junior, the 2037 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball and U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball, the 2038 Curtis Cup, the 2041 U.S. Amateur and U.S. Women's Amateur and the 2045 U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Girls Junior Amateur.
