Minnesota-natives, Hazeltine National Golf Club gearing up for U.S. Amateur Championship
Widely regarded as “the toughest tournament in golf”, the U.S. Amateur Championship plays at Hazeltine National from August 12th to 18th.
Click on the video boxes on this page to watch previews with Minnesota-natives Gunnar Broin, Sam Udovich and Nate Deziel as they prepare for the U.S. Amateur Championship, as well as Hazeltine National Golf Club GM/COO Phil Anderson and the USGA’s Tournament Director Ben Kimball
The annual tournament puts would-be champions through nine rounds in seven days. The Championship round comes after the 312-player starting field emerged from the 4,970 players who entered this year’s competition at its earliest stage.
The field was narrowed through two-stage qualifying at local and regional tournaments nationwide as well as exemptions to deliver competitors to the Championship.
Opening rounds of stroke play take place Monday Aug. 12 and Tuesday Aug.13 at Hazeltine and Chaska Town Course. Each player in the field will play each course one time.
After two rounds of stroke play, the field will be cut to the top 64 players who will enter a match-play, single elimination bracket.
The Championship on Sunday Aug. 18 will be a 36-hole match.
Schedule of competition:
- Aug. 12 (Monday): First round, stroke play (18 holes)
- Aug. 13 (Tuesday): Second round, stroke play (18 holes)
- Aug. 14 (Wednesday): Round of 64, match play
- Aug. 15 (Thursday): Rounds of 32 and 16, match play
- Aug. 16 (Friday): Quarterfinal round, match play
- Aug. 17 (Saturday): Semifinal round, match play
- Aug. 18 (Sunday): Championship match (36 holes)
RELATED: Ticket information for the 2024 U.S. Amateur Championship
Among the players who earned a spot through exemptions is East Grand Forks, MN-native Nate Deziel. He won the Minnesota State Amateur Tournament, which came with a spot in the U.S. Amateur.
Several other Minnesotans won their way into the starting field, including Shorewood-native, Minnetonka H.S.-grad and current University of Kansas collegian Gunnar Broin.
Broin will have better knowledge of Hazeltine National than most of his fellow competitors after working as a caddie at the course for several years. This is his third time playing in the U.S. Amateur.
He’s also coming off qualifying for this summer’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst. Making his first appearance at the Open, he made the cut thanks in part to a dramatic chip-in late in the second round.
He finished third among sixteen amateurs who qualified for the Open, which earned him his spot in the U.S. Amateur.
In 2019, Broin won the Minnesota Junior PGA Championship.
Another Shorewood-native – Jacob Pedersen – is also in the field.
A Minnesota high schooler will tee it up at the Championship as Inver Grove Heights-native and Cretin-Derham rising senior Sam Udovich won his way through the qualification process.
A State High School champ in 2022, Udovich tied for third in this year’s Class AAA State Tournament and qualified for the U.S. Amateur with a fourth-place finish at a final qualifier in Dallas, Texas.
As a youth golfer, Udovich was coached by Phil Anderson – who’s now the general manager and chief operating officer at Hazeltine National.
Recent University of Minnesota graduate Ben Warian (Stillwater-native, Hill-Murray H.S.) qualified for the tournament by earning an exemption when he won the 2024 Sunnehanna Amateur tournament in June.
Warian previously told KSTP Sports he intended to hold his amateur status until he could see if he qualified for the U.S. Amateur, then intends to turn pro after the tournament.
RELATED: Ben Warian chats with KSTP Sports after historic round
Warian’s senior season at Minnesota included a tournament win that saw him set program records for 36-hole and 54-hole scoring.
He advanced through the Big Ten Tournament and NCAA Regionals to earn a spot at the NCAA National Tournament. He made the cut and finished 25th at Nationals – the best finish by a Gopher since 2007. He received honorable mention to the NCAA All-American team.
Jacob Pedersen, a former Gopher like Warian and former Minnetonka Skipper like Broin, will make his third appearance in the U.S. Amateur. He earned his spot by surviving a 4-for-3 playoff at the final qualifying tournament at Dakota Ridge in Morton, MN.
A third Minnetonka Skipper, Jacques Wilson, is also entered. The official USGA entry list shows Charleston, South Carolina as his hometown, but Wilson was a two-time All-State selection at Minnetonka. He split his college golf career between the University of Kansas – where fellow Tonka-alumnus Broin currently plays – and Charleston Southern.
Watch clips from the U.S. Amateur Championship pre-tournament press conference below, including remarks from Hazeltine National general manager and COO Phil Anderson, the USGA’s Tournament Director Ben Kimball, and an interview with Nate Deziel and Gunnar Broin hosted by Jonathan Coe from USGA Communications: