Copyright USGA/Fred Vuich
The future stars of professional golf will be on display next week when the United States Amateur Championship takes place on both courses at the Olympic Club in San Francisco.
If the final day of qualifying for the U.S. Open is called “the longest day of golf,” as the players battle 36 holes in one day, then U.S. Amateur, if you make it to the final, is easily the longest week of golf.
This year it’s the week in August 11-17 on both the Lake and Ocean courses at Olympic Club.
Monday and Tuesday is the stroke play portion of the event, with the 312 golfers playing a round on both the Ocean and the Lake courses.
The top 64 players advance to Wednesday for the first match play round. Thursday sees the rounds of 32 and 16 played, with Friday featuring the quarterfinals. Saturday the 16th are the semifinals, with the 36-hole Championship taking place on Sunday, August 17.
Among the awards that go to the championship are:
- Exceptions to next 10 U.S. Amateurs
- Exemption to 2026 U.S. Open
- Exemption to The Open Championship (must be amateur)
- Probable exemption to 2026 Masters (must be amateur)
Former U.S. Amateur winners include Bobby Jones (1924, 1925, 1927, 1928, 1930); Arnold Palmer (1954), Jack Nicklaus (1959), Phil Mickleson (1990), Tiger Woods (1994-1996), Bryson DeChambeau (2015).
Tickets are available at www.championships.usga.org. and are a deal at $35 a day.