Here’s who will represent the United States at St. Andrews.
CHERRY HILLS VILLAGE, Colo. — The roster for the United States Walker Cup team is set.
Following the conclusion of the 123rd U.S. Amateur on Sunday, the United States Golf Association’s International Team Selection working group and coach Mike McCoy announced the final selections to represent the American team in the 49th Walker Cup at the Old Course at St. Andrews from Sept. 2-3.
The Walker Cup is a 10-man amateur team competition between the U.S. and Great Britain and Ireland. The Old Course has hosted eight previous Walker Cups, more than any other venue, most recently in 1975, when the USA defeated GB&I, 15½-8½.
Rising Stanford senior Michael Thorbjornsen, second in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, would’ve represented the United States but withdrew from the competition, as well as the U.S. Amateur, because of a back injury.
Meet the 10 members of the 2023 United States Walker Cup team.
It’s time for the premier men’s amateur championship.
The 2023 U.S. Amateur started Monday at Cherry Hills Country Club and Colorado Golf Club, both in the Denver suburbs. The field of 312 players will complete 36 holes of stroke play, 18 at each course, before a cut is made to the top 64, who will advance to match play at Cherry Hills beginning Wednesday. This will be the 123rd U.S. Amateur.
Eighteen of the top 20 players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking are in the field, including No. 1 Gordon Sargent.
Last year, Sam Bennett topped Ben Carr 1 up at The Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, New Jersey.
Here’s a look at 10 players to watch at the 2023 U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills.
Nick Gabrelcik was six shots behind the leader when he began his final round Saturday morning. By day’s end, he was hoisting a trophy.
Gabrelcik, a rising senior at North Florida, was stellar Saturday in the final round of the 117th Southern Amateur at The Honors Course in Ooltewah, Tennessee. He shot 8-under 64, moving 23 spots up the leaderboard and capturing the title. His 64 was the best round of the week, helping him finish at 11 under par and beating North Carolina’s Dylan Menante by one shot.
“The whole week I was hitting the ball good but the first two days I just couldn’t put it all together with the putting and chipping.” Gabrelcik told Amateur Golf. “It all felt like it was coming together sooner than later. I didn’t wake up this morning thinking I was going to play how I did but it was nice it all came together now.
“I was putting the ball in play and giving myself opportunities with my iron shots and the putter was definitely the key today,” Gabrelcik added.
The tournament was shortened to 54 holes after heavy rains caused numerous delays during the first and second rounds.
The Southern Amateur is the fifth event of seven in the 2023 Elite Amateur Series. The player who earned the most points after seven events will earn a PGA Tour exemption to be announced, an exemption into the 2023 U.S. Amateur, one 2024 Korn Ferry Tour start and an exemption into final qualifying for the 2024 U.S. Open. Alabama sophomore Nick Dunlap held the top spot with 57.8349 points through the Trans-Mississippi Amateur.
Up next is the 56th Pacific Coast Amateur from July 25-28 at Capilano Golf and Country Club in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
It’s safe to say it has been a special week for the Gabrelcik family at the Valspar Championship.
Nick, a junior at North Florida, is playing in his first PGA Tour event at Innisbrook’s Copperhead Course in Palm Harbor, Florida, on a sponsor exemption. During Friday’s second round, he birdied four of his first five holes and ended up shooting 4-under 67 to make the cut at even-par 142.
“It’s an awesome feeling making my first cut,” Nick said.
With his brother, Donnie, on the bag, it was a special round for Nick, who last week was one of 15 men’s college golfers named to the Haskins Award spring watch list. Yet the day was even more special for Nick and Donnie’s father, Don, who was emotional as the two finished the second round on Friday.
“I wasn’t expecting everybody out here to be waiting behind the grandstands to cheer me on,” Nick said. “It was just a feeling that I don’t think I will ever experience again because you don’t get a first Tour event ever and you don’t get a first cut all the time. So it’s just really special to me.
“I think my dad could arguably be having more fun than I am with all of this, the experience, being inside the ropes. But it’s just a blast having everybody here.”
Check out who’s in the running for men’s college golfer of the year.
With every passing week, the men’s college golf season creeps closer to the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The Haskins Award announced Friday its first spring watch list, featuring 15 of the best men’s college golfers this season. Gordon Sargent, a sophomore at Vanderbilt who has risen to No. 2 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, is having a stellar season, but there are plenty of other big names in contention.
The Haskins Award honors the player of the year in college men’s golf, as selected by college golfers, coaches and members of the college golf media. The players are listed alphabetically. Players on the Haskins Award Watch List were selected by a panel of Golfweek and Golf Channel reporters.
Nick Gabrelcik won his fourth career college title, contended at the Jones Cup and now continues his spring season with renewed putting confidence.
Winter golf has a way of stripping away big expectations. So despite having won his fourth career college title three days before the start of the Jones Cup, North Florida sophomore Nick Gabrelcik looked at his brother and caddie Donnie before the final round of the coveted amateur event and decided to throw scoring expectations out the window.
“They were probably the hardest conditions I’ve ever seen,” Gabrelcik said of that round at Ocean Forest Golf Club in Sea Island, Georgia, when cold winds howled. “…I went into the round, my brother was caddying for me, and I just looked at him and I’m like, ‘Let’s just go play golf and try and have the most fun we can. Whatever happens, happens.’”
Gabrelcik added a final-round 74 to previous rounds of 68-76 and tied for fourth in his first time playing the Jones Cup. But the number – particularly on Sunday – doesn’t tell the whole story. Only two players in the field broke par.
“I wasn’t going to let the score determine how I felt I played,” Gabrelcik said of his mindset entering that round.
A challenge for Gabrelcik this season has been in keeping a level head no matter where he falls amid lofty expectations. With his Sea Best title, Gabrelcik has now won four times in 13 career starts as a college player. He rose to No. 26 in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings with that win.
But how does one set goals after a freshman season that earned him national recognition as the Phil Mickelson Award winner, landed him as the No. 3-ranked player in the country, and ended with a U.S. Amateur semifinal run? In a word, realistically.
When UNF head coach Scott Schroeder sat down with Gabrelcik to talk about his goals at the start of the fall season, “he kind of looked at me and was like, your expectations are good but coming off the spring we know it’s going to be difficult to relive that or make it even better.”
Gabrelcik wants to win events, and he wants to make another run at the Haskins Award, given to college golf’s best player as voted on by coaches, peers, and golf media. The secret is in his putter.
Nick Gabrelcik hits a bunker on the 18th hole during the quarterfinals at the 2021 U.S. Amateur at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pa. on Friday, Aug. 13, 2021. (Jason E. Miczek/USGA)
The 19-year-old didn’t win a college title in the fall, but has since begun work with Ramon Bescansa, a Jacksonville-based putting coach who works with a bevy of Tour players. Turns out it was the missing piece to get Gabrelcik back to the top.
“I’m a big confidence guy so if I’m not seeing the putts go in the hole, I kind of get down on myself which is something I’m working on,” he said. “That’s what I tend to do, I just misread putts at times and then Ramon gives me some drills and we look at stuff just green-reading wise.”
Anticipating a big spring season – UNF will compete nine times – Gabrelcik used the winter break as his “lay-low period.” But before the Sea Best rolled around, he found himself struggling with putting again. An hour lesson made all the difference.
“Three days later I felt like I was prime Tiger with the putter in my hand and ultimately it led to having a great week at Sea Best.”
The momentum followed him to Sea Island, and now Gabrelcik is well on his way.
The man behind the medal
Look closely at the hardware that went home with Jones Cup winner Palmer Jackson and you’ll get a bit of a history lesson.
For the first time in 2022, the name Layne Williams is inscribed on the top of the champion’s medal. Officials have named the award after Williams, the longtime rules official who was instrumental in the rules side of the major amateur event.
Williams served as Official in Charge or on the Rules Committee at over 250 GSGA competitions and numerous USGA events, including the U.S. Open Championship, U.S. Amateur Championship, and U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship. In 2015, Williams was a recipient of the USGA’s Ike Grainger Award, which recognizes 25 years of service to the organization.
Congratulations to our 2022 Jones Cup Invitational Champion, Palmer Jackson! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/YgOCF6KVVZ
While the Jones Cup past champions list is distinguished, featuring major winners like Patrick Reed (2010) and Justin Thomas (2012), a highly experienced player doesn’t always walk away with the title. To wit, LSU senior Garrett Barber was a senior in high school when he won the title in 2018 and a 17-year-old Akshay Bhatia claimed the trophy the year after that.
Top juniors are well-represented in the field and often factor in prominently at the top of the leaderboard. This year’s junior head-turner was Ben James, a University of Virginia commit who finished solo third after rounds of 69-75-73. James racked up junior golf victories in 2021, winning the Scott Robertson Memorial plus three AJGA Invitationals as well as the New England Junior Amateur.
Benjamin James claimed his first invitational title at the Team TaylorMade Invitational. (AJGA photo)
James gained entry to several amateur events in the summer of 2020 but told Golfweek a year later that he got a little beat up in those events.
“It was a great learning experience for me to see how those guys play because they are really good,” James said in May.
Now James is applying those lessons, and they floated him all the way to the top.
Mid-amateur presence
The Jones Cup field featured seven mid-amateur players. Not surprisingly, reigning U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Stewart Hagestad logged the best finish, a tie for 24th. Hagestad was in the mix early before falling down the leaderboard with a final-round 80
“I’m trying to knock the rust off and will try to be competitive,” Hagested told AmateurGolf.com before the Jones Cup. “I didn’t really play after the Mid-Am last year through the end of December. I played 18 holes here and there, but it’s not like I spent four or five hours on a Saturday working on my game like I’m starting to do now.”
Also of note, 2019 Western Amateur champion Garrett Rank finished T-63.
It was UF’s fifth victory in the tournament hosted by Jacksonville University, first since 2017.
Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. — The Florida men’s golf team continued a spring tradition of sorts — winning the first tournament of the season on the First Coast.
And the University of North Florida’s Nick Gabrelcik has a tradition of his own going in winning college tournaments hosted by one of the two area NCAA Division I schools.
The Gators rallied with a 4-under 276 team score on Tuesday at the TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley Course and came from four shots off the lead to start the day to win the Sea Best Invitational at 6-over par 846, nudging Liberty by six shots. UNF finished third at 13-under.
It was Florida’s fifth victory in the tournament hosted by Jacksonville University and the first since 2017. The Gators beat Liberty in a playoff for the team title in last year’s Timuquana Collegiate that began the spring schedule.
John Dubois and Ricky Castillo both shot 67 for UF, with Dubois tying for second and Castillo tying for fourth. Yuxin Lin (70) and Fred Biondi (72) tied for 26th.
It trumped the Flames’ Kieran Vincent (68, tie for second), Jonathan Yaun (70), and Austin Barbin (73), who both tied for 15th. When Florida finished it had a five-shot lead over the Flames, whose players had anywhere from three to five holes left.
”It wasn’t over until their best two players were on No. 18,” Florida coach J.C. Deacon said. “Jeff Thomas is a great coach and they’ve got a lot of great players over there and it took a great final round for us to beat them. They wouldn’t go away and stop fighting.”
Deacon said the week was indicative of a team-wide effort to erase a lackluster fall season in which UF had finishes of a tie for eighth, 12th and a tie for fifth — the latter at Isleworth.
”We didn’t have a very good fall so we have been a very motivated group,” Deacon said. “I’ve been super-impressed by how hard the guys have worked this winter. It started back on Oct. 20 and the guys have had an awesome off-season. I’m so happy for that hard work to pay off.”
Castillo birdied three of his first four holes to set the early pace and Dubois had seven 3s among his last 13 holes.
Lin made a hole-in-one at the 190-yard 14th hole, using a 6-iron for his third ace in competition. Lin said he didn’t see the ball go into the hole, which was cut on the middle-left, but one witness was six-time PGA Tour winner and nearby resident Billy Horschel, a past Gator All-American.
“Dropped 3 feet in front of the hole and rolled in like a putt,” said Horschel, who was at the tournament for the Sunday practice round and the two competitive rounds to watch his college team.
University of North Florida golf coach Scott Schroeder (left) and sophomore Nick Gabrelcik (right) look over Gabrelcik’s tee shot at the 18th hole of the TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley Course on Tuesday during the third round of the Sea Best Invitational. Gabrelcik shot 65 to win the individual title.
Speaking of familiar ground, Gabrelcik successfully defended his Sea Best individual title with a closing 65 and a 54-hole total of 7-under-par 203, six shots over Dubois and Vincent.
The UNF sophomore from Trinity, Fla., won his fourth college tournament in his 13th start and is now 3-for-3 in college tournaments hosted by UNF or JU. Gabrelcik won last year’s Sea Best by one shot and captured The Hayt, hosted by UNF at the Sawgrass Country Club, by two shots.
In those three tournaments, Gabrelcik is a cumulative 20-under and has a stroke average of 68.4. He’s the only player to have won both and said it’s a matter of preferring the difficult late winter/early spring conditions in Northeast Florida, where it can get windy and chilly.
”I’ve just developed a liking for Jacksonville golf,” Gabrelcik said. “I’ve noticed the courses around here fit my game well. Firm and fast, nice greens … I think harder conditions benefit me more because I like to flight my golf shots and work my ball in different ways, whereas when it’s calm and soft, anyone can go out and fire up pins and go low.”
Gabrelcik birdied three of his first four holes and then dropped his longest putt of the day, a 30-footer for birdie at No. 9. He birdied Nos. 12 and 15 and might have won by a touchdown and two-point conversion had he made two 8-foot birdie attempts at Nos. 16 and 18, or avoided his only bogey of the day at No. 17.
UNF coach Scott Schroeder said it’s no big mystery why Gabrelcik has done well in the area events.
”He’s really good at golf,” Schroeder said of Gabrelcik, who has eight top-five finishes in less than two seasons for the Ospreys. “He controls his golf ball really well and on both of these golf courses, you’ve got to be able to hit the ball. And he’s learned to be patient and keep the ball in the right spots.”
UNF, the defending Sea Best team champion, made the biggest move of the day, coming from 12th place (next-to-last) and getting within four shots of the lead at one point before finishing third, seven shots behind the Gators.
Davis Lee (68) and Jason Duff (69) joined Gabrelcik in shooting under par and helping the Ospreys post the low team round of the day at 6-under. Cody Carroll chipped in with a 72.
”Today we had four guys who played good,” Schroeder said. “We’ve talked a lot about how they’re going to handle themselves on the golf course and focusing on that and let the results come. We did a lot better job of that day. Golf can be a roller coaster and we want to try to not let our emotions be a roller coaster. I thought we did a really nice job with that.”
JU’s Alexandre Vandermoten, who began the day tied with Gabrelcik for the lead at 2-under, shot 73 and tied for fourth. Florida’s Tyler Wilkes, playing as an individual, had a 71 to tie for 10th at 3-over.
Everything you need to know for Saturday’s showdown.
OAKMONT, Pa. — Four players not only outlasted the loaded field of 312 of the world’s best male amateurs, but also weathered the storms this week outside Pittsburgh to punch their tickets to the semifinals of the 121st U.S. Amateur.
For the first time in three days, play wasn’t suspended due to dangerous weather at Oakmont Country Club, allowing the Rounds of 32, 16 and the quarterfinals to all be completed on Friday.
North Carolina’s Austin Greaser will square off against Texas’ Travis Vick at 2 p.m. ET, followed by Michigan State’s James Piot against North Florida’s Nick Gabrelcik at 2:20 p.m. ET.
With each match intriguing in its own way, here’s a preview of what to expect in Saturday’s semifinal showdowns.
Greaser vs. Vick
On paper this match couldn’t be closer.
Greaser has trailed for just three holes over four matches at Oakmont. He hasn’t played the 18th hole since his second round of stroke play. Vick has trailed just four holes and only one of his matches, a hard-fought quarterfinal against Brian Stark, went the full 18 holes.
Both players were all-conference selections as sophomores last season, and each has kept the ball rolling this summer. Greaser was a semifinalist two weeks ago at the Western Amateur, while Vick finished third at the Sunnehanna Amateur in June.
Piot vs. Gabrelcik
Unlike the first match, both players in this one had different roads to the semifinals.
Outside of his Round of 64 clash with Cameron Sisk, a 1-up win, Piot has cruised through match play with a pair of 4-and-3 wins in the Rounds of 64 and 32 and a 3-and-1 victory in the quarters. Gabrelcik is a bit more battle-tested this week, with three of his four bouts going the full 18. The match that didn’t? A 2-and-1 grind against Western Amateur champion Michael Thorbjornsen, the player many picked as the favorite this week.
Despite the close calls, Gabrelcik has been in control of his matches and hasn’t needed to mount a late comeback, nor has Piot. Expect another close one.
