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.
Grace Summerhays’ first round at Pebble Beach Golf Links was the stuff of dreams. After an early-morning fog delay, Grace partnered with her dad, Boyd, in a match against her two brothers, Cameron and Preston. Fittingly, the match ended in a tie.
What made the round even more special for Grace, 18, was it doubled as a practice round for the 78th U.S. Women’s Open. The historic championship, which gets underway July 6, marks the first time a women’s major will be contested at Pebble Beach, site of six previous U.S. Opens won by the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Tom Watson, Tom Kite, Graeme McDowell and Gary Woodland.
“I almost can’t even comprehend it,” said Grace, one of 27 amateurs in the field.
Grace isn’t the first Summerhays to play in a U.S. Open this summer. Older brother Preston, 20, made his second U.S. Open appearance last month at Los Angeles Country Club. Both Preston and Grace play collegiate golf at Arizona State and have spent time practicing together at Silverleaf Golf Club in Scottsdale with former Sun Devil Jon Rahm, the 2021 U.S. Open and 2023 Masters champion.
Their father and coach, Boyd, is Tony Finau’s longtime instructor. The Summerhays’ impressive golf legacy, however, extends well beyond the immediate family.
Bruce Summerhays, Boyd’s uncle, won three times on the PGA Tour Champions, and Boyd’s younger brother, Daniel, played eight years on the PGA Tour. His cousin Carrie Roberts, now head coach at BYU, became the first Utah-born woman to qualify for the LPGA.
Boyd, a former top-ranked junior who played collegiate golf at Oklahoma State, earned his PGA Tour card in 2003 and played the AT&T Pebbe Beach Pro-Am three times. Pebble Beach is Boyd’s favorite course, and he’ll be on the bag this week for Grace. Boyd choked up when Grace advanced through the 36-qualifier in Scottsdale. She turns 19 on championship Sunday.
“Just to share these moments with my kids, not as a coach and students but just as a dad,” said Boyd, “it’s honestly more than that I could dream.”
Summerhays family poses at Pebble Beach: Boyd, Barbara, Grace, Cameron, Preston (courtesy Grace Summerhays)
Grace grew up training (from the same tees) with her older brother, Preston, and carried a competitive, ready-to-go attitude to Arizona State. Head coach Missy Farr-Kaye describes the rising junior as feisty and fun.
“It’s a really a beautiful thing to watch,” said Farr-Kaye of Grace’s approach to the game, “one of those things you want to rub off on everybody.”
Preston, 20, said Grace’s driving is her greatest strength. Her ball speed is 145 mph and her swing speed hovers in the high 90s.
“She hits it very straight,” said Boyd, “and she hits great flighted, spinning wedge shots. And she can putt.”
Grace will be nervous, Boyd predicted, but she won’t be intimidated. At age 16, she became the youngest Utah State Amateur champion in the event’s 114-year history. After graduating from high school early, Grace joined the Sun Devils midseason in 2022. She finished the spring season No. 74 in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings; brother Preston, the 2019 U.S. Junior champion, ranked ninth.
There was a time, Grace said, when she felt pressure to live up to Preston’s success. Farr-Kaye knows what that feels like. Still battles it from time to time, in fact, walking by a life-sized statue of older sister, Heather, on the way to her office every morning.
“I know what it’s like to try to live up to your older sibling,” said Farr-Kaye. “It’s a losing battle.
“We’ve had some good conversations about that. Your journeys are different, and they’re meant to be different.”
The Summerhays family is a tight bunch. While they don’t get to practice together as much as they did in junior golf, Grace said she’s always learning something from Preston, particularly when it comes to short game. There isn’t a chip shot, bunker shot or pitch that Grace is afraid to try, said Farr-Kaye.
“It’s an amazing dynamic,” said Grace of her relationship with Preston. “We’re super competitive and hate to lose to each other, but at the same time, we both want the best for each other.”
A self-described perfectionist, Grace said she’s most grateful for her dad’s ability to separate being a dad from being a coach.
“I’ve seen with other junior golfers and amateurs, it’s just hard for the parents to separate the two,” noted Grace.
What’s the secret to their family’s success?
“We work really hard, and really smart,” said Preston. “My dad has raised us and trained us really, really tough.”
But when it comes to game time, Boyd does everything he can to take the pressure off. Phrases like Just play free; You’re doing great; You’re getting so much experience; We’re heading in the right direction, pepper their text threads.
“I always text my kids before any competitive round to say ‘I love you, proud of you and just go play,’ ” said Boyd.
“If they train as hard, as my kids have, and invested so much of their life and time, and they’re super competitive – they’re already going to be amped up. Parents don’t need to add to that.
“Kids need to know that no matter what, just being here is a huge accomplishment, and as a parent, it’s pretty special.”
Preston will tackle Los Angeles Country Club, having made the field a little more than a week ago after surviving a 3-for-2 playoff at nearby Hillcrest Country Club. He’s one of 19 amateurs (16 of them college players) to make the field. A few days later, Grace punched her ticket to Pebble at a final qualifying stage of her own.
This week marks a first for Preston, as dad Boyd will not be his caddie for the first big event of his young golf career.
“I feel like my game has gotten to a spot where you know my dad will actually be able to help me more if he’s, if he can focus more on me in the practice rounds and in the warmups,” Preston said after his Tuesday practice round with Jon Rahm and Tony Finau. ASU assistant coach Thomas Sutton will be on the bag this week instead. “It’s what’s best for my game. My dad gets spread too thin between being a coach, a father and a caddie.”
Preston Summerhays and his dad/caddie Boyd during the first round of the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York. (Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Preston has played countless times with Finau, a longtime Summerhays family friend, but he has also logged nearly 20 rounds with the former Sun Devil Rahm.
On the 18th hole Tuesday, Preston’s approach was just off the back of the green. He attempted a flop shot but instead hit the ball right at Rahm, who calmly caught it out of the air and then tossed it back.
Rahm left ASU in 2016 to turn pro, graduating after four years in Tempe, but the Arizona State bond is there. Summerhays is on a similar path, as he intends to play all four years of college golf while working towards his degree.
“I missed him by a decent amount of years [at ASU], but there’s always that connection. He’s come out to our facility a couple of times. Just kind of being, him being an alum, I feel just a little bit more comfortable going up to him, asking him questions,” Preston said. “He’s been great with me, and I know even if I wasn’t at ASU, he’d be great to me.”
Can the 20-year-old Preston, who gained previous U.S. Open experience in 2020, contend in this major championship?
Well, his dad knows anything’s possible in golf.
“People say it, and it’s cliche, but the golf ball doesn’t know who’s hitting it, right?”
Check out who’s in the running for player of the year in men’s college golf in 2023.
The postseason is underway in men’s college golf, and after the NCAA Regionals, the NCAA Div. I Men’s Golf Championship field is set for May 26-31 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.
With that, the race for the 2023 Haskins Award presented by Stifel is starting to heat up.
A handful of players have made their case throughout the season as front-runners for the Haskins Award, which honors the player of the year in men’s college golf, as selected by college golfers, coaches and members of the college golf media.
Preston Summerhays is no stranger to big moments on the golf course.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Preston Summerhays is no stranger to big moments on the golf course. In 2020, he played in the U.S. Open at Winged Foot — a tournament he qualified for by winning the U.S. Junior Amateur. In doing so, he joined a prestigious winners circle that includes Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth.
But Summerhays, a Scottsdale native and Arizona State freshman, had never experienced a moment like Thursday afternoon at TPC Scottsdale. Despite being the only amateur in the WM Phoenix Open’s field, he garnered one of the day’s biggest cheers when his name was announced at the first tee.
“It’s really cool to have the crowd chant your name,” said Summerhays, who finished the day 3-over through 16 holes before his round was postponed due to darkness. He finished up Friday morning, making bogey on No. 18 to finish his opening round with a 75. “The applause was pretty big on the first hole.”
It was a moment the Scottsdale Chaparral graduate had long dreamt of. His dad, Boyd, is a golf instructor who coaches Tony Finau, among other PGA pros. In middle school, he served as a standard bearer at this tournament, walking with groups and displaying their scores for fans.
By the time he got to high school, those around Summerhays knew he was destined for the PGA Tour.
“We knew he was special just because of his demeanor,” Dan Peterson, the former Chaparral golf coach, said Thursday, standing beside the 14th green. “He approached the game differently than any kid we’d seen come in.”
Early in Thursday’s round, that demeanor proved critical. On the par 4 second hole, Summerhays played a tidy third shot that nestled just seven feet above the hole.
His par putt, though, lipped out off the right edge. That was bad enough. Then, on his three-foot comebacker, Summerhays caught the left edge. A likely par had crescendoed into double-bogey.
“I was definitely a little bit nervous,” Summerhays said. “Had that adrenaline going.”
Critically, though, the misses didn’t get to his head. As he walked off the green, Summerhays simply handed his putter to Boyd, who is caddying for him this week, and turned his focus towards the next tee box.
From there, his round steadied. A poor bunker shot led to bogey on four before he rattled off eight straight pars.
Then, on the par-5 13th, Summerhays found the breakthrough he had been searching for, getting up-and-down from the first cut to drop to 2-over.
“Yeah,” Summerhays said of his lone birdie, “finally.”
Although he gave that stroke back with another lip out — this time from four feet — on the following hole, Summerhays was pleased with his driving and ball-striking after the round.
Whether or not he climbs 49 places to squeeze into the top 65 before tomorrow’s cut, though, memories of this week’s play will soon fade. More PGA Tour events, likely by the dozen, will fill Summerhays’ future.
None, though, will offer the culminating moment that Thursday’s round did. As Summerhays walked into the stadium at the 16th hole just past 6 p.m. Thursday night, the remaining fans showered him with chants of “Pres-ton” and “Let’s Go Devils.”
Six of the world’s top 10 players are in Scottsdale this week. Over the course of nine hours Thursday, they too cycled through the 16th hole. Few received the reception that Summerhays did.
Summerhays wasn’t able to punctuate the scene with a birdie, sliding his first putt just past the hole. This time, though, he stepped up and drained his par.
When he did, another chorus of chants broke out behind him. After an afternoon of stoicism, he finally broke character, acknowledging the fans and tossing a ball up towards them.
“I’ve never experienced anything like that,” Summerhays said.
Preston Summerhays: “That tournament has always meant a lot to me and to finally play in it, it’s really cool.”
TEMPE, Ariz. — From the time he was a standard bearer at the WM Phoenix Open at age 10, Preston Summerhays dreamed of one day playing there. Since his amateur golf career took off at age 14, Summerhays worked with the goal in mind of returning to the Phoenix Open.
Nearly a decade after his first trip to the Phoenix Open, Summerhays has found his way to the tournament as one of five sponsor exemptions.
Summerhays, now a freshman on the Arizona State golf team, received the call while practicing in Scottsdale with his dad and younger brother. Much to his dad’s intuition, the call was something worth pulling his phone out to record. Summerhays would be achieving one of his dreams early into his career.
“To get that call and finally know that I’m playing and I’m going to be there, not going to lie, I was trying so hard not to cry. It was such an emotional moment and I worked so hard to get there and for it to finally happen was super special,” Summerhays said.
Luke Potter (left) and Preston Summerhays pose after the 2020 Maridoe Amateur at Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, Texas.
Summerhays, 19, comes from an accomplished lineage of golfers. His father and coach, Boyd, who played on the PGA Tour and has been Tony Finau’s swing coach since 2014. Preston’s uncle, Daniel, played professionally and had his nephew as standard bearer in Preston’s first trip to the Phoenix Open. Preston’s great-grandfather, Pres, was a golf coach at the University of Utah. Preston is now one of two in the Summerhays family blazing a path in Arizona State’s golf programs. His younger sister, Grace, enrolled early and is currently playing for the women’s team.
Boyd’s oversight of Preston’s career has been critical for him, leading him to be the only choice to be his son’s caddie this week at TPC Scottsdale.
“We’re so close, we try to work together as much we can. He’s been my coach since I was born. We just work so hard together and spend so much time together,” Preston said. “To finally have that accomplishment together is really cool, especially with him on the bag as well.”
The Summerhays family will see another familiar face on the course as Finau is also competing in the tournament. Finau, who lost the 2020 Phoenix Open to Webb Simpson in a playoff, said that Preston has been his “sidekick” since he was nine years old.
“He’s one-of-a-kind off the golf course. He’s got a lot of great qualities about him. I would say he’s super humble, he’s very competitive, just a great kid overall. I don’t think you’ll find a more mature 19-year-old kid,” Finau said. “And then he’s got the game to back up the name he carries. A lot of the guys out here know of him because of me and because of his dad and his uncle.”
Preston has already had an impressive amateur career, competing in the 2020 U.S. Open and 2021 Barbasol Championship. In 2019, he solidified his status as a name to watch when he won the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship.
“The Summerhays family obviously in the state of Utah for golf is a very prestigious family. But he’s going to be the best of all of them. He’ll be the best of all of them and it’s only a matter of time before everyone sees what I see now, but it’s been cool to watch his progression. I can’t say enough good things about him,” Finau said.
The Summerhays family split time between Utah and Arizona when Preston was growing up, and he is a two-time winner of the Utah State Amateur, but he sees this tournament as his home tournament with his family living only five minutes away from TPC Scottsdale.
Summerhays is the second ASU golfer since Jon Rahm in 2015 to play in the Phoenix Open as an amateur. Rahm finished T-5 in that appearance.
This will be Summerhays’ first PGA Tour event playing on a sponsor exemption.
“It’s hard to explain. It’s nothing like any tour event I’ve been to. It’s right in my backyard. That tournament has always meant a lot to me and to finally play in it, it’s really cool,” Summerhays said.
This will be Preston Summerhays’ first PGA Tour event playing on a sponsor exemption.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Arizona State freshman Preston Summerhays can add playing in the Waste Management Phoenix Open to his budding amateur career.
Summerhays was announced Tuesday as the first of five sponsor exemptions invited to the 2022 WM Phoenix Open, which is scheduled to be played February 10-13 at TPC Scottsdale.
Summerhays is the first ASU golfer since Jon Rahm in 2015 to play in the Phoenix Open as an amateur. Rahm finished T-5 in that appearance.
The Scottsdale native has already had an impressive amateur career, competing in the 2020 U.S. Open and 2021 Barbasol Championship. In 2019, Summerhays was the winner of the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship.
This will be Summerhays’ first Tour event playing on a sponsor exemption.
Preston Summerhays, 18, is making his second PGA Tour start with eyes wide open.
Preston Summerhays’ first PGA Tour start came in a major when he was 18 years old. Last fall at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, New York, Summerhays reaped the benefits of his first U.S. Golf Association championship. He gained entry into the 2020 U.S. Open when he won the 2019 U.S. Junior, but missed the cut at Winged Foot.
Last summer, the opportunity to defend that junior title slipped away when the championship was one of 10 USGA championships canceled because of COVID-19. By the time the U.S. Junior returns next week at the Country Club of North Carolina in Pinehurst, North Carolina, Summerhays will be too old to defend. He turns 19 on July 22, which is two days ahead of the deadline and thus makes him ineligible.
This week’s start at the Barbasol Championship seems like a nice consolation. Summerhays played his way into this event by winning the inaugural Barbasol Junior Championship last month. He was 11 under after 36 holes at Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Kentucky, and a had a six-shot lead when the final round was canceled because of heavy rain. He was declared the winner.
On Thursday at Keene Trace, Summerhays came out of the gate with an even-par 72. He was 3 under after three birdies on the front nine, but a double-bogey at No. 11 and a closing bogey at No. 18 set him back.
“I played decent today,” Summerhays said. “I got off to a really good start, 3 under through nine. Then hit a couple bad shots on the back side, but I feel really good about my game. Like you said, it was my second start, so I’ve been able to take some experience from the past Open and put it into this event and it’s been really fun so far.”
Summerhays is watching closely this week at how Tour players score and how they handle themselves – not that he doesn’t have an inside track on that kind of thing anyway. The Summerhays family is deep in golf, from Preston dad’s Boyd (also his caddie this week), who is a well-known instructor and former PGA Tour player, to his great uncle Bruce, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour Champions.
As for how Preston plans to improve for the next round?
“I’ll probably just need to work on my wedges,” he said. “I probably could have hit it a little closer today. I hit a lot of great putts that just didn’t fall, but I feel pretty good overall, just need to make sure I keep hitting fairways, hit it close and make some putts.”
Medalist Will Holcomb and Sunnehanna Amateur champion Preston Summerhays will face off at the top of the Maridoe Amateur bracket Saturday.
Five days and six rounds into the Maridoe Amateur, the quarterfinals are set. Half of the remaining field was seeded inside the top 10, and that includes Will Holcomb.
The Sam Houston State fifth-year senior is channeling some of his Pinehurst magic on this bracket. Twice in the past year and a half, Holcomb played his way deep into match play at that resort’s famed No. 2 course – at the 2019 U.S. Amateur (semifinals) and the 2020 North & South (finals).
On Friday at Maridoe Golf Club, Holcomb got past Coastal Carolina’s Zack Taylor in the morning but needed an extra hole to do it. He then defeated Oklahoma’s Logan McAllister by a 4-and-3 margin in the afternoon. It doesn’t get any easier from here. Holcomb will face Preston Summerhays, the 2019 U.S. Junior champion, in the quarterfinals. Summerhays also won the prestigious Sunnehanna Amateur over the summer.
Summerhays, a Class of 2021 player bound for Arizona State next fall, dispatched two college players in Oklahoma’s Patrick Welch and SMU’s McClure Meissner, the latter having the distinction of winning the Southern Amateur at Maridoe over the summer.
Down the bracket, No. 45 seed Benjamin Shipp, who won the South Beach International Amateur to end 2019 continues a gritty run that included victories over Santa Clara’s Matthew McCarty and SMU’s Noah Goodwin on Friday. Now he faces Christopher Gotterup, who had a similarly tough road. Gotterup, a Rutgers senior, barely got past stroke-play star Frankie Capan, of Florida Gulf Coast, on Friday afternoon.
Sam Choi, the New Mexico player, and Ryan Grider, a Baylor junior who won the 2019 Texas Amateur, will meet on the bottom of the bracket. The winner of that match will face the winner of a showdown between Luke Potter, a high school junior verbally committed to Arizona State, and Jonathan Brightwell, a fifth-year senior at Oklahoma who got past U.S. Amateur medalist Wilson Furr and Arizona State’s David Puig on Friday.
After a double-round day of matches on Saturday, two finalists will play a 36-hole final on Sunday to determine a champion.
