A total of 7,149 entries have been accepted for the 117th U.S. Amateur Championship, scheduled for Aug. 14-20, 2017 at The Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif., and Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles, Calif.
Sixty-four players are fully exempt into the championship and the remaining places in the 312-player field will be filled through qualifying at 100 sites across the country and in Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico between July 3-25. Forty-five states will host qualifying, with host state California leading the way with 13 sites.
All 14 amateurs who competed in last week’s U.S. Open at Erin Hills have filed entries and are fully exempt into the championship.
Among the exempt players are: 2016 runner-up and University of Oklahoma senior Brad Dalke, of Oklahoma City, Okla.; University of Texas senior Scottie Scheffler of Dallas, Texas, who was the low amateur in last week’s U.S. Open at Erin Hills, tying for 27th place; University of Southern California players Sean Crocker, of Long Beach, Calif., who was a semifinalist in 2015, and Jonah Texeira, of Porter Ranch, Calif., who was a semifinalist in 2016; 2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Stewart Hagestad, of Newport Beach, Calif., who was the low amateur in the 2017 Masters; and Sahith Theegala, a Pepperdine University senior from Chino Hills, Calif., who was a quarterfinalist in 2016.
In addition, 46 of the top 50 players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking™ (as of June 21) are in the field, including No.1 Joaquin Niemann, of Chile; No. 2 Maverick McNealy, of Portola Valley, Calif.; No. 3 Dylan Meyer of Evansville, Ind.; No.4 Braden Thornberry of Olive Branch, Miss.; and No. 5 Collin Morikawa, of La Cañada Flintridge, Calif. Thornberry won the 2017 NCAA Division I individual title.
Entries were accepted from golfers in all 50 states, including 1,099 from California, as well as 48 other countries.
The first entrant was Brett Robinson from Tustin, Calif., and Nicholas Caruso, of Lawrence, Mass., submitted the last entry, 35 seconds before the 5 p.m. (EDT) deadline on June 21.
Riviera will be hosting its third USGA championship, having hosted the 1948 U.S. Open, won by Ben Hogan, and the 1998 U.S. Senior Open, won by Hale Irwin. Bel-Air will be hosting its third USGA championship after previously serving as the site of the 1976 U.S. Amateur, won by Bill Sander, and the 2004 U.S. Senior Amateur, won by Mark Bemowski.
