The U.S. Amateur Championship is just days away from teeing off in the Denver metro. The tournament runs Monday through Sunday at Cherry Hills Country Club, with Colorado Golf Club also a co-host site for stroke-play rounds the first two days.
Here’s a look at top-ranked players and locals to watch. There are 41 states and 24 countries represented in the tournament, with the average age 22.67.
Top-ranked players
Gordon Sargent, 20
Hometown: Birmingham, Ala.
The top-ranked player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking has four wins this season, and 21 Top 10 finishes in 36 events. He’s on the USA Walker Cup Team, made the cut at this year’s U.S. Open to earn low-amateur honors, and is the reigning the SEC player of the year at Vanderbilt. He also won the 2022 NCAA individual title as a freshman and is perhaps the most surefire future PGA superstar in the field.
David Ford, 20
Hometown: Peachtree Corners, Ga.
Also a USA Walker Cup Team member, Ford is ranked No. 4 in WAGR and is coming off a big year at North Carolina, where he was ACC player of the year as a sophomore and earned first-team All-American honors. He’s delivered on a big regional stage before, winning the 2022 Southern Amateur Championship at Sea Island Golf Club in St. Simons Island, Ga.
Dylan Menante, 22
Hometown: Carlsbad, Calif.
The fifth-ranked Menante is playing in his fifth U.S. Amateur. He finished tied for fourth at the NCAA Championships this past year after transferring from Pepperdine, where he helped the Waves win the 2021 national title while winning West Coast Conference player of the year honors, a feat he replicated in 2022 as he notched four Top 10 finishes.
Ben James, 19
Hometown: Milford, Conn.
The No. 6-ranked James dominated his first season of college golf at Virginia, where he was a first-team All-American, Phil Mickelson Outstanding Freshman Award winner and ACC freshman of the year. He took sixth at the NCAA championships and set a school record with five wins in 13 tournaments. This week could very well continue his meteoric rise.
Nick Dunlap, 19
Hometown: Huntsville, Ala.
Another member of the USA Walker Cup Team, the No. 9-ranked Dunlap posted back-to-back wins this summer in the Northeast Amateur at Wannamoisett Country Club in Rumford, R.I., and then the North & South Amateur at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina. He’s no stranger to a pressurized amateur stage, as the Alabama sophomore won the 2021 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship and also qualified for the 2019 U.S. Amateur as a 15-year-old.
Colorado players
Davis Bryant, 23
Hometown: Aurora
The Eaglecrest graduate enters his second U.S. Amateur coming off a win at the Southwestern Amateur last month, where he became that tournament’s first repeat champion in 34 years. The three-time All-Mountain West selection at Colorado State won the 2017 Class 5A state title with the Raptors. He’s ranked No. 91 but has been as high as No. 78.
Jack Castiglia, 22
Hometown: Lakewood
A three-time first-team All-Big Sky selection over five seasons at Northern Colorado, Castiglia took second in the 2023 conference tournament and posted one collegiate win during his career, at the Ram Masters Classic two years ago.
Patrick Grady, 37
Hometown: Westminster
A certified public accountant, Grady is a two-time Colorado Golf Association Player of the Year and won five events on the Adams Pro Golf Tour from 2010-12. He starred at Broomfield High and then CU prior to his stint as a pro, and he was reinstated as an amateur last year.
Gavin Hagstrom, 21
Hometown: Fort Collins
The former Colorado State golfer, now at Minnesota, is making his second appearance in the U.S. Amateur after missing the cut in stroke play last year. As a sophomore with the Rams, the former Fossil Ridge standout recorded a pair of Top 10 finishes.
Connor Jones, 21
Hometown: Denver
Colorado State’s star is the highest ranked amateur in the state at No. 90 and has been ranked as high as 73rd. He just completed his senior season in Fort Collins. In 2022, he was the Mountain West Conference champion in addition to winning the Colorado Golf Association Match Play title and the 2022 Colorado Amateur. He played at Mountain Range High and two years at the University of Denver before transferring to CSU.
Nick Nosewicz, 39
Hometown: Aurora
Nosewicz runs Lenny’s Golf Shop with his dad, and is making his fifth appearance in a USGA championship. Nosewicz played for a brief time as a pro before regaining his amateur status in 2012, and his grandfather, Ed Nosewicz, is in the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame with five Colorado Golf Association titles. He also represented Colorado on the USGA State Team Championship in 2014 and ’16.
Cole Nygren, 29
Hometown: Longmont
Nygren was reinstated as an amateur in 2021 following a near three-year stint as a pro that included an appearance on the PGA Tour. He golfed at Cal-Poly and is capable of making noise on a big stage, as evidenced by his victory in the 2021 Colorado Golf Association Match Play Championship at Colorado Golf Club.
Colin Prater, 28
Hometown: Colorado Springs
Prater was an All-American at UCCS, and in 2020 he became only the second golfer since 1985 to win the Colorado Golf Association’s Amateur and Match Play Championship in the same year. In that same scorching summer, he also became the first golfer since 1974 to earn Colorado Open low-amateur honors. All that earned him the CGA’s Les Fowler Player of the Year and Mid-Amateur Player of the Year awards.
Blake Trimble, 36
Hometown: Denver
Trimble competed at the University of San Diego and currently plays out of Columbine Country Club. He took second to Connor Jones in the qualifier held at his home course in order to earn a spot in this week’s tournament.
