State will be well represented at U.S. Amateur Championship

Five Oklahoma residents and a host of other players with state ties will be competing in the U.S. Amateur Championship beginning Monday at Merion Golf Club and Philadelphia Country Club.

Ryder Cowan of Edmond and the University of Oklahoma, who this year was tied for low amateur in the U.S. Open, leads the state contingent. He’ll be joined by Parker Sands of Edmond, who bested Cowan at the Trans-Miss Amateur at Southern Hills in July. Chase Hughes of Oklahoma City, a member of the USGA Junior National team, is in the field, as aresMichael Hearne of Yukon and Collin Bond of Norman, who earned his spot by winning the Oklahoma Golf Association Stroke Play Championship.

Seven members of the Oklahoma State men’s golf team will be in action at Merion.

Rising seniors Ethan Fang, Gaven Lane, Eric Lee and Preston Stout will be joined by sophomore Bond and freshmen Jaxon Bandelier and Henry Guan.

Play will get underway with the 36-hole stroke play portion of the event on Monday and Tuesday. The 312-player filed will be trimmed to 64 for the match play bracket, which begins on Wednesday and runs through Sunday’s 36-hole final.

Stout, who enters play as the top-ranked amateur in the world, earned medalist honors at last year’s event before advancing to the round of 16 during match play.

A quarterfinalist at the 2024 U.S. Amateur, Fang enters play ranked No. 9 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and Lee checks in at No. 14. Lee reached the event’s semifinal round a year ago.

Five Cowboys have won amateur golf’s most prestigious event with Viktor Hovland being the last to do so in 2018 at Pebble Beach Golf Links. Peter Uihlein was victorious in 2010 at Chambers Bay, while Scott Verplank won in 1984 at Oak Tree, Bob Dickson won in 1967 at the Broadmoor and Labron Harris, Jr. was OSU’s first champion in 1962 at Pinehurst.

In addition to Cowan, two other OU golfers are in the field in P.J. Maybank III and Clark Van Gaalen.