HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. (Aug. 1, 2022) – The 120th Western Amateur Championship returns to Exmoor Country Club this week, bringing a decorated field of international stars – including two past champions and 12 players who qualified for the Sweet 16 in 2021 – to one of the Chicago area’s most historic clubs on August 1-6.

First played at Glen View Club in 1899, the Western Amateur is the world’s third-oldest amateur championship, behind only the British Amateur (1855) and the U.S. Amateur (1895). It regularly attracts the top players from across the country and around the world, with past champions like Jack Nicklaus, Justin Leonard and Tiger Woods.

This will mark the fourth time that Exmoor has hosted the Western Amateur. The iconic club in Highland Park, Illinois, hosted the championship for the first time in 1904, when H. Chandler Egan won. Frank Stranahan won the 1952 Western Amateur at Exmoor, and Chris Williams outlasted a field that included Max Homa, Cameron Smith and Justin Thomas in 2012.

A grueling combination of stroke play and match play make the Western Amateur one of the most demanding events in golf. The field of 156 players will compete in 72 holes of stroke play over three days to determine the Sweet 16 for match play.

The match play competition will be streamed live on GOLFChannel.com, NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app, with more than 12 hours of coverage over Friday, Aug. 5, and Saturday, Aug. 6. Powered by WGA proud partners Peter Millar and Titleist, the stream will be available on GOLFChannel.com and thewesternamateur.com, with replays streaming on Peacock and GolfPass.com.

The 2022 field is one of the most accomplished in the history of the event, featuring amateur and collegiate standouts with the potential to become PGA TOUR stars. The field features players from 27 countries and 33 states, including:

  • Stanford junior Michael Thorbjornsen. The 2021 Western Amateur champion is the No. 5-ranked player in the World Amateur Golf Rankings. He was a PING All-American Second Team selection this year and played for Team USA in the Arnold Palmer Cup. He qualified for the 2022 U.S. Open and finished fourth at the Travelers Championship on the PGA TOUR in June.
  • Vanderbilt sophomore Gordon Sargent. The No. 4-ranked amateur and Golfweek All-American First Team selection is also back after falling to Thorbjornsen in the final a year ago. He also represented Team USA in the Palmer Cup and won the individual NCAA Championship in 2022.
  • Pepperdine senior Dylan Menante. The No. 6-ranked amateur won the 2022 Northeast Amateur at Wannamoisett Country Club in Rhode Island and played for Team USA in the Palmer Cup. He was an Golfweek All-American Honorable Mention pick after being named the West Coast Conference Player of the Year for the second season in a row.
  • North Carolina senior Austin Greaser. After making the semifinals of the 2021 Western Amateur, the No. 8-ranked amateur finished second at the 2021 U.S. Amateur. He qualified for the 2022 Masters Tournament and the 2022 U.S. Open, where he made the cut and finished T61.
  • Texas senior Travis Vick. Vick, the No. 15-ranked amateur in the world, helped Texas win the team NCAA Championship this year and made the cut at the 2022 U.S. Open, finishing T43 as the low amateur. He was a Golfweek All-American Second Team selection this year.
  • Florida senior Ricky Castillo. Castillo, the No. 18-ranked amateur in the world, has qualified for the Sweet 16 in each of the past three years.

The field also includes top-ranked amateurs like Golfweek All-American First Team selections Fred Biondi (Florida) and Cole Sherwood (Vanderbilt); Second Team selections Michael Brennan (Wake Forest), Adrien Dumont De Chassart (Illinois) and Nick Gabrelcik (Northern Florida); and Third Team selections Johnny Keefer (Baylor), Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira (Arkansas), David Ford (North Carolina) and Brian Stark (Oklahoma State).

Thorbjornsen isn’t the only former Western Amateur champion in the field. Garrett Rank, who won the 2019 Western Amateur at Point O’ Woods Golf & Country Club in Benton Harbor, Michigan, is back again this year. Rank leads a group of mid-amateurs that includes JR Smith, who won two NBA championships during a 17-year career with the Hornets, Nuggets, Knicks, Cavaliers and Lakers.

There are three former Western Junior champions in the field: William Mouw (Pepperdine), who won in 2017 at Park Ridge Country Club in Park Ridge, Illinois; Piercen Hunt (Illinois), who won the 2019 title at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois; and Caleb Surratt (Tennessee), who won last year at Onwentsia Club in Lake Forest, Illinois.

Click here to see the full field.

The 2022 Western Amateur will be the final event of the Elite Amateur Golf Series, a new season-long competition that tests the best players in amateur golf over a series of seven historic championships. Top finishers in the series will earn exemptions into PGA TOUR and Korn Ferry Tour events.

With Surratt atop the standings and nine of the top 10 players in the Western Amateur field, the winner will likely be decided at Exmoor this weekend.

Attendance and parking at the Western Amateur are free. For more information, visit www.thewesternamateur.com.