Players to watch at Hazeltine National Golf Club

It’s time for the premier men’s amateur championship in the world.

The 2024 U.S. Amateur got underway Monday at Hazeltine National Golf Club and Chaska Town Course, both located just west of Minneapolis. 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 Hazeltine beginning Wednesday. This will be the 124th U.S. Amateur.

Nineteen of the top 20 players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking are in the field, including No. 1 Gordon Sargent, No. 2 Jackson Koivun and No. 3 Luke Clanton, who are paired together in the opening two rounds.

Last year, Nick Dunlap topped Neal Shipley 4 and 3 at Cherry Hills Country Club in Colorado to become the second player ever to win a U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Amateur, joining none other than Tiger Woods.

Here’s a look at 10 players to watch at the 2024 U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine.

Luke Clanton plays his shot on the sixteenth hole during the second round of the 3M Open golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports

Clanton became the first amateur to record consecutive top 10s on the PGA Tour since 1958. He finished his sophomore season at Florida State as the highest-ranked player in the NCAA golf rankings and has only built on that this summer.

David Ford of the United States hits out of a fairway bunker on the sixth hole during the second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard at Arnold Palmer Bay Hill Golf Course on March 08, 2024 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)

Ford made two PGA Tour starts this season at The RSM Classic and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The lefty represented the United States at the 2023 World Amateur Team Championship in the United Arab Emirates and helped the victorious U.S. team in the 2023 Walker Cup.

Ian Gilligan won the 2024 Western Amateur. (Photo: WGA)

Gilligan has risen to No. 9 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking thanks in part to his big summer, but he capped it with a thrilling 29-hole win in the championship match of the Western Amateur.

Trevor Gutschewski with the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship trophy during the finals of the 2024 U.S. Junior Amateur at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. on Saturday, July 27, 2024. (Logan Whitton/USGA)

Gutschewski, 17, became the first player from…