In most cases, players have a limited window in which to make waves in amateur golf. Juniors and college players generally use amateur events – from the Western Amateur to the Augusta National Women’s Amateur to the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Women’s Amateur – as a platform to launch them into long and successful professional careers.
Even if amateur golf is transient for the top players, there’s still time to develop a rooting interest for these men and women. The following names – some highlighted individually, and some highlighted in clusters – are likely to appear in headlines on the biggest stages in 2020. Their growth and their path to the top of amateur golf is worth following. Here’s the background.
Emilia Migliaccio, top-ranked U.S. female
Migliaccio’s last act before returning to Wake Forest for her junior season was to represent the U.S. at the Pan-American Games. The team won gold that week in Lima, Peru, and so did Migliaccio, which made her the first American, male or female, to win a gold medal in golf at either the Pan American Games or the Olympics since the event was reintroduced to the games in 2015.
It’s fitting that Migliaccio is the top-ranked American in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (at No. 7) entering 2020. It’s also fitting that it’s a Curtis Cup year. Someone like Migliaccio, who shines in a team setting, would be an excellent leader for a U.S. squad looking to win on foreign soil. Migliaccio stands to figure in to all conversations surrounding women’s golf in 2020, from college golf to the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
The women’s college golf class of 2023
The race for top freshman will be every bit as hard this spring as the race for player of the year – at least in women’s golf. Some of the most promising female amateurs are college freshmen this season. Expect to see every one of these women near the top of leaderboards in 2020.
The frontrunners from the college golf class of 2023 include South Carolina’s Pauline Roussin-Bouchard, Arizona’s Vivian Hou, Arizona State’s Linn Grant, Stanford’s Lei Ye, Texas’s Sophie Guo, Oklahoma State’s Isabella Fierro and Wake Forest’s Rachel Kuehn.
Mid-amateurs who transcend the over-25 circuit
If we learned anything this year, it’s that it takes a calculated, dedicated effort to compete at the highest echelon of amateur golf as a mid-amateur. This story line played out in 2019 for Stewart Hagestad as he chased – and secured – a spot on the U.S. Walker Cup team for the second time in his mid-amateur career.
Up next? Lauren Greenlief is attempting to do the same for the 2020 Curtis Cup. The 29-year-old dedicated her summer to making as many amateur starts as she could. That culminated with a semifinal run at the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, a tournament she won in 2015. Greenlief will also have a good shot at an Augusta National Women’s Amateur invitation – and would be an excellent choice for a special invitational if she doesn’t qualify by her ranking position.
Garrett Rank, Western Amateur champion, and Lukas Michel, U.S. Mid-Amateur champion, are two more mid-amateurs to keep track of in 2020. Michel will play the Masters and Rank is likely to show up, well, everywhere once the summer amateur season begins in earnest. In 2019, he played eight tournaments in the 10-week summer stretch leading up to the U.S. Amateur in August.
Three international players who have the deepest resumes
Though amateur golf has become increasingly international, Takumi Kanaya, Chun An Yu and Atthaya Thitikul established themselves as the breakout stars of 2019 with games that seemed to travel effortlessly.
Kanaya, of Japan, is currently the top-ranked player in the WAGR after a year in which he nearly defended his title at the Asia-Pacific Amateur, the tournament that opened the door for so many coveted starts in 2019, including the Masters. Kanaya won a professional event in Japan and finished third at the Australian Open to end the year.
Yu, who often goes by Kevin, started 2019 by winning the Master of the Amateurs in Australia. Back at Arizona State for his junior season, Yu finished inside the top five in seven of eight spring starts (including a third-place individual finish at the NCAA Championship) to lock up First Team All-America honors. Most recently, he was fifth at the Australian Open.
As for Thitikul, the Thai teen is No. 1 in the world and looks to be the second coming of Ariya Jutanugarn, who has spent time as the No. 1 LPGA player in the world. Thitikul has already won twice on the Ladies European Tour despite being only 16. Most of her 2019 starts came throughout Asia. Thitikul will of course qualify for the Augusta National Women’s Amateur again and should she accept the invitation, should figure into the tournament more prominently than she did with a missed cut a year ago.
Karl Vilips, top junior and Australia’s best ambassador
If there’s such a thing as a consensus No. 1 junior, then the 18-year-old Vilips is that player. He checks in atop the Golfweek Junior Rankings, Junior Golf Scoreboard and the Rolex AJGA Rankings, too.
Vilips, a native Australian, is also inside the top 20 in the WAGR (currently the highest ranked Aussie), and not surprisingly after making match play at the Western Amateur over the summer, reaching the quarterfinals at the U.S. Amateur, finishing in the top 10 at the Asia-Pacific Amateur, and most recently competing for the Internationals at the Junior Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne near his childhood home.
Midway through 2020, Vilips will join the Stanford roster and compete against college players. It represents an intriguing next chapter for a player who has accomplished a lot in junior golf.
Andy Ogletree and John Augenstein, Masters men
Courtesy of their 1-2 finish at the U.S. Amateur, these two college seniors (at Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt, respectively), stand to make a lot of headlines over the next few months, and most notably in April. Both will play the Masters.
Both have bright futures ahead of them as professionals, and while it’s too early to talk about that, there’s a good chance they make the transition before the end of the year.
Augenstein enters 2020 ranked No. 4 in the WAGR while Ogletree checks in at No. 20.
Alexa Pano, amateur golf’s best crossover player
Starting with the South Atlantic Amateur (commonly known as the Sally) the third week of January, Pano teed it up in 22 WAGR-recognized events over the course of the past year. She often went on runs of three or four consecutive weeks. A ton of golf amounted to a ton of experience. Six of those events were professional starts, including the U.S. Women’s Open (where she missed the cut) and the SKYiGOLF Championship, where she played in the final group the final day and ultimately finished eighth.
Pano took a break leading up to last month’s Dixie Women’s Amateur, where she finished seventh, but says that especially in the summer, she likes playing a busy schedule.
“I always asked my dad to sign me up a lot because I feel like hopping from tournament to tournament gets me in a groove where I’m feeling best about my game.”
Gabriela Ruffels, reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champ
Ruffels’ past year is particularly remarkable when you consider that she had focused on tennis, the sport her parents played, until her early teens. Her growth has been rapid since. In winning the North & South Women’s Amateur then the U.S. Women’s Amateur in a span of four weeks, Ruffels charged victoriously through 11 head-to-head matches.
Ruffels is a junior at USC, surrounded by accomplished teammates and a savvy coach in Justin Silverstein. In that environment, her upward trend should continue and that’s a major reason she graces this list. Also consider the opportunities Ruffels will be afforded thanks to her U.S. Women’s Amateur victory, namely the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, U.S. Women’s Open and Women’s British Open.
Those closest to her, like Silverstein and older brother Ryan Ruffels, who plays professionally, praise her intense work ethic.
“She’s one of the hardest working girls I know,” big brother said.
John Pak, marathon man of the summer circuit
Pak, a Florida State junior, was the man of the match at the Walker Cup in September. Pak was everywhere last summer in the pursuit of a Walker Cup pick, and he more than earned the one he eventually got.
Highlights of 2019 include winning the ACC individual title (the last of four victories in his sophomore season for the Seminoles), a runner-up at the Porter Cup and Round of 16 runs at both the U.S. Amateur and Western Amateur.
Walker Cup captain Nathaniel Crosby remarked that Pak had a tendency to start slowly in tournaments over the past year.
“He would have won seven or eight tournaments this year already if he hadn’t shot a 73 or 74,” Crosby said at the end of the Walker Cup.
Faster starts and frequent victories is a concise way to sum up Pak’s path in 2020.
Cole Hammer, match-play maverick
This entry also comes with a prediction. Hammer has been the top-ranked player in the WAGR – even earning the Mark H. McCormack medal in August – and will find his way back there in 2020. He is currently No. 2 in the world.
Hammer continues to rack up experiences in amateur golf and beyond – he played the Houston Open on a sponsor exemption roughly a month after representing the U.S. in the Walker Cup this fall – and experiences only translate into more comfort. The evolution of Hammer’s career probably appeals to a wider audience than any other entries on this list – in part because he’s so good in a good-to-head setting, and in part because of the marketability of his surname.
He’s a Texan with Jordan Spieth-like potential, though that likely comes farther in the future than 2020.
