THE FLATS – Past, present and future Yellow Jackets – rising junior Hiroshi Tai, 2024 graduate Bartley Forrester and incoming freshman Albert Hansson – are set to compete in the 124th edition of the United States Amateur Championship, which begins Monday at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn.
They are part of a 312-player field which will play 36 holes of stroke play Monday and Tuesday at Hazeltine National and Chaska Town Club. The top 64 players after 36 holes will be seeded in match play competition which begins Wednesday and concludes with a 36-hole championship match next Sunday. Afternoon and evening coverage of match play will be streamed on Peacock and broadcast on Golf Channel.
Tai, the reigning NCAA Champion, is in the field for the first time. The native of Singapore outlasted many of the nation’s top amateur golfers to win the national collegiate title by one shot in May at the Omni LaCosta Resort and Spa. A first-team All-American in 2024, the rising junior is ranked No. 22 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and has won three collegiate tournaments.
Forrester, who completed a five-year career on The Flats in May and won two collegiate events, is competing in the U.S. Amateur for the fourth time. The Gainesville, Ga., native, ranked No. 67 in the World, advanced to the round of 32 in match play in 2022 in Paramus, N.J.
Hansson, one of the top-ranked junior players in Europe, also is competing in his first U.S. Amateur. The native of Fiskebäckskil, Sweden is No. 69 in the WAGR after finishing 19th at the European Men’s Amateur Team Championship in July and 50th at The Amateur Championship in June.
They will seek to join an illustrious group of Yellow Jackets who have won the coveted Havemeyer Trophy, including the legendary Bobby Jones, who captured five U.S. Amateur titles, the last of which completed his Grand Slam in 1930. More recently, Matt Kuchar won the U.S. Amateur in 1997 between his freshman and sophomore years at Tech, while Andy Ogletree and Tyler Strafaci won titles in back-to-back years in 2019 and 2020.