Stubbs and Ding Aim to Make Their Mark in Minnesota

Chaska, Minnesota, United States: Australian Jasper Stubbs and China’s Ding Wenyi spearhead a 22-strong Asia-Pacific contingent at the 124th US Amateur Championship.

Almost 10 months after facing-off in the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (AAC) at Royal Melbourne, Stubbs and Ding will cross paths again at Hazeltine National Golf Club.

In Australia it was 22-year-old Stubbs who emerged triumphant at the AAC, outlasting Ding and his Chinese compatriot Sampson Zheng in a sudden-death play-off.

His rewards included exemptions into the Masters Tournament at Augusta National in April and last month’s Open Championship at Royal Troon.

While Stubbs has struggled for consistency in recent months and is 230th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), Ding has emerged as the Asia-Pacific’s standout male amateur golfer.

Now aged 19, Ding became the first male golfer from China to win a USGA championship when he claimed the 2022 US Junior Amateur at Bandon Dunes, earning him an exemption into the 2023 US Open at The Los Angeles Country Club.

During his freshman season this past year at Arizona State, Ding has posted six top-10 finishes, including two wins. He most recently claimed the Southern Amateur Championship at Idle Hour Country Club in Lexington, Kentucky – a result that saw him rise to fourth in the WAGR.

The USGA accepted 4,970 entries for this year’s US Amateur when the number of local qualifying sites was reduced from 95 to 45.

Open to amateur golfers with a Handicap Index not exceeding 0.4, the starting field of 312 players will play 18 holes of stroke play on Monday and Tuesday, one round at Hazeltine National and one round at Chaska Town Course. Following 36 holes of stroke play, the field will be cut to the low 64 scorers.

Six rounds of match play will begin on Wednesday with the championship concluding with a 36-hole championship match next Sunday.

Among the 37 countries that are being represented in the 2024 US Amateur are China (eight players), Australia (four), Thailand and Vietnam (two apiece) and Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong China, Japan, Korea, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates (one each).

Notables who are in the WAGR top-100 that will be joining Stubbs and Ding in the starting line-up are Australian Josiah Gilbert, China’s Chang Xihuan, Qiu Zihang, Andi Xu and Paul Chang, Japan’s Rintaro Nakano, Singaporean Hiroshi Tai, Thais Phichaksn Maichon and Ratchanon ‘TK’ Chantananuwat and Vietnam’s Nguyen Anh Minh.

Tai is 22nd in the WAGR, ahead of Phichaksn (26th), Chang Xihuan (37th), Gilbert (40th), Ratchanon (61st), Qiu (64th), Anh Minh (70th), Nakano (78th), Xu (85th) and Paul Chang (97th).

Tai won the NCAA Division 1 Championship stroke play in late May, in so doing securing a start in June’s US Open and also a place in the 2025 Masters Tournament when he’ll become the first Singaporean to play in the Augusta National showpiece.

Ratchanon gained international headlines when he won an Asian Tour event two years ago when aged 15 while Anh Min was a member of the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation team that won the Ryder Cup-style Bonallack Trophy against the European Golf Association in Spain last year.