4 Californians Among Decade’s Best Amateurs

Californians Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Cantlay, Collin Morikawa and Danielle Kang were named by Amateur Golf .com among the top 10 amateur golfers during the second decade of the 2000s.

Lydia Ko of New Zealand was listed at No. 1, followed by No. 2 DeChambeau of Clovis, No. 3 Jon Rahm of Spain and Arizona State, No. 4 Leona McGuire of Ireland and Duke, and No. 5 Cantlay of Los Alamitos and UCLA.

Rounding out the top 10 were No. 6 Peter Uihlein of Bradenton, Fla., and Oklahoma State, No. 7 Kristen Gillman of Austin, Texas, and the University of Alabama, No. 8 Braden Thornberry of Olive Branch, Miss., and the University of Mississippi, No. 9 Morikawa of La Canada Flintridge and the University of California, and No. 10 Kang of Westlake Village and Pepperdine.

DeChambeau (pictured), now No. 14 on the World Golf Rankings with five PGA Tour titles, won NCAA Division I Championship and U.S. Amateur Championship in 2015, joining Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Ryan Moore as the only players to accomplish the feat of winning both in the same year.

In addition, DeChambeau captured the 2015 Trans-Mississippi Championship and 2010 the California State Junior Championship. He qualified for the U.S. Amateur five times in a row, winning the last time, and also as an amateur, finished second in the Australian Masters, made the cut in three straight European Tour events and tied for 27th in the Arnold Palmer Invitational before being low amateur at the Masters, tying for 21st.

Cantlay, No. 7 in the world with PGA Tour victories in the 2017 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open and the 2019 Memorial Tournament, owns the record for holding the No. 1 spot in World Amateur Golf Rankings for 54 consecutive weeks.

As a freshman at UCLA in 2010-11, Cantlay won four tournaments and claimed the Nicklaus Award and the Haskins Award as College Player of the Year. He also finished second in back-to-back U.S. Amateurs, and was low amateur in the U.S. Open and the Masters.

Cantlay holds the amateur record for low round in a PGA Tour event, a 60 in the Travelers Championship.

Morikawa, No. 66 in the world after claiming his first PGA Tour victory earlier this year in the Barracuda Championship, won 11 times as an amateur, including the 2013 Western Junior, the 2015 Trans-Mississippi Amateur, the 2016 Sunnehanna Amateur, the 2016 Silicon Valley Amateur, the 2017 Northeast Amateur, and the 2019 Pacific 12 Conference Championship among six college titles at Cal.

While still an amateur, he nearly won on the Web.com Tour in 2016, losing a playoff at the Air Capital Classic. Was the No. 1-ranked amateur in the world for several weeks in 2018 and was a four-year All-American at Cal.

Kang, No. 4 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings thanks to three LPGA Tour victories including the 202017 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, won the U.S Women’s Amateur Championship in 2010 and 2011, the first player to go back-to-back since Kelli Kuehne in 1995-96.

In addition, Kang captured the 2011 Women’s North & South Amateur Championship and made the cut in three of the four women’s professional majors in 2011, including low amateur honors in the Women’s British Open.

Related Articles

Stay Connected

2,267FansLike
368FollowersFollow

Latest Articles