The 2018 Western Amateur will be played July 30 - Aug. 4 at Sunset Ridge Country Club in Northfield, Illinois.

2018 Western Amateur to feature top ranked amateurs

GOLF, Ill. (June 11, 2018) ... One of the world’s oldest and most storied amateur golf championships will again be played on Chicago’s North Shore when Sunset Ridge Country Club in Northfield, Illinois, hosts the 116th Western Amateur from July 30-Aug. 4.

Founded in 1899, the Western Amateur is the world’s third oldest amateur championship behind the British Amateur (1885) and the U.S. Amateur (1895), and regularly attracts the top amateur players from across the country and around the world. Past champions include Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods.

The 2018 Western Amateur will feature a stacked field that is expected to include Cal All-American and 2017 U.S. Walker Cup team member Collin Morikawa; 2017 Western Amateur quarterfinalist and 2016 U.S. Junior champion Min Woo Lee of Australia; Texas A&M standout and 2018 All-SEC selection Chandler Phillips; Oklahoma star and 2017 Western Amateur Sweet 16 qualifier Brad Dalke; Florida Gator and 2018 SEC Championship winner Andy Zhang; and 2018 Master of the Amateurs champion David Micheluzzi of Australia.

“We’re excited to be bringing the Western Amateur and its elite field to this historic club,” said Vince Pellegrino, WGA senior vice president of tournaments. “We strive each year to attract the best amateur players in the world, and we’re pleased that so many of them have chosen to play in this year’s Western Amateur and test Sunset Ridge’s classically-designed layout."

Founded in 1923, Sunset Ridge features a course designed by Bill Diddel, a noted golf course architect and one of the founding members of the American Society of Golf Course Architects. A protégé of the legendary Donald Ross and a mentor to Pete Dye, Diddel’s design at Sunset Ridge features several signature elements including fast greens with subtle contours that create both challenging and beautiful putting surfaces.

The course was renovated in 2006 by Rick Jacobson, whose work at Sunset Ridge garnered acclaim from publications such as Golf Magazine. The magazine voted Sunset Ridge “No. 1 Private Course Renovation in the USA” that year.

Sunset Ridge has hosted several prestigious championships including the 1972 Western Open. The event attracted more than 55,000 spectators to the club and was won by Jim Jamieson, who finished 13-under to best a field that included major champions Tom Watson, Johnny Miller, Hale Irwin and Billy Casper.

Sunset Ridge also has been a steadfast supporter of the Evans Scholars Foundation, a nonprofit established by the Western Golf Association that has awarded full college tuition and housing scholarships to more than 11,000 caddies since 1930.

Thirty-two of those caddies were from Sunset Ridge, beginning with John Murphy, who earned an Evans Scholarship in 1952 to attend Northwestern University. Four are currently enrolled in school.

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