OAKMONT, Pa. — One has a PGA Tour card already locked up. Another is a 17-year-old with a year left in high school. Another gave up competitive golf for seven years to become a dentist. And another is making history for his home country.
The 15 amateurs competing in the 2025 U.S. Open each have unique stories to tell. What connects them all, however, is that they each aspire to accomplish the same thing this week at Oakmont Country Club: make the cut and contend for low-amateur honors.
It’s a realistic goal: In 16 of the last 17 years, at least on amateur participant has advanced to the weekend at the U.S. Open and been able to join the winner during the final prize ceremony on Sunday.
But it’s a hard one, too, given the difficulty that Oakmont presents. It’s something that Jackson Koivun, who’ll take over the top spot in the World Amateur Golf Ranking on Wednesday, awakened himself to while playing a practice round with Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas on Monday.
“I hit it in the rough and it went about four feet. That was kind of my ‘wow [moment], this golf course is hard,’” Koivun said. “How everything is here at Oakmont—the preparation, everything—it’s like, this is a major championship. This is where I want to be.”
However, we are talking about many of the top amateurs in the world; of the 15 in the field, 11 are inside the top 60 of the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Below you’ll find the basics on all 15 who have played their way into this week’s championship at Oakmont, with a few fun facts to know as you potentially see their names pop-up on the leaderboard.
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Gregory Shamus
Virginia Beach, Va. Age: 34 How he got in the U.S. Open: 2024 U.S. Mid-Amateur champ World Amateur Golf Ranking: 30
Fun Fact I: With his lopsided win in the U.S. Mid-Amateur final last fall (9 and 8 over Bobby Massa), the reinstated amateur who played in the Masters in April but missed the cut, avenged a loss in the final the year before as well as a loss in the final of the 2008 U.S. Junior Amateur.
Fun Fact II: Beck works as a portfolio manager for the investment firm of Brown Advisory.
Trevor Gutschewski 
Kathryn Riley
Omaha, Neb. Age: 18 How he got in the U.S. Open: 2024 U.S. Junior Amateur champ World Amateur Golf Ranking: 534
Fun Fact I: The son of PGA Tour/Korn Ferry Tour pro Scott Gutschewski played along with his dad and older brother Luke in the KFT Pinnacle Bank Championship last year, the first time in 20 years that a father and two sons were in the same event under the PGA Tour umbrella.
Fun Fact II: Trevor, who’ll play college golf at Florida starting this fall, is just the second golfer from Nebraska to win a USGA championship, along with amateur Johnny Goodman (1933 U.S. Open, 1937 U.S. Amateur).
Frankie Harris
Boca Raton, Fla. Age: 22 How he got in the U.S. Open: Local/Final Qualifying World Amateur Golf Ranking: 61
Fun Fact I: Harris transferred to South Carolina ahead of the 2023-24 college season and has won two college events with the Gamecocks.
Fun Fact II: He has qualified for the last three U.S. Amateurs.
Justin Hastings 
Augusta National
Cayman Islands Age: 21 How he got in the U.S. Open: 2025 Latin America Amateur champion World Amateur Golf Ranking: 23
Fun Fact I: Hastings will be the first player from the Cayman Islands to ever compete in the U.S. Open
Fun Fact II: He just finished his senior year at San Diego State, where he set the career scoring record (71.48), breaking the mark previously held by Xander Schauffele.
Mason Howell
Thomasville, Ga. Age: 17 How he got in the U.S. Open: Local/Final Qualifying World Amateur Golf Ranking: 484
Fun Fact I: Howell makes a habit of shooting low scores. He had a pair of 63s to share medalist honors at Piedmont Driving Club in Final Qualifying, a 64 to take medalist honors in Local Qualifying and shot a course record 59 at Glen Arven when he was 14.
Fun Fact II: Before moving to Georgia, Howell played on his high school golf team in Tallahassee, Fla., when he was in sixth grade.
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Milford, Conn. Age: 22 How he got in the U.S. Open: Final Qualifying World Amateur Golf Ranking: 3
Fun Fact I: James is a three-time first-team All-American at Virginia, who helped the Cavaliers reach the finals of the NCAA Championship last month.
Fun Fact II: He is playing in his second straight U.S. Open (he missed the cut a year ago at Pinehurst) and is a lock to make his second U.S. Walker Cup team that will play at Cypress Point Club in September.
Noah Kent 
Augusta National
Naples, Fla. Age: 20 How he got in the U.S. Open: 2024 U.S. Amateur runner-up World Amateur Golf Ranking: 151
Fun Fact I: Played in three PGA Tour events this spring, including the Masters, while sitting out the semester after transferring from Iowa to Florida. At Augusta National, he was paired with Bernhard Langer as the two-time champion made his Masters farewell.
Fun Fact II: His stepfather is Dana Fry, the golf course architect who collaborated with Michael Hurdzan and Ron Whitten on Erin Hills, site of the U.S. Women’s Open two weeks ago.
Jackson Koivun 
Patrick Smith
Chapel Hill, N.C. Age: 20 How he got in the U.S. Open: Final qualifying World Amateur Golf Ranking: 2
Fun Fact I: The rising junior at Auburn, who was the national college player of the year in 2024, has already locked up a PGA Tour card thanks to PGA Tour Accelerated program. But he’s going to play another season with the Tigers before using it.
Fun Fact II: He played a practice round on Monday with Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas and is already making an impression. Said Thomas: “I love his action. He’s got a great swing. I feel like his ball flight’s really good. He seems comfortable. … I was glad Jordan and I got to play with him today. I think he’s got a very, very bright career and future ahead of him. I’m excited for his opportunity to play in here this week, and I’m sure he’ll do great things, not just this week but going forward.”
Michael La Sasso
Raleigh, N.C. Age: 21 How he got in the U.S. Open: 2025 NCAA champion World Amateur Golf Ranking: 8
Fun Fact I: Capped a memorable junior season at Ole Miss by winning the NCAA individual title … which kept him from having to go to Final Qualifying.
Fun Fact II: During this past season while playing in a tournament in Mexico, La Sasso stepped on a black sea urchin. It required hours of surgery to remove the spines from his hands and feet, then went on to finish T-15 in the event (which allowed carts).
Bryan Lee
Fairfax, Va. Age: 21 How he got in the U.S. Open: Final Qualifying World Amateur Golf Ranking: 29
Fun Fact I: Survived a 3-for-2 playoff with a pair of LIV golfers (Marc Leishman and Sebastian Munoz), to advance out of his Final Qualifying site.
Fun Fact II: Plays college golf with Ben James at Virginia, where they won the ACC title for the first time in April and then reached the NCAA Championship finals before losing to Oklahoma State.
Zachery Pollo
Lincoln, Calif. Age: 20 How he got in the U.S. Open: Local/Final Qualifying World Amateur Golf Ranking: 54
Fun Fact I: During his first year at Arizona in 2022-23, Pollo became the first Wildcat freshman to win a title in almost 20 years.
Fun Fact II: He won the 2023 California Amateur and finished his junior year this spring with a 70.17 scoring average.
Lance Simpson
Knoxville, Tenn. Age: 22 How he got in the U.S. Open: Final Qualifying World Amateur Golf Ranking: 40
Fun Fact I: Simpson, a redshirt junior at Tennessee, was the Vols’ top finishers in six of their 12 tournaments this past season.
Fun Fact II: He won the Tennessee Junior PGA Championship by eight strokes in 2020.
Cameron Tankersley
Dickson, Tenn. Age: 21 How he got in the U.S. Open: Final Qualifying World Amateur Golf Ranking: 37
Fun Fact I: Along with La Sasso, Tankersley helped lead Ole Miss to match play at the NCAA Championship last month, the first time the Rebels had advanced that far at nationals.
Fun Fact II: He says that his mom “nagged” him every year to enter the U.S. Open qualifying, and he did four previous times without any success until finally breaking through this year.
Matt Vogt 
Kathryn Riley
Indianapolis, Ind. Age: 34 How he got in the U.S. Open: Local/Final Qualifying World Amateur Golf Ranking: 2,078
Fun Fact I: Vogt works as a dentist but before going to dental school in Indiana, he grew up in Cranberry Township, Pa., and caddied for six years at Oakmont.
Fun Fact II: Vogt the college golf team at Butler and didn’t play competitively for six years before taking up the again. His first USGA Championship was the 2021 U.S. Amateur … at Oakmont.
RELATED: Matt Vogt’s amazing journey back to Oakmont
Tyler Weaver
England Age: 20 How he got in the U.S. Open: Local/Final Qualifying World Amateur Golf Ranking: 28
Fun Fact I: Before going to Florida State for school, where he just finished his sophomore year, he won the 2023 English Boys’ Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship while finishing runner-up that year in the English Amateur.
Fun Fact II: Looks to be a favorite to make the GB&I Walker Cup team that will compete in September at Cypress Point.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
