Louis Dobbelaar playing well during the US summer – file photo
Three Australians are set to tee it up in the 36 stroke-play phase of the US Amateur Championship at the Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont in Pennsylvania when the most significant event in men’s amateur golf gets underway on Monday August 8th.
Brisbane’s Louis Dobbelaar, Victorian Luka Michel and Kuangyu (Tony) Chen will all get the chance to fly the Australian flag as they look to emulate the deeds of previous Australian winners of the event, Nick Flanagan (2003) and Curtis Luck (2016).
Dobbelaar is by some way the highest world ranked amateur of the trio although just to have made it into this week’s field requires some serious credentials.
Still only 19 years of age the Brisbane golfer, Dobbelaar, is in the middle of a successful run of events in the summer of amateur events in the USA having won the Dogwood Invitational in Atlanta and the North and South Amateur at Pinehurst.
A winner of the New Zealand Amateur Championship at the age of just 15 and twice the Queensland Amateur Champion, Dobbelaar is in the field as a result of his world ranking and given his current form his performance this week will be watched with interest.
Michel, 27, became the first international player to win the U.S. Mid-Amateur in 2019 when he defeated Joseph Deraney in the 36-hole final at Colorado Golf Club.
He went on to play in the U.S. Open and the Masters in 2020. Michel, who earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Melbourne, won the Australian Masters of the Amateurs on Jan. 8 and tied for third in the Riversdale Cup on March 7. In 2019, he tied for 21st in the Australian Open.
Chen was born in Shenzhen in China and moved to Australia at the age of 8 where he became a citizen. He attended the IMG Academy in the US before accepting a scholarship to the University of California Berkeley.
Chen recently won the Silverado Amateur Championship in California.
The demanding Oakmont Country Club layout has been the venue for several US Opens, the most recent being in 2016 when Dustin Johnson won by three shots.
The leading 64 qualifiers at the completion of 36 holes get to match off in head to head encounters before the final on Sunday.
