Players to watch at the 2024 U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine National Golf Club

It's time for the premier men's amateur championship in the world.

The 2024 U.S. Amateur got underway Monday at Hazeltine National Golf Club and Chaska Town Course, both located just west of Minneapolis. The field of 312 players will complete 36 holes of stroke play, 18 at each course, before a cut is made to the top 64, who will advance to match play at Hazeltine beginning Wednesday. This will be the 124th U.S. Amateur.

Nineteen of the top 20 players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking are in the field, including No. 1 Gordon Sargent, No. 2 Jackson Koivun and No. 3 Luke Clanton, who are paired together in the opening two rounds.

Last year, Nick Dunlap topped Neal Shipley 4 and 3 at Cherry Hills Country Club in Colorado to become the second player ever to win a U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Amateur, joining none other than Tiger Woods.

Here's a look at 10 players to watch at the 2024 U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine.

Luke Clanton

Clanton became the first amateur to record consecutive top 10s on the PGA Tour since 1958. He finished his sophomore season at Florida State as the highest-ranked player in the NCAA golf rankings and has only built on that this summer.

David Ford

Ford made two PGA Tour starts this season at The RSM Classic and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The lefty represented the United States at the 2023 World Amateur Team Championship in the United Arab Emirates and helped the victorious U.S. team in the 2023 Walker Cup.

Ian Gilligan

Gilligan has risen to No. 9 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking thanks in part to his big summer, but he capped it with a thrilling 29-hole win in the championship match of the Western Amateur.

Trevor Gutschewski

Gutschewski, 17, became the first player from Nebraska to win the U.S. Junior Amateur with his 4-and-3 win over Tyler Watts in the 36-hole final on Oakland Hills' South Course. Gutschewski is the son of PGA Tour golfer Scott Gutschewski.

Ben James

The 2023 Phil Mickelson Award winner finished runner-up at the NCAA Championships in May at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa and is the first two-time All-American in the history of Virginia men's golf.

Jackson Koivun

Koivun, who was a quarterfinalist last year at the U.S. Amateur, went on to sweep the major college golf awards in his freshman season at Auburn, where he helped the Tigers win their first national championship in school history.

Gordon Sargent

Sargent has long been the top-ranked amateur in the world, and for good reason. He also has a PGA Tour card locked up for when he finishes his senior year at Vanderbilt, and arguably, the only thing that could make his resume better at this point is a U.S. Amateur victory.

Calum Scott

Scott finished as the low amateur at the 2024 Open Championship last month at Royal Troon in Scotland, and the rising senior at Texas Tech has the game to make a deep run in match play.

Preston Summerhays

Summerhays, the winner of the 2019 U.S. Junior Amateur, has played in six U.S. Amateurs. He's also No. 1 in the PGA Tour University rankings for the Class of 2025 as he enters his senior season at Arizona State.

Jackson Van Paris

Van Paris became the youngest player since Bob Jones in 1916 to win a first-round match in the U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach in 2018 at the age of 14. The rising senior at Vanderbilt finished runner-up at the 2024 North & South Amateur Championship.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Players to watch at the 2024 U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine National Golf Club