U.S. Open: Who will be low amateur at Erin Hills?

No. 3 Brad Dalke

I don’t intend to ruffle any feathers for those involved in the Texas-Oklahoma college rivalry by placing Dalke ahead of Scheffler. In fact, I think Scheffler will have a much better career.

With that said, how many golfers are flying as high as Dalke right now?

He improved drastically from a a relatively average freshman season as a Sooner in 2015-16 to reach the summer 2016’s U.S. Amateur finals. He lost to former No. 1 amateur, Curtis Luck, but his consolation prize was serviceable: a spot in the 2017 Masters and U.S. Open fields.

His trip down Magnolia Lane might not even be his most memorable moment of 2017.

The 19-year-old won at the Stanford NCAA regional qualifier (over the player next on this list) en route to the Sooners advancing to the NCAA Finals.

He shook off a T51st in the NCAA individual stroke play race to get his putter rolling well again. Dalke anchored Oklahoma in the match play round all the way to a national championship.

He came up clutch with a 19-hole win in his quarterfinal match against Baylor. He also won the deciding point in the finals to down defending champion Oregon, who sent out Sulman Raza to try to seal it for the Ducks yet again.

Dalke has also teed it up at the PGA Tour’s Valero Texas Open, so the moment shouldn’t be too big for someone very familiar with succeeding at a USGA event.