2004 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship
Pre-Championship Storylines

Lance Lopez, 16, of Missouri City, Texas is the youngest competitor in the field.

On the other end of the age spectrum is Gordon Willins , 56-year-old of West Chester, Ohio, who is the oldest. Willins is a product specialist at Siemens but coached baseball and soccer from 1972-74 West Point Prep when Mike Krzyzewski was the head basketball coach. He and Coach ‘K' manned the backcourt for the Fort Belvoir Post championship basketball team. Willins played in the 1987 Public Links with 1985 champion Jim Sorenson of Minnesota and now- PGA Tour player Robert Gamez.

California has the most qualifiers with 16, followed by Texas with 13, and Florida with 12. Minnesota is fourth with nine participants.

Nine Minnesotans in the field of 156 (six qualified on June 25 at Bunker Hills Golf Club in Coon Rapids. two at sites in South Dakota and Kansas and another is an alternate). The qualifiers from Minnesota are: at Sioux Falls, S.D. -- Ryan Conn of Alexandra; at Wichita, Kan. – Tim Moody of Chisago Lakes; at Coon Rapids, Minn. – Wayne Severud of Maple Grove, Brett and Brady Swedberg of Alexandria (brothers) , Jake Warneke of Stacy, Michael Cavanaugh of Perham, and Ben Greve of Annandale and Adam DeLawyer , of Deer River, who enters the field as an alternate following the withdrawal of 2001 champion Chez Reavie , who turned professional

2002 champion Ryan Moore of Puyallup , Wash. , won the 2004 NCAA individual championship. He arrived via a ‘red-eye' flight Sunday morning after winning the Sahalee Players Championship with a record 16-under-par score in Seattle on Saturday.

Nathan Smith of Santa Cruz , Calif. is the only players in the field who competed at the 2004 U.S. Open. Smith shot 73-76 at Shinnecock Hills GC and missed the cut.

Nine of last year's final 16 are in the field again, 6 were exempt from qualifying and 3 returned through qualifying. The exempt players are Dayton Rose of Stillwater, Okla. (runner-up in 2003), Matt Every of Daytona Beach, Fla., Chris Stroud of Groves, Texas (2002 and 2003 semifinalist), Tim Kane of Simsbury, Conn., Luke List of Ringgold, Ga. and Danny Green of Jackson, Tenn. (1999 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion, 2001 Walker Cup team). The qualifiers are Tim Kunick of Bismarck, N.D., Brendan Steele of Idyllwild, Calif. , and Jason Harris of Clemmons, N.C.

Henry Liaw of Rowland Heights, Calif., the 2004 Pac 10 Conference Rookie of the Year while playing at Arizona, won the 2001 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship

Anthony Kim of La Quinta, Calif. , the 2004 National Golf Coaches Association Phil Mickelson Award winner as national Freshman of the Year while playing at Oklahoma , won the Northeast Amateur on June 27.

Two past USGA runners-up made the field through qualifying. Terrence Miskell of New Braunfels , Texas and Chip Holcombe of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., finished second at the 1990 U.S. Amateur Public Links and 1998 U.S. Mid-Amateur, respectively.

Andrew Price of Mission Viejo, Calif. , was a long way from home when he won the qualifying medal at Back Creek GC in Philadelphia , Pa. He attempted to qualify in Philadelphia because he is a member of Penn State 's team and was on campus during qualifying. Philadelphia is a three-hour drive from Penn State.   He was born in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and holds British and U.S. citizenship.

Minnesota is the only state to host all 13 USGA championships, as well as the Walker and Curtis Cup Matches and the USGA State Team Championships

The 2004 U.S. Amateur Public Links is the 33 rd USGA Championship to be held in the state of Minnesota

Three Minnesotans have won the Amateur Public Links: Lester Bolstad of Minneapolis in 1926 (still the youngest champion at age 18), Robert C. Clark of St. Paul in 1940 and Jim Sorenson of Bloomington in 1985.

Jay Choe , 20, of Korea , who plays collegiately at California-Irvine, comes from an athletic background. His father was a gold medal winner in boxing at the Asian Games and, at one time, was ranked #1 by the World Boxing Association and #2 by the World Boxing Council. The reason Jay is playing golf: “I didn't like to be hit,” he says.

Patrick Garrison , 20, of Folsom, Pa., has had cerebral palsy since birth. That hasn't kept him from competitive golf. He will play collegiately at Temple University in the fall and played four years of high school golf.

Ben Greve, 22, of Minneapolis, Minn., plays golf at 'The U' in his hometown. He will be a senior for the Golden Gophers in the fall and was a member of the 2002 NCAA Championship team. His girlfriend is Lindsey Whalen , who was a collegiate star at Minnesota and plays for the WNBA's Connecticut Sun. Friends at school call him Golf Jordan because of his basketball ability.  He will be celebrating his 23rd birthday on July 14.

Danny Green, 47, of Jackson , Tenn., is the most experienced of the field in USGA Championships. He is playing in his 12 th Public Links and 34th USGA championship overall. In addition to winning the 1999 U.S. Mid-Amateur, for players 25 and older, he was the runner-up at the 1989 U.S. Amateur and the 2001 U.S. Public Links.

Royden Heirakuji, 38, of Makawao , Hawaii is an air conditioning technician by trade. He shot 66 in the Monday qualifier for the 2003 Sony Open in Hawaii to make the field but missed the cut shooting 158.   He'll celebrate his 39th birthday on July 15.

Sean McNemar, of Culpeper, Va., turned 20 years old on July 11 (last practice day before competition began).

Dan Hosek, 40, Alexandria , Va., has worked for the last 15 years for the U.S. Army at the Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate. The group works on advancing the state of the art in night vision technology and providing the military with the best gear possible. He also enjoys designing quilts with his wife as well as playing the guitar and songwriting.

Sam Hulsey , 31, of Gainesville, Ga., won Georgia Tech 's Player of the Year Award in 1995 but his most memorable moments in golf are playing with Jack Nicklaus , David Duval and Tiger Woods on separate occasions.

Jay Reynolds, 21, of Austin, Texas is playing in his third Amateur Public Links but he has an unusual claim to fame. He is a three-time International One-Minute String-Off Champion (tying knots in a string with one hand). And, he's a vegetarian.