Hossler (pictured), the 17-year-old Californian who held the outright lead in the Open during the second round in San Francisco, is a very good bet to be in the field for the 2012 U.S. Amateur, which will be played Aug. 13-19 at Cherry Hills Country Club and CommonGround Golf Course.

Any amateur who qualifies for the 2012 U.S. Open is exempt from qualifying for the U.S. Am. And considering Hossler not only earned a spot in the U.S. Open but made the cut and finished 29th overall, all he has to do to play in the national amateur is to enter by the June 27 deadline.

The same, by the way, goes for the low amateur at the Olympic Club, Jordan Spieth. It’s also the case for the other amateurs competitors in the Open, including 14-year-old Andy Zhang, the youngest player in the history of the U.S. Open.

Obviously, all of those exemptions depend on the U.S. Open qualifiers remaining amateurs for the next couple of months. Spieth, who as a freshman led the University of Texas to the NCAA title earlier this month, indicated on Sunday he plans to return to college and help the Longhorns “make another run.”

Patrick Cantlay, runner-up in the U.S. Amateur last year and low amateur at the 2012 Masters, is another matter. After completing his sophomore season at UCLA, he will make his professional debut at this week’s Travelers Championship on the PGA Tour.

The decision “was a combination of being comfortable with being a professional and taking it to the next level,” said Cantlay, who recently won the Ben Hogan Award, given to the top men’s player in college and amateur events over the previous 12 months.

Cantlay, of course, made a big splash last summer by shooting a 60 in the Travelers Championship, one of four PGA Tour events in which he finished in the top 25.

Spieth, meanwhile, was the top-ranked college golfer in the nation for much of the season and he won three college events as a freshman.

As for Hossler, whether to return to college is not a concern for the foreseeable future. You see, he still has his senior year remaining at Santa Margarita Catholic High School near Los Angeles before becoming a University of Texas golfer.

At the U.S. Open, Hossler drew considerable national TV attention, especially before dropping back with a final-round 76. The fans at the 18th hole on Sunday gave him a standing ovation.

“When he looks back” on this week, “he will get chills,” Spieth said of Hossler. “… Beau was leading the U.S. Open as a 17-year-old amateur. That’s out of this world.”

Despite being only 17, Hossler already has competed in the U.S. Amateur twice, including as a 14-year-old in 2009. He made it to the second round of match play last year, when Spieth was a quarterfinalist.

And in competing in the last two U.S. Opens, Hossler became the first high school golfer to qualify for the event in consecutive years since Mason Rudolph in 1950-51.
 

But for golf fans eager to whet their appetite for the U.S. Amateur, which this summer will be contested in Colorado for just the fourth time ever, next week provides an opportunity.

Several of the world’s most heralded amateurs will be on display as many sports fans’ attention turns to the Masters, which begins April 5 at Augusta National. Six amateurs in all have been invited to compete, including four of the top seven players in the World Amateur Golf Rankings.

Not all of them will be on hand when Cherry Hills Country Club hosts the U.S. Amateur Aug. 13-19, with CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora serving as the second site for the stroke-play portion of the event Aug. 13-14. But it’s a good bet some of them will be coming to Colorado.

Here’s the amateur lineup for the Masters, and what their exemptions are based upon: Patrick Cantlay (2011 U.S. Amateur runner-up), Kelly Kraft (U.S. Amateur champion), Corbin Mills (U.S. Amateur Public Links champion), Hideki Matsuyama (Asian Amateur champion the last two years), Randal Lewis (U.S. Mid-Amateur champion) and Bryden Macpherson (British Amateur champion).

Kraft is expected to turn pro after the Masters, and Macpherson is likely to follow suit.

If he hasn’t joined the professional ranks before the U.S. Amateur, Cantlay (pictured) figures to be the biggest draw at Cherry Hills. And why not, considering the way the Californian exploded on the golf scene as a teenager. Nineteen months ago, Cantlay came to Saddle Rock Golf Course in Aurora to qualify for the U.S. Amateur, and ended up sharing medalist honors with Coloradan Wyndham Clark.

At the 2010 Amateur itself, Cantlay made it all the way to the semifinals, where he lost to eventual champion Peter Uihlein. And last June, the then-19-year-old from UCLA really hit the big time by being low amateur in the U.S. Open (tying for 21st overall) and shooting an amateur-record 60 in the second round of a PGA Tour event. Later in the summer, the reigning college player of the year lost to underdog Kraft in the championship match of the U.S. Amateur.

All told, he’s made the cut in five of his six PGA Tour starts, has posted four top-25 finishes, and next week will mark his first Masters. He remains the No. 1-ranked amateur in the world.

“I was really fortunate to accomplish so many things on the course last year, but the way I look at it, it’s not too difficult to put out of my mind what happened,” Cantlay recently told Masters.com. “I always look forward to what’s coming up, like my opportunity to play the Masters Tournament, as opposed to what I have done.”

The UCLA sophomore, who turned 20 this month, has spots reserved in the Masters, U.S. Open and the British Open, provided he remains an amateur. But all those events fall before the U.S. Amateur, which means he could play in the first three major championships, then turn pro. One issue that could push Cantlay toward becoming a professional this summer is the recently announced changes to the PGA Tour qualifying process. Beginning next year, players no longer will be able to earn a PGA Tour card through Q-school, so this fall is the last chance to have that opportunity.

While Cantlay may be the amateur headliner at the Masters, Matsuyama was the low amateur at Augusta National last year. He’s currently the No. 4-ranked amateur in the world. Mills is No. 5 and Kraft No. 7

As 1954 U.S. Amateur champion Arnold Palmer noted recently, “I don’t think people understand how good some of these amateurs are.”

U.S. Amateur Looking for Volunteers: Officials from this summer’s U.S. Amateur are looking for additional volunteers, with more marshals needed than any other position.

All volunteers are required to work at least three or four shifts, and must purchase volunteer uniforms for $100. Opportunities are available at both Cherry Hills Country Club and CommonGround Golf Course. A total of about 1,000 volunteers will be needed.

Those who wish to sign up can do so at 2012usamateur.com.

Volunteers will receive a gift certificate for a complementary round of golf at CommonGround, the CGA/CWGA-owned course in Aurora.