Which is "Better" - US Amateur or NCAA Championship?

[pittpanther]

I was looking at Phil and Tiger's pedigrees, and noticed a slight difference in their amateur careers:

Phil has 3 NCAA Individual championships, and 1 US Amateur championship
Tiger has 3 US Amateur championships, and 1 NCAA Individual championship

Which is more prestigious, and why?

And I'm talking about TODAY - Of course the US Amateurs would have been a much bigger deal 50 years ago, but let's think about the more-recent past.

I think both feats by Phil and Tiger are amazing!

(by the way, it is NOT acceptable to say the US Amateur is more prestigious, solely because Tiger won 3 and Phil only won one!!! )

[Bobz007]

us am without a doubt. NCAA championship is a real great title to have but theres a reason the us am champ is invited to the masters, us open, and british open.

[Grndslmhttr3]

All college players are amateurs, but not all amateurs are college players. I think?
I don't think either is much more prestigious than the other, but I'd have to put the US Amateur over the NCAA Championship. I certainly wouldn't mind either on my resume, though.

[goblue107501]

US Amateur for sure. The field for the Amateur is comprised of a bunch of college guys, guys out of college who never went pro, and amateurs from all over the world. The field is just much deeper for the amateur since it is not limited to just college players.

As far as Tiger winning only 1 NCAA, he only played in college for 2 years.

Pretty remarkable that both won as many times as they did during that short window.

[pittpanther]

the us am champ is invited to the masters, us open, and british open.

Wow! I didn't know they received an invitation to all three...

Does the NCAA Champ receive any exemptions to any tournaments?

[microcrayfish]

US Amateur for sure, there are plenty of good amateur players that don't play college golf so the US Amateur is going to have better fields.

[sean_miller]

Since I've qualified for neither, I can't offer a valid opinion. As an observer however, I think that as time passes, a US Amateur championship would carry more weight.

[Bobz007]

Wow! I didn't know they received an invitation to all three...

A few years ago the usga started giving the NCAA champ an invitation to the US am, and also the publinx if they are eligible. Also having it on your resume will get you into about any invitation field in the country.

And the US am runner up even gets into the masters and us open for the following year if they remain an amateur.

[Shindig]

U.S. Amateur, for sure. Deeper field.

Does the NCAA Champ receive any exemptions to any tournaments?

I think there's a July NWT event that the NCAA Champ team gets into. In fact, I think it's the one where Daniel Summerhays got into on that criteria, won, and skipped his last year of college to have a year of exempt status on tour.

[tjy355]

Amateur is 36 hole medal play-in then you have to win 6 matches including a 36-hole final. That's pretty grueling.

[uttexas]

Both are great. US Amateur is more prestigious for the reasons stated previously.

[RC]

US Amatuer by a pretty wide margin. Many studies have shown winning major events requires approximately 20 years of preparation (of course there are exceptions, and this is an average type number.) 6 or 7 years is sort of the minimum time to win against the best the world has to offer in a major tournament -- there have been two or three that have won big time in such a short time (I think Gary Player claims such a short rise.) Tiger started at age 1 day most likely. We know at five he was hitting fine shots. So at 18-19 years old he had been playing good golf for at least 13 years. There are always exceptions to the normal, but not many 18 to 22 year olds have won major events. The deeper and stronger field of the US Amatuer suggest clearly it should be the stronger event.

By way of argument, why would one not ask is the the US Junior Championship not more telling than later age, larger field tournaments? Full maturity and best performance takes a few years to master.

[PEZGolf]

US Amateur for sure. The field for the Amateur is comprised of a bunch of college guys, guys out of college who never went pro, and amateurs from all over the world. The field is just much deeper for the amateur since it is not limited to just college players.

I agree with you. The field in the Amateur is much deeper and more experienced. And the other post is correct---that is why the winner gets an invte to the Masters.