July 2026 - Back to the Bev

As Western Am returns, Beau Hossler reflects on his 2014 victory over Xander Schauffele
This article appeared in the July 2026 edition of Chicago District Golfer.
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Photographs by Charles Cherney

2024 Western Amateur champion Beau Hossler

It’s not often, if ever, that Beau Hossler takes time to reflect on his past successes. He’s too busy with his day job as a professional golfer. But with the 124th Western Amateur returning to Beverly Country Club July 27–Aug. 1, the 31-year-old Hossler allowed himself to reminisce about his 2014 win on the Chicago track.

“Golf is such an eyes-forward sport,” he said. “But it’s cool to think about it. That was a special time.”

When he was one of the world’s best amateurs, Hossler outlasted a who’s who of future pros on his way to victory. All four of his wins in match play came against players now on the PGA Tour. In the final, Hossler won six of the last seven holes to beat Xander Schauffele, a rival of his from their days on the junior circuit in Southern California.

“You don’t know it at the time, of course, but there were so many great players at that tournament who have gone on to compete at the highest level,” said Hossler, a native of Mission Viejo. “Xander and I started playing against each other when we were 10 or 11 years old on munis around San Diego and Orange County. At the time, you don’t know what’s going to happen later, but it’s cool to see what we both have done.”

Schauffele is one of three major champions from that year’s Sweet 16, along with Scottie Scheffler, the top-ranked player in the world, and Bryson DeChambeau. Entering this year’s U.S. Open, the three of them owned a combined eight major titles. Four others, including Illinois alums Brian Campbell and Nick Hardy, are PGA Tour winners.

 Along with Hossler, the 2014 Western Am Sweet 16 also featured Bryson DeChambeau, Nick Hardy, Lucas Herbert, Xander Schauffele, Doug Ghim and Scottie Scheffler, among others.

“Winning the Western Amateur was very meaningful because it validated to me that I belonged with the best players,” said Hossler, who also qualified for the Sweet 16 in 2013 at The Alotian Club in Roland, Arkansas. “You have to play a lot of good golf to win that tournament. It’s not something you can fake. That tournament is a test of endurance and holds you accountable to execute and stay focused for six days.”

Among the highlights of Hossler’s enviable amateur career was tying for 29th at the 2012 U.S. Open at 17 years old and earning the Fred Haskins Award as a junior at the University of Texas, where he was teammates with Arlington Heights native Doug Ghim, the medalist at the 2014 Western Amateur. He turned pro in 2016 and joined the PGA Tour in 2018. As of mid-May, he totaled 63 top 25s, 19 top 10s and four second-place finishes in 243 events. In 2024, Hossler lost in a playoff at the Sanderson Farms Championship.

“I’ve played some good golf, but I know I’m capable of more,” Hossler said. “I’m fortunate to be playing golf on the PGA Tour, but I want to win tournaments. I’m still relatively young and have a lot of runway. Golf is a sport you can play for a long time, if you stay healthy. There’s so much more I want to accomplish.”

Matt Harness is an award-winning golf freelance writer and a frequent contributor to Chicago District Golfer.

While Hossler has enjoyed a successful PGA Tour career, he has yet to notch a victory.

Beverly Renovation Revives Ross
For the first time since completing its Master Restoration Project, Beverly Country Club will welcome the best amateurs in the world, July 27–Aug. 1, for the playing of the 124th Western Amateur. It’s the tournament’s third visit to Chicago’s South Side and first since 2014 when Beau Hossler defeated Xander Schauffele in the final match.

Players – and fans – will be treated to a golf course that more closely resembles what Golden Age architect Donald Ross had in mind when he re-tooled George O’Neil’s original design in 1919. Starting in 2002 and under the direction of golf course architects Ron Prichard and Tyler Rae, who specialize in Ross renovations, Beverly recovered many of the features associated with the prolific Scotsman, whose fingerprints are all over some of the top-rated tracks in North America.

“We have an engaged membership with a high degree of golf IQ,” said Andrew Lewis, who served as Grounds Chair during the second phase of the plan. “We educated the members on the vision, and we were able to unlock the full potential of this course.”

Tree removal exposed the natural, undulating land movement and widened playing corridors. Greens and bunkers were expanded, sharpening the teeth of the course. Untouched was the brilliant layout of holes.

“Nobody was better at routing golf courses and creating beautiful balance,” said Prichard, considered one of the leading Ross restorers and the first architect involved in the project. “All of the original Ross elements remain. All we did was clean them up a bit.”

Rae joined Prichard in 2012, and they began work in the summer of 2019. The course reopened the following summer to rave reviews.

“The Beverly project was very enticing due to the nature of the tumbling land in a very flat region, the beautiful and historic greens that have stood the test of time, the sandy loam the course sits upon and the sublime routing of the golf holes on the property,” Rae said. “It still defends par at the greens with the fun and exciting flagstick locations and with the stern bunkering.”

Nobody is under any illusion that Beverly will be able to overwhelm the talented Western Amateur field. For one, it stretches to 7,063 yards, short by any objective measure. But there’s belief that the course presents its own challenges and is well-suited for match play.

“The test will be on the approach to the green and recovery shots around it,” Lewis said. “There are great strategic options off the tee and on the green complexes.”

Rae pointed to as many as nine holes that are ideal for match play, including the short par-3 12th, the short par-4 14th and the lengthy par-3 17th.

Beverly is one of three Ross courses in the Chicago area frequented by the Western Golf Association. Skokie Country Club in Glencoe and Exmoor Country Club in Highland Park have hosted a combined five Western Amateurs since 2010. Jase Summy, of Keller, Texas, won the tournament last year at Skokie.

“We take a lot of pride in the history of our club,” Lewis said. “We are a golf-focused club, and we invested in our main asset, which is the course. We are excited to have the next wave of [amateurs] playing this event here.”
—Matt Harness