Roiland, Eaton, Hacker, and Mackinac Advance from Final Qualifying to U.S. Junior Amateur Championship

HASTINGS, Minn. - Mason Eaton is one of four junior golfers from Minnesota to advance to the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, which begins on July 21, via final qualifying at Emerald Greens Golf Course. The championship will be held at Trinity Forest Golf Club in Dallas, Texas — a surprise, apparently, to Eaton himself.

“I’ll be honest, I just asked Bob Boldus, the tournament director, where the Junior Am was and I had no idea. So this is pretty fun and pretty exciting,” said Eaton after his round on Thursday. He carded seven birdies and two bogeys en route to a 5-under 67, good enough for a tie for second place.

Eaton, a rising senior at Rosemount High School, took advantage of his course knowledge to perform well at Emerald Greens. “This is my home course for Rosemount High School and I’ve been lucky enough to have been pretty deep on this course a few times, so I felt relatively comfortable out here and just kinda pulled it together down the stretch,” Eaton said. “I believe I can play any golf course, but just knowing that there’s not a whole lot of trouble frees you up a little bit — might help the mental game, just kinda making birdies.”

Joining Eaton at Trinity Forest is William Roiland, a rising junior at Elk River High School, who earned medalist honors on Thursday with a 6-under 66. Roiland started on the back nine, and after a birdie on the par-five 16th hole, he pulled into the lead with three birdies and an eagle through his first seven holes.

When asked about the mental difficulty of keeping cool after a scorching start, Roiland said, “I don’t really think of it as a challenge, I mean, I played good golf to get there so I just keep playing the same. If shots come and I make birdies, I mean, they come, but otherwise I’m just trying to make pars and keep the same mindset as I did from the start.”

His approach in qualifiers is designed to produce fast starts. “I’ll say I’ll play a little more aggressive if it's a one-day qualifier because I know in a qualifier like this your scores are going to be a little lower so I’ll play a little more aggressive than a two-dayer, but I’m still trying to go down the same paths and play par golf, but take advantage of the opportunities when I get them,” Roiland said.

According to Roiland, the most important shot of the day was his drive on the ninth — his final hole. “The last hole’s pretty tough with the water right and the tight fairway, so it’s always a little nerve wracking on the last shot, but luckily I hit it good so I kind of felt stress-free coming in.”

Joey Mackinac’s route to making it through the qualifier was anything but stress-free. Mackinac was Mason Eaton’s teammate on the Rosemount golf team this past season and is heading to Bemidji State University in the fall to play college golf. On Thursday, he survived a three-for-one playoff with a par on the third hole to advance to the championship, after shooting a 4-under 68 in regulation. He is no stranger to dramatic playoff scenarios.

“For state my sophomore year, I made a putt on 18 to go into a playoff and same thing — I went par-par. So it was kind of reminiscent of that, but it was fun,” Mackinac said. On handling nerves, he added, “I kind of just used them to fuel me up and just rip driver as hard as I could on some shots and just try to calm them on every shot; take a deep breath. It was fun. It’s fun to get this opportunity.”

Unlike Eaton, Mackinac knew where the championship would take place. Speaking about Trinity Forest, he said, “I think it’s going to be in really nice condition, it’s going to be super pure — a bunch of the best junior players in the country — so it’ll be really fun to go down there.” Neither of the two Rosemount golfers has previously qualified for the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship.

Rounding out the qualifiers at Emerald Greens Golf Course on Thursday was rising Shattuck-St. Mary’s sophomore Will Hacker. He fired a 5-under 67 to tie Eaton and said he feels comfortable being under par in tournament pressure. “I think it’s just having enough rounds where you’re there and you kind of just learn how to not shy away from the moment and try to just keep your momentum going. You know, if you’re two or three under, try to get to four, five, six — you know, stuff like that. Stay aggressive,” said Hacker.

Despite not capitalizing on the back-to-back par fives on holes seven and eight, Hacker finished strong, draining a clutch putt for birdie at the last. “I started on the back nine so seven and eight — made par on both of those, which is. . . you got to birdie one of those. Coming to the last hole I had a 15-footer above the hole and just barely creeped it in the right side, so I punched my ticket,” Hacker said.

Chase Larson of Edina, Minn., and Ryan Cronin of Eden Prairie, Minn., took the first and second alternates spots, respectively, after falling to Mackinac in the playoff.

The 2025 U.S. Junior Amateur will be held July 21-26 at Trinity Forest Golf Club in Dallas, Texas. This will be the first USGA championship ever played at Trinity Forest, which was designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw and opened in 2016. The links-style course hosted the 2018 AT&T Byron Nelson, and will also host the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship in 2031.