U.S. Intercollegiate winner to get PGA Tour exemption

Winners at a handful of amateur tournaments already earn exemptions into PGA Tour stops (Southern Am into the Arnold Palmer Invitational; Players Amateur into The Heritage, etc.). Now the medalist at next month's U.S. Intercollegiate at Stanford GC in Palo Alto, Calif., will get that same perk. Officials with the Reno-Tahoe Open announced they'll give the champion at Stanford GC in Palo Alto, Calif., a spot in their field this coming July, becoming the only PGA Tour event to do so.

"Not only is this an incredible opportunity for a top-level collegiate golfer to gain exposure and experience on the PGA TOUR, it's also an avenue for the tournament to create buzz in key regional markets," said Reno-Tahoe Open executive director Jana Smoley in a release. "Because this is such a unique situation for a college athlete in that it offers such an exciting and potentially life changing reward, it also presents a great opportunity to bring visitors from sought-after West Coast markets in which these athletes attend school."

The field at the 42nd edition of the U.S. Intercollegiate will include the following schools:

Arizona State, California, Denver, Fresno State, Hawaii, Long Beach State, Oregon, Oregon State, Pepperdine, San Diego State, San Francisco State, San Jose State, Stanford, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, USC, Washington, Washington State.