Every time someone brings up the Players Amateur, at least for the next few months, Steve Wilmot knows it’s going to sting a little bit. After 20 years on the summer amateur calendar, the Players Amateur won’t return in 2020.
Wilmot, president of the Heritage Classic Foundation, called it a tough decision for the foundation but by no means an abrupt one. Ultimately, however, the decision was made to focus more energy on the RBC Heritage, the PGA Tour event conducted each April at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head, South Carolina.
“If we’re not successful in April, we can’t do anything,” said Wilmot, who is also the tournament director for the RBC Heritage. “That’s our focus.”
The Players Amateur was first played in 2000 at Belfair Golf Club in Bluffton, South Carolina, but moved to nearby Berkeley Hall in 2012. It remained there through 2019. The Players was the collective brainchild of Duke Delcher and Tom McKnight, two former Walker Cup players who were active on the mid-amateur circuit. The two dreamed it up on a cross-country flight to the 1999 U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach.
“The flight was too long, we had too much time on our hands, and we came up with the tournament somewhere between Savannah and San Francisco,” Delcher told Golfweek in 2014.
The concept of an event created by players for players drove the tournament for two decades. Food and beverage, housing and facilities – and initially, tournament entry fee – were all taken care of for entrants.
Perhaps most notably, the winner received an exemption to the RBC Heritage the following spring. Tour starts are worth their weight in gold for amateur players – particularly in a limited-field event, as the 132-man Heritage is. The sponsor exemption ear-marked for the Players champion was one of only eight awarded.
The tournament committee added other layers to the event, too. In 2019, retired Mackenzie Tour president Jeff Monday spoke to the field at a players dinner and discussed competing at the next level. Six months later, at the final stage of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School, a player who had been in the room referenced that experience as being one of the most vital in his transition to professional golf.
“(Monday) said the most important thing was inside of 50 yards and I took that to heart and that’s part of what I really practiced and mentally focused on,” Daniel Wetterich said. “It allowed me to get to where I am right now.”
The past champions list reflects the caliber of field that the Players annually drew. Ben Curtis won the inaugural event in 2000 and three years later won the British Open. Rickie Fowler, Bill Haas and Jonathan Moore also are past champions.
The first round of the #playersam is underway and @RBC_Heritage volunteer Henry Pratt is on the first tee. Come out, say hi and watch the world's best amateur golfers. Admission is free! pic.twitter.com/9h1FOG8Dok
— HCF (@HCFGolf) July 11, 2019
In discussing ways to keep the Players on the calendar, Wilmot said the foundation explored taking a year off or rotating venues. He made phone calls to prominent college coaches seeking advice and, eventually, softening the blow of the event coming off the calendar. Ultimately, it was a business decision aimed at strengthening the RBC Heritage so that the foundation can continue to give back to charity and help drive the Hilton Head economy.
“There’s certainly a personal side,” Wilmot said. “You never want to see something fail – by no means did it fail, but from a business side we need to move on.”
Wilmot went nowhere fast during tournament week, which traditionally fell in early July, and clearly relished that pace. For him, the Players was about creating and cultivating relationships with the young men who would eventually become PGA Tour stars. He would stop and chat with anyone on the Berkeley Hall grounds throughout the week and joked that just because he had eaten lunch with one player at noon didn’t mean he wouldn’t fill a plate with another an hour later.
Wilmot was a friendly face who became synonymous with the tournament, even away from Bluffton. On site at the RBC Canadian Open the week after the Players, he would field inquiries about tournament week: Who won? How did it go? How did the Georgia Tech guys do this year?
“It took its toll on me for sure and it will,” Wilmot said of ending this chapter, “because it will be a tough year knowing there will be many people asking about it and reaching out about it.”
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