Tag: Western Amateur

With no sponsorship, Senior PGA marked the end of an era in this part of Michigan

Tears were welling in his eyes as this columnist wrote about the end.

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. — When the final putt dropped in the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at the Golf Club of Harbor Shores on May 26 — ironically, the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend and won by England’s Richard Bland — there might have been a few tears running down cheeks of golfers and golf fans in the Michigan and Indiana region known as Michiana.

You can count mine among them. Tears are already welling in my eyes as I write.

On and off since 1963 — with some breaks in between — driving any compass point in Michiana into southwestern Michigan’s glorious fruit belt to watch this grand game has been a relaxing and enjoyable experience.

Watching future greats play in the Western Amateur at Point O’Woods Golf & Country Club near Millburg and then seeing many of them return many years later to compete in the Senior PGA at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor — two great courses in Berrien County separated by a little under eight miles — have provided wonderful bookends to almost a half-century of golf memories.

It doesn’t matter whether the trip lasted 42 miles from South Bend via M-140 and then down Territorial Road into Millburg and a short jaunt north up Roslin Road to Point O’Woods, the tree-lined design of noted architect Robert Trent Jones Sr. that was home to 41 Western Amateur championships, 38 in a row beginning in 1971.

The same is also true of the 40-mile drive from South Bend via the St. Joseph Valley Parkway (U.S. 31) through acres and acres of farmlands to Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor. Situated on reclaimed Whirlpool Corporation properties through which the Paw Paw River meanders and with three holes built along the dunes of Lake Michigan, this Jack Nicklaus design hosted its sixth and final Senior PGA May 23-26. Whirlpool, parent of Kitchenaid, announced they would not continue their sponsorship of the event.

Now, our future golfing springs and summers will never be the same. To paraphrase “Caddyshack” greenskeeper Carl Spackler (actor Bill Murray): “Au Revoir, Golfers.”

My first visit to Point O’Woods occurred during the “Sweet Sixteen” weekend of the 1975 tournament when another assigned staffer at the Niles Daily Star could not work. The winner was the late Andy Bean, a 6-foot-4 recent Florida graduate who, we all learned, once bit the cover off a golf ball after three-putting during a college match against Jay Haas.

Bean, who beat Randy Simmons 1 up for the Western title, enjoyed a memorable PGA Tour career as did others from the “Sweet Sixteen” that year — Peter Jacobsen, Mike Reid and Curtis Strange. Another “Sweet Sixteen” member that year was Fred Ridley, a Gators teammate of Bean who later won the U.S. Amateur, became a lawyer and is now the chairman of Augusta National and the Masters.

The late Tom Weiskopf won the first Western Amateur at the Point in 1963, and Strange’s 1974 “double” — he won 72-hole stroke-play medal before winning four 18-hole matches for the overall title — followed Ben Crenshaw’s 1973 title sweep.

Tom Weiskopf, shown here at the Augusta National Golf Course during the 1983 Masters, won the first Western Amateur in 1963. Mandatory Credit: Lannis Waters -The Augusta Chronicle via USA TODAY NETWORK

That “double” would later be matched by Rick Fehr (1982), Scott Verplank (1985), Phil Mickelson (1991), Joel Kribel (1996), Steve Scott (1999), Bubba Dickerson (2001) and Danny Lee, whose 2008 “double” coincided with the end of the Point’s 38-year run. When the Western Golf Association returned in 2019, Canadian Garrett Rank, a 31-year-old NHL referee, beat Daniel Wetterich, 3 and 2, for the title.

Mickelson, an Arizona State golfer who won on the PGA Tour earlier in 1991, completed his Western Amateur “double” by beating 19-year-old University of Texas up-and-comer Justin Leonard, 2 and 1. Leonard, who later won the 1997 Open Championship and made the winning putt for Capt. Crenshaw’s winning 1999 U.S. Ryder Cup team, completed a Western Amateur “double” of a different sort – back-to-back titles, matching Hal Sutton’s effort in 1979 and ’80. Leonard won titles in 1992 and ’93, and in 2018, he was named a special honorary member of the Point.

In 1994, the Western Amateur was won by an 18-year-old recent high school graduate – Eldrick Tont “Tiger” Woods, who then was told by father Earl to sign autographs for the dozens of African-American youngsters who followed him.

You just never knew who you would encounter walking “The Point.” In 1991, NBA great Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls was paired for the first two rounds with Mickelson and local Chris Smith of Rochester, Ind., a former Western Junior champion. Baseball home-run smasher Mark McGwire played the first two rounds of the 2004 tournament with current PGA Tour member Kevin Kisner.

And, yes, that was former Masters champion Craig Stadler, a 1973 “Sweet Sixteen” qualifier, carrying the bag for son Kevin during the hot and humid days of the 1998 tournament.

Johnny Miller, then NBC’s lead golf analyst, shared his microphone skills for WSJM radio’s broadcasts during son Andy’s “Sweet Sixteen” championship matches in 1997 and ’99.

And who can forget the 1985 sighting of a Golden Bear? Nicklaus, then on a diet, flew up daily from Dublin, Ohio, to watch son Jackie play that year. While in Millburg, Jack cheated on his diet, enjoying the homemade butter pecan ice cream sold by the first tee. The following spring, Nicklaus donned the Masters green jacket for a sixth time.

Jack Nicklaus smiles after teeing off on the fourth hole during the Champions for Change Golf Challenge at Harbor Shores Golf Club in Benton Harbor, Mich., Aug. 10, 2010.

Nicklaus later returned to design Harbor Shores, and for its grand opening on Aug. 10, 2010, he invited Miller, Tom Watson and Arnold Palmer to tour the course for a charity skins event. When Miller pulled out a wedge instead of a putter on the multi-tiered, 10,500-square foot green on the 10th hole to execute his remaining 102 feet to the pin, Nicklaus stomped down the hill, dropped a ball and, without lining it up, putted it up the terrain and into the cup — much to the delight of Palmer, Watson and the more than 5,000 fans in attendance.

Two years later, England’s Roger Chapman totaled 13-under 271 to beat John Cook, Hale Irwin, Bernhard Langer and others for the first Senior PGA Championship title at Harbor Shores. In 2014, Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie totaled the same score for a four-stroke victory over Watson, who edged out Langer and Jay Haas by two more.

In 2016, Rocco Mediate of Greensburg, Pa., shot 19-under 265 to beat Montgomerie by three strokes and Langer and Brandt Jobe by five, reinforcing Mediate’s love affair with southwestern Michigan golf courses that dates back to 1983; That year he pre-qualified for the Western Amateur at Dowagiac’s Hampshire Country Club and then made the 36-hole cut. The following summer, Mediate would lose the final to John Inman with both golfers wearing plus-fours.

England’s Paul Broadhurst would match Mediate’s winning total in 2018 to beat Tim Petrovic by four shots as nine golfers, including Montgomery, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Jerry Kelly and Scott McCarron, shot 10-under or better for four rounds.

Two years after the 2020 return to Harbor Shores was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic, New Zealand’s Steven Alker shot an 8-under 63 in the final round for a 16-under 268 total that was three strokes better than Canada’s Stephen Ames and six ahead of Langer.

Steve Stricker, a 1989 “Sweet Sixteen” qualifier at the Western Amateur, was expected to play in that 2022 Senior PGA after captaining the U.S. Ryder Cup team to victory in 2021 over the European team captained by Ireland’s Padraig Harrington. But Stricker tested positive for COVID-19 and had to withdraw.

Last year at the Senior PGA held at Fields Ranch East in Frisco, Texas, the 57-year-old Stricker and Harrington renewed their rivalry as players, shooting 18-under 270s before Stricker won his sixth senior major title on the first playoff hole. The Top 10 included Alker, Jimenez, Stewart Cink, Y.E. Yang, Darren Clarke and Vijay Singh. All of them — and many others from past Western Amateurs at the Point — were in this year’s farewell field at Harbor Shores.

Anyone have a hanky to spare?

Kazuma Kobori wins 121st Western Amateur, captures Elite Amateur Series title

With the victory, it also gives Kobori the 2023 Elite Amateur Series title.

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Kazuma Kobori and Christiaan Maas were locked in a battle when they came to the 17th hole at North Shore Country Club.

The duo were in the final stages of playing their sixth round of golf in three days, this one being for the Western Amateur title in Glenview, Illinois. Kobori, a 21-year-old from New Zealand, also had an Elite Amateur Series championship on the line.

Maas, a rising sophomore at Texas from South Africa, bogeyed the par-4 17th, giving Kobori a 1 up lead. However, on the 18th hole, Kobori drilled a 20-footer for birdie allowing him to capture the 121st Western Amateur title on Saturday, claiming one of the biggest events in amateur golf.

“For me to be holding this (trophy) right now is unreal,” Kobori said. “I was pretty nervous, and thought I’d try to give it a run. Christiaan putted so well all day I figured I needed to give it a go and I’m just glad it went in.”

With the victory, it also gives Kobori the 2023 Elite Amateur Series title, meaning myriad rewards. He will earn a PGA Tour exemption to be announced, an exemption into the 2023 U.S. Amateur, one 2024 Korn Ferry Tour start and an exemption into final qualifying for the 2024 U.S. Open. Alabama’s Nick Dunlap led by seven points heading into the Western Amateur. Dunlap fell in the quarterfinals of match play.

Kobori finished ninth after 72 holes of stroke play. He knocked out Mac McClear and then Carson Bacha on Friday to advance to the semifinal round Saturday morning. There, he took care of 2022 U.S. Mid-Amateur champ Matthew McClean 6 and 5, then he survived Saturday afternoon to win 1 up.

Austin Greaser captures 120th Western Amateur with come-from-behind victory

Greaser trailed by two with eight holes to play.

Austin Greaser was close to capturing the Western Amateur title last year.

He made a run into the semifinals, losing to eventual champion Michael Thorbjornsen, but Greaser wanted more. He shot a 6-under 278 total in stroke play, at one point thinking he missed out on the 16-player field for match play. A couple of late bogeys helped push him into the 7-for-2 playoffs to get into the match-play portion. He got the 15th seed, and it didn’t stop there.

Greaser, from Vandalia, Ohio, and playing collegiately at North Carolina, came from behind in the championship match, winning four straight holes on the back side to win 1 up and capture the 120th Western Amateur at Exmoor Country Club in Highland Park, Illinois. Greaser was 2 down with eight to play against Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira, a senior at Arkansas, but he proceeded to win four straight holes with birdies and captured the match with a clutch up and down on the 18th.

He’s the fourth Tar Heel to win the Western Amateur, the first since Greg Parker in 1986.

“Just a lot of hard work. Just to see it come to fruition, it means a lot,” Greaser said. ”

Greaser’s victory came after three grueling days of golf. It started with 36 holes of stroke play plus the playoff on Thursday, then two match play rounds Friday and Saturday.

He was named honorable mention on Golfweek‘s All-America team following his junior season at North Carolina. He won twice, including the NCAA Yale Regional. He was an All-ACC selection, as well.

A week from Monday, Greaser will return to the U.S. Amateur stage at The Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, New Jersey. Last year at Oakmont, he made the 36-hole match play final last year, falling to James Piot.

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A new alliance could rock the amateur game. Which seven events are teaming up and what’s at stake?

Seven of the top summer amateur tournaments in the nation have joined forces to form the Elite Amateur Golf Series, where top point earners from the events will earn exemptions into select USGA, PGA and Korn Ferry Tour events. Prior to the official …

Seven of the top summer amateur tournaments in the nation have joined forces to form the Elite Amateur Golf Series, where top point earners from the events will earn exemptions into select USGA, PGA and Korn Ferry Tour events.

Prior to the official announcement expected on Tuesday, the Elite Amateur Golf Series has been rolling out the names of the tournaments that will make up the coalition, adding, “The Best of the Best Amateur Golfers. Many will try, but only a few can truly be elite.”

The seven tournaments which will make up the Elite Amateur Golf Series include the Southern Amateur, Sunnehanna Amateur, Northeast Amateur, North and South Amateur, Trans-Miss Amateur, Pacific Coast Amateur and Western Amateur.

“These tournaments have a long history of hosting the best players at the best venues producing the best competition,” according to the EAGS promotional video.

Much like PGA TOUR University Global Rankings, the Elite Amateur Golf Series provides another path for top amateurs to gain exemptions into professional events based on season-long performance. The Elite Amateur Golf Series will combine the seven tournaments into a collective competition called the Elite Amateur Cup. The player with the highest amount of World Amateur Golf Ranking points earned from these events will be named the Elite Amateur Cup champion, earning exemptions into select professional tournaments.

(Note: Amateurgolf.com is a partner of Golfweek.)

Here’s a look at the events that have teamed up:

Michael Thorbjornsen follows course record with Western Amateur medal; match play begins

Michael Thorbjornsen landed atop the bracket at the Western Amateur, considered one of the most grueling amateur tournaments of the summer.

Michael Thorbjornsen has put his name in the deep record books kept at Glen View Golf Club in Golf, Illinois. In the second round of the Western Amateur, the Stanford freshman fired a bogey-free 8-under 62 at Glen View. No one has scored better in the club’s 124-year history.

Thorbjornsen came back on Thursday with rounds of 70-67 and now is safely on to the 16-man bracket with a stroke-play medal around his neck.

The double-round days continue from here.

Thorbjornsen, of Wellesley, Massachusetts, landed at 13 under after 72 holes of stroke play in what is often considered one of the most grueling amateur golf tournaments of the summer. That put him one shot ahead of David Ford, a three-time AJGA Invitational winner last year, and Walker Cupper Pierceson Coody, the 2020 Western Amateur champion.

The names of the 16 men still standing after four rounds makes for a distinguished list. It also includes Sunnehanna Amateur champion Trent Phillips, a senior at Georgia, plus Coody’s Walker Cup teammate Ricky Castillo.

Western Amateur: Match-play bracket

Beware of Castillo, the Florida junior, as this tournament wears on. He was undefeated at the Walker Cup in May and has advanced to the semifinals in each of his past two starts at the Western.

Pepperdine’s Joe Highsmith also made the bracket, as did Gordon Sargent, an incoming Vanderbilt player who advanced to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Junior Amateur last week.

Four players tied at 6 under for the final two spots, and after a playoff, Johnny Keefer and Maxwell Moldovan claimed them. It’s a sweet bit of redemption for Moldovan, who recently won the Southern Amateur, after he found himself in the same situation at this tournament a year ago but failed to advance.

The Sweet 16 and quarterfinal rounds will be played on Friday with the semifinal and final rounds following on Saturday.

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Pierceson Coody earns Western Amateur title after marathon week

Pierceson Coody prevailed at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana, dispatching Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen in the final match, 2 and 1.

Pierceson Coody had climbed into his hotel room bed by 6:30 p.m., on Friday night and he didn’t move again. He was already six rounds into the Western Amateur and faced the possibility of a third consecutive 36-hole day on Saturday.

This is why they call the Western one of the most grueling events of the summer.

In the end, Coody prevailed at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana, warming up as the day went on before eventually dispatching Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen in the afternoon’s final match, 2 and 1.

Pierceson Coody with his dad Kyle and mom Debbie after winning the Western Amateur. (Western Golf Association photo)

It was a soggy week in Indiana, with constant rain – or the threat of rain – impacting most of the championship. Coody had his dad Kyle on the bag, and he endured a 138-hole workout right alongside his son. Both were grateful for a push cart by Saturday because, as Pierceson said, “carrying it would have been insane – brutal.”

If there’s a man who knows the weight a Western Amateur title carries, it’s Kyle. He played the event in the 1980s – played many events on the summer amateur circuit, in fact – and knows “everything about the Western Am and what it means. And what it means to (Pierceson).”

“All these amateur events we keep coming back to,” Pierceson Coody said, “like (Point O’Woods) was last year, that’s where he played this tournament. It’s so cool being able to have him with me and the experience of just playing high-level competitive golf he brings.”

Coody landed in 10th on the stroke-play leaderboard after rounds of 71-71-73-69. From there, he had to take the rest of the week in chunks.

“You have to play a mind game with yourself,” he said. “Like, ‘Alright, I’m going to play 18.’”

In the very first match against Alexander Yang, Coody was 2 down through 11 and felt his game wasn’t there. But a birdie on No. 12 followed by a par on No. 13 and then another chip-in par on No. 13 allowed him to square it. He won on the 17th hole.

Other than at the NCAA Championship and the U.S. Amateur, there aren’t many other amateur events that feature match play. Coody was part of the Texas team that finished runner-up at the 2019 NCAA Championship. He made it to the third round of match play at the U.S. Amateur last year.

After the match against Yang at Crooked Stick, Coody settled down.

“It just could not have gone better for me after that moment,” he said.

His dad remained a reassuring voice when he needed it, which wasn’t often.

“We get along great, he pretty much does everything on his own and then he’ll call me in if he feels unsure about something,” Kyle Coody said. “But he’s a fast player, he’s a committed player. When he sees it, he just goes with it.”

Coody proceeded to knock out Connor Creasy and George Duangmanee on his way to meeting Oklahoma State’s Neergaard-Petersen in the final match. Considering that both players compete in the Big 12, they’re familiar with each other’s games. Coody figures he has played eight or nine of the same tournaments as Neergaard-Petersen, drawing him in the same pairing twice.

Texas players have a long history of success at the Western Am. Most recently, teammate Cole Hammer won in 2018, but Justin Leonard and Ben Crenshaw are also on the list.

Overall, Coody is the seventh Longhorn to win the event.

“I knew my game was there for this week,” Coody said, “and I just had to let it go.”

Lance Ringler contributed reporting.

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Angus Flanagan earns Western Am stroke-play medal; bracket set at Crooked Stick

Angus Flanagan holed a 30-foot birdie on his last hole at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana, to win Western Amateur medalist honors.

Rainy conditions on the first of three potential 36-hole days at the Western Amateur might have made all the difference for Angus Flanagan. The Minnesota senior grew up in England. Rain clearly isn’t an issue.

Flanagan holed a 30-footer for birdie on his 72nd hole Thursday evening at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana, to wrap up Western Amateur medalist honors. Now the format switches to match play. Beginning Friday morning, there will be four rounds of it before a champion is determined on Saturday afternoon.

It was a dramatic finish for Flanagan, who used that birdie to put the finishing touch on a final-round 66 and reach 11 under for 72 holes.

Scoring: Western Amateur

Flanagan, who won a share of the Big Ten individual title in 2019, played the 3M Open on the PGA Tour last week. He earned his invite into the event by winning the Minnesota State Open on July 9 with a course-record, final-round 64 at Royal Golf Club in Lake Elmo. His name is certainly starting to make the rounds.

Seven players tied for the 16th position at even par, forcing a playoff to determine the sole player who would move on – and face Flanagan on Friday morning. Ultimately North Carolina’s Austin Hitt earned that honor. He outlasted an impressive crew of opponents in the playoff, including 2018 Western Amateur champion Cole Hammer along with Texas player Travis Vick, Pepperdine’s William Mouw and incoming Ohio State freshman Maxwell Moldovan.

Three of last year’s Sweet 16 are on the bracket again: Ricky Castillo, Turk Pettit and Davis Thompson, the latter being the returning Western Am medalist.

Among the marquee match-ups for Friday morning is defending U.S. Amateur champion Andy Ogletree against LSU’s Trey Winstead, who already made a run at both the North & South title and the Sunnehanna title. Behind them, Castillo – who made it to the semifinals at this event last year – takes on Vanderbilt’s Harrison Ott.

The lower bracket is topped by Sam Bennett, stroke-play runner-up and a Texas A&M junior, versus Connor Creasy, who just completed his senior year at the University of Georgia.

German Matthias Schmid, a Louisville player who won the 2019 European Amateur, takes on George Duangmanee, an incoming Virginia freshman, in the first round. Interestingly, there is another junior player on the bracket, too. Joseph Pagdin, No. 2 in the Golfweek Junior Rankings, will meet Thompson in the final match of the morning.

Oklahoma’s Quade Cummins was among those who barely missed the match-play cut along with Oklahoma State’s Austin Eckroat and recent Sunnehanna Amateur champion Preston Summerhays.

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Western Amateur preview: Defending champ, big winners, ‘sweet sixteeners’ turn up at Crooked Stick

This week’s Western Amateur is essentially the final stop before the U.S. Amateur is played at Bandon Dunes.

The summer amateur marathon continues at the Western Amateur. This week’s championship at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana, is essentially the final stop before the U.S. Amateur is played at Bandon Dunes in two weeks. The Western is famously grueling, with four rounds of stroke play in three days followed by four more matches over the next two days before a player is crowned the champion.

This year’s 159-man field includes nine of the top 10 Americans in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Several players in the Western field appeared in the Sunnehanna Amateur, which wrapped up three days ago roughly 400 miles east in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

Western Amateur: Tee times (Rds. 1 and 2)

The Western Amateur begins on Tuesday. Here are some angles of interest:

Big winners in 2020

Competition opportunities were scarce in the spring and early summer, but several major amateur events have been played as scheduled. These players in the Western field have already won significant amateur titles so far in 2020:

Davis Thompson, Jones Cup
Canon Claycomb, Rice Planters Amateur
Tyler Strafaci, North & South Amateur and Palmetto Amateur
McClure Meissner, Southern Amateur
Preston Summerhays, Sunnehanna Amateur

Returning from the bracket

After four rounds, the 16-man Western Amateur match-play bracket is formed. Eight players who reached the Sweet 16 in 2019 are in the field again this year (including defending champion Garrett Rank):

Davis Thompson
David Laskin
Quade Cummins
Turk Pettit
John Pak
Garrett Rank
Ricky Castillo
Frankie Capan

Practice run

As tournament directors were figuring out how to modify their summer events to keep players and staff safe from COVID-19, the Western Amateur venue underwent a bit of a test run in May. Crooked Stick hosted the inaugural Dye Junior Invitational, which included a field of 33 girls and 33 boys. The Western also benefited from its position on the back half of the summer schedule.

Steve Prioletti, the Western Golf Association’s director of amateur competitions, said in June he wouldn’t be shy about asking other tournament directors how they were managing COVID-19 challenges.

“Really getting granular with all those tournament details to make sure – obviously safety is the main priority – but you have to make sure it’s a good experience for all involved as well.”

In terms of players who garnered some meaningful experience competing at Crooked Stick earlier in the year, look no further than Michael Brennan and Clay Merchent, who finished fifth and seventh, respectively, at the Dye Junior.

Brennan, Golfweek’s No. 20-ranked junior, went on to win the Maridoe Junior Invitational in June and Merchent finished in the top 6 at both the Southern Amateur and Rice Planters Amateur.

Keep an eye on coach

With college golf recruiting in a COVID-forced dead period, coaches have found more time on their hands. Oklahoma coach Ryan Hybl, a regular on the amateur circuit while a two-time All-American at Georgia from 2001-04, made headlines at the Sunnehanna with the early lead. He finished an eventual T-15.

This week, it’s all eyes on Justin Tereshko. The 30-year-old, who is the head men’s and women’s golf coach at Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana, also finished second at the Orlando International to start the year and 21st at the New Year’s Invitational.

Tereshko, who played collegiately at Transylvania, also finished T-49 at the Sunnehanna last week.

Circle this on your tee sheet

If you were planning on attending the Western Amateur in person, well, better luck next year. After carefully monitoring the pandemic, the Western Golf Association has decided not to allow spectators. Only approved player guests, Crooked Stick Members and WGA guests may attend on site but must wear a face mask and practice social distancing.

So if you’re watching from afar, be sure to hone in on the 8:30 a.m., and 1:30 p.m. time slots. We like to call those the featured pairings for this event. Check them out:

Tuesday 8:30 a.m. on No. 1 / Wednesday 1:30 p.m. on No. 10

Garrett Rank, defending Western Amateur champion
Cole Hammer, U.S. Walker Cupper; 2018 Western Amateur champion
Davis Thompson, 2020 Jones Cup champion; 2019 Western Amateur medalist

Tuesday 8:30 a.m. on No. 10 / Wednesday 1:30 p.m. on No. 1

Quade Cummins, 2019 Pacific Coast Amateur champion
Andy Ogletree, U.S. Walker Cupper; 2019 U.S. Amateur champion
Pierceson Coody, 2019 Trans-Miss Amateur champion

Tuesday 1:30 p.m. on No. 1 / Wednesday 8:30 a.m. on No. 10

John Pak, U.S. Walker Cupper
John Augenstein, U.S. Walker Cupper; 2019 U.S. Amateur runner-up
Ricky Castillo, World No. 2-ranked amateur

Tuesday 1:30 p.m. on No. 10 / Wednesday 8:30 a.m. on No. 1

Austin Eckroat, World No. 17-ranked player
Matthias Schmid, 2019 European Amateur champion
Cooper Dossey, 2019 North & South Amateur champion

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Tournament directors find a way to keep amateur calendar alive, even if it’s back to basics

This summer has been about scrambling to keep amateur golf events on the schedule, modifying them and stripping them down to the basics.

It’s not in John Yerger’s nature to turn his back on a player searching for an opportunity in golf. It may be music to a college golfer’s ears that there’s still tournament golf to be played this summer. As co-chairman of the Sunnehanna Amateur, Yerger knows something of the demand.

Yerger could fill the 100-man Sunnehanna Amateur field five times over. Something says he would, too.

“They want to have a chance to do the thing they care about at this point in their life,” he said of players searching for playing opportunities.

Tournament sponsors and Sunnehanna Country Club members stood by the decades-old event, ultimately making it possible to play the Sunnehanna July 21-24, five weeks after its original June 17-20 spot. The tournament now falls directly before the Western Amateur and the U.S. Amateur, creating an intriguing end-of-summer gauntlet.

Players will have a two-and-a-half-day window to travel from the Sunnehanna in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, to Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana, for the Western Amateur. They’re likely to do it in droves.

The summer amateur schedule is something of a living organism and has been for years. When one tournament changes its dates, it has a domino effect on every other tournament down the line. The strength of each field depends on which tournaments overlap. This summer has been about scrambling to keep events on the schedule, modifying them however necessary and stripping them down to the basics.

So far, the early-June events have taken the biggest hit. Among those canceled this year are the Dogwood Invitational, Monroe Invitational, Northeast Amateur, Sahalee Players Amateur, Trans-Mississippi Amateur and Eastern Amateur. The cancellation of the Pacific Coast Amateur freed up dates for the Sunnehanna’s move.

Certainly the summer amateur schedule will be back-loaded.

Under normal circumstances, a player could go a whole summer without ever sleeping in his own bed, teeing it up week after week, hopping from host house to host house. When a community hosts an amateur event, it typically rallies around that event.

In Johnstown, residents will still open their homes to players. That won’t be the case at many stops.

Yerger fielded more than 80 requests for host housing and so far is just six beds short of meeting that. The Sunnehanna will remain as normal as possible – and safe – with paper (scorecards, pin sheets) likely going out the window. Caddies are out too, with pushcarts being allowed for the first time. An extra food tent is likely to go up, as well.

Yerger has been involved with the Sunnehanna for 50 years, from playing (1978, ’80) to housing players to co-chairing. He knows the amateur landscape intimately. With the 2021 Walker Cup moved up to May 8-9 from its usual early September dates, this summer’s results are very much in play.

“There’s a lot of things that people aren’t thinking about,” Yerger said. “They didn’t realize it’s May of next year. … These tournaments have a big impact on Walker Cup and also on the World Amateur Golf Ranking.”

Braden Thornberry and Collin Morikawa both played the Sunnehanna Amateur. (Sunnehanna photo)

At the Western Golf Association, Steve Prioletti watches players move from the Western Junior on up to the Western Amateur and on from there. For Prioletti, the association’s director of amateur competitions, it’s hard not to become invested in this community of players.

“Watching that progression, how could you not care for these guys and want to provide them with opportunities to compete?” he said. “Being the third-oldest amateur event in the world, it’s our responsibility to exhaust all options to try to make this tournament happen.”

Prioletti & Co., have some time on their side. Though forced to cancel the Western Junior, scheduled for June 15-18 in Lake Worth, Illinois, plans remain to play the Western Amateur on its original date of July 27-Aug. 1. Crooked Stick hosted the Dye Junior Invitational at the end of May. It was a helpful test run – albeit on a much smaller scale – for competition.

Prioletti won’t be shy about asking other tournament directors how they’re managing COVID-19 challenges.

“Really getting granular with all those tournament details to make sure – obviously safety is the main priority – but you have to make sure it’s a good experience for all involved as well.”

Golf in its purest form

The desire to play is no less on the women’s side – and with the Curtis Cup having been pushed back to 2021, the high stakes are there, too. The major events matter very much.

More than any other event, perhaps, the Augusta National Women’s Amateur has female amateurs keeping an eagle eye on the World Amateur Golf Ranking to make sure they qualify for an invitation. Though canceled, the same field (or at least, the invitees who remained amateur) will be recycled for the 2021 event.

Even as women’s events were canceled – the Women’s Southern Amateur, Women’s Porter Cup and Women’s Eastern Amateur among them – new back-to-back events were added in June. The U.S. Women’s Elite Amateur Golf Championships will be played June 23-25 at Heron Creek and June 30-July 2 at Charlotte Harbor in North Port, Florida.

Steve Washburn put a new competitive women’s amateur event on the calendar last year with the inaugural Donna Andrews Invitational. The Donna remains firmly on schedule for June 28-30 at Boonsboro Golf Club in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Washburn, a golf dad who saw the need for a tournament that gave elite players the same opportunities that it gave mid-ams and mid-handicappers, pulled the event together last year. Organizers have talked through all aspects of the event’s second year, from food and beverage (all to go) to Andrews’ tournament-week clinic (nixed) to whether caddies would be allowed (greenlighted).

“It’s been a very interesting process,” Washburn said. “A lot of questions, a lot of debate within the group.”

For the first time in his 11 years as Pinehurst’s director of tournament operations, Brian Fahey will be able host a one-day qualifier to help fill the 120-woman North & South Women’s Amateur field. He received 231 applications for this year’s July 14-18 event, breaking the record of 220 set in 2015.

Last year, the North & South men’s field was something like a test run for a Pinehurst-hosted U.S. Amateur – and who wouldn’t want to put in for an advantage like that? – but organizers received nearly 100 more applications for the 2020 event (to be played June 30-July 4) than they did a year ago. That’s a big indicator of the interest level in amateur golf this summer.

Both fields will feature 120 players competing on Pinehurst Nos. 2 and 4. With such a backdrop, the other frills are hardly necessary.

“We may not be able to do a lot of the extras that players have become accustomed to over the years – in terms of receptions or dinners, lunches and breakfasts, social gatherings – those will be eliminated,” Fahey said. “This was our communication to the players: This is going to be golf almost in its purest form.”

Austin Greaser during Day 2 of the 2019 U.S. Amateur at Pinehurst. (Photo: USGA/Chris Keane)

It takes a village

All things being normal, the Dogwood Invitational would have gotten underway June 10 at Druid Hills Golf Club, a hilly little gem tucked into a neighborhood near downtown Atlanta. The Dogwood is a week-long, 72-hole tournament that includes events like a long-drive contest and the “Taste of The Dogwood” to showcase local fare.

Like many high-level amateur events staged at historic clubs, the membership breathes life into all aspects of tournament week from housing players to giving up their golf course to cultivating relationships with players who will come back over and over again through their amateur careers.

All of those aspects, plus how limited member play has been of late, figured into the Dogwood’s cancellation. It simply couldn’t be the same event this year.

“As we went through our scenarios of what we could do,” said Ed Toledano, tournament chairman emeritus, “we said, well can we have a tournament with no spectators. We could make it twosomes and put all the special rules and regulations in and things like that and then we fell back to, if we’re limiting member play, how can we feel comfortable doing this now?”

The scoreboard at the 2019 Dogwood Invitational at Druid Hills Golf Club.

Shared responsibility

In the Dogwood’s absence, tournament director Bruce Fleming finds his own Rice Planters Amateur in the lead-off position. The June 23-25 event at Snee Farm Country Club, in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, will likely get more eyes because of that – and for two reasons.

“Coaches will want to see how their players had played or maybe perhaps they want to get a sense of what players have been doing out there in terms of practice and prep and that stuff,” Fleming said. “They’re going to look at us closely from that perspective. I can only assume they will look at us in terms of how we complete the event.”

Fleming looks at the latter as his own moral responsibility to do things right. The Rice Planters won’t feature any caddies, paper, social events or buffet meals. The field has been reduced from 99 players to roughly 65. The new guidelines were made very clear to invited players. A responsibility rests with them, too.

It’s not so much that Fleming was flooded with applications this year – he received about 220 when in past years he has received upward of 300 – but that more players in the tournament’s exemption categories accepted their invitation than ever before, from the defending champion Austin Fulton to Canon Claycomb, a top-50 player in the world. The number of acceptances from 34 exemption categories doubled this year.

“Our field – I don’t know how I quantify it – but it’s much better than in the past,” Fleming said.

If those players filter out again to other tournaments next summer when the schedule presumably goes back to normal, Fleming will understand.

“We want to run our tournament, we want to continue our history,” Fleming said. “… We have to do it in a manner that is appropriate and successful for what is going on.”

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Jimmy Vickers, accomplished amateur and 1952 NCAA champion, dies at 91

Jimmy Vickers, who won the 1952 NCAA individual title while at the University of Oklahoma, died on Jan. 6 at the age of 91

Jimmy Vickers, who won the 1952 NCAA individual title while at the University of Oklahoma, died Monday at the age of 91. Vickers, who lived in Indian Wells, California, made many contributions to golf throughout his life as both a player and a member of various advisory boards.

Vickers was born in Wichita, Kansas, on Dec. 10, 1928, and grew up among four brothers and three sisters. Golf was the family game. Vickers had to get past LSU’s Eddie Merrins, who would eventually become famous as the head coach at UCLA (even guiding the Bruins to the NCAA team title in 1988), to win the NCAA title in 1952.

Vickers sank a long putt on the final hole at Purdue Golf Course in West Lafayette, Indiana, to defeat Merrins.

Vickers remained an amateur throughout his life. He won the 1950 Western Amateur and was runner-up to Joe Conrad in the Trans-Mississippi Golf Championship in 1953. He won the Colorado Amateur in back-to-back years (1948 and 1950), as well as the 1964 Kansas Amateur.

For all this, Vickers was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Kansas Golf Hall of Fame in 1993.

“I relish the amateur game,” Vickers told NCAA.org in May 2013, “Everything I ever wanted to do in the game of golf, I was able to do.”

Vickers served on the board for the Trans-Mississippi Golf Association, Western Golf Association and the Evans Scholarship Board while also continuing to support the Oklahoma golf program throughout his life.