GOLF, IL (Feb. 4, 2014) – The Western Amateur will
honor its rich heritage in 2019 when the championship
returns to Point O’Woods Golf & Country Club, host to
40 Western Amateurs between 1963 and 2008.
The Western Golf Association and Point O’Woods
entered into an agreement in late January to bring
the world’s top amateur golfers to southwestern
Michigan for the 116th Western Amateur.
“We’re looking forward to renewing the partnership
we enjoyed for nearly four decades,” said Vince
Pellegrino, WGA senior vice president of tournaments.
“The Western Amateur and Point O’Woods share a
history of showcasing the best players in the world of
amateur golf. The club and fans there have been
loyal supporters of the championship, and the course
has produced some world-class champions.”
Past Western Amateur champions at Point O’Woods
include Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ben Crenshaw,
Curtis Strange, Tom Weiskopf and Andy North.
Weiskopf won the first Western Amateur hosted by
Point O’Woods in 1963. The championship returned to
the club again in 1965 before starting a 38-year run
at Point O’Woods from 1971-2008.
“We’ve hosted many great Western Amateur
championships,” said Mark Matthews, Point O’Woods
president. “A good number of our champions, and
scores of other top amateurs who have competed
here, have gone on to enjoy highly successful
professional careers. We’ve enjoyed giving back to
golf by hosting such a prestigious championship, and
we’re thrilled now to be back in the Western Amateur
rotation.”
Designed by Robert Trent Jones and opened for play
in 1958, the Point O’Woods has consistently ranked
as one of the nation’s top courses, both in beauty
and design.
The WGA moved the storied championship from Point
O’Woods to a rotation of Chicago area clubs starting
in 2009. A year ago, the WGA took a one-year break
from Chicago to take the Western Amateur to The
Alotian Club in Roland, Ark. The Western Amateur
returns to the Chicago area for the next five years,
starting with this year’s tournament at The Beverly
Country Club.
First conducted in 1899 at the Glen View Club in Golf,
Illinois, the Western Amateur championship has from
its inception been regarded as one of the major
amateur golf events in the world. Only the British
Amateur (1885) and the U.S. Amateur (1895) are
older.
The Western Amateur’s 156-man field consistently
ranks among the top three in the world along with the
British Amateur and U.S. Amateur. Contestants come
from all over the globe. Last year’s field included
players from a dozen nations, including Australia,
Denmark, England, Finland, Malaysia, Mexico, New
Zealand, the United States, Venezuela and Wales.
ABOUT THE Western Amateur
Invitational event, and the most important
tournament in American amateur golf outside of the
U.S. Amateur. With a grueling schedule, it's quite
possibly the
hardest amateur tournament to win.
156 invited players come from across the
globe to play one of the toughest formats in
amateur golf. The tournament starts with 18
holes of stroke play on Tuesday and
Wednesday after which the field is cut to the
low 44 scores and ties. Thursday it's a long
day of 36 holes of stroke play to determine
the “Sweet Sixteen” who compete at Match
Play on Friday and Saturday (two matches
each day if you're going to the finals) to
decide the champion.
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