ST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND (August 8, 2005) -- Muirfield, home to the world’s oldest golf club, The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, will host the most recent addition to The R&A’s list of events, the British Mid-Amateur Championship from 10-14 August.
Already in its short history, the Mid-Amateur, which this year celebrates its tenth anniversary has visited many of the game’s most hallowed venues from Sunningdale in 1995, its inaugural year, to Royal Liverpool last year.
There, it was Daniel Perrett, a 25-year-old accountant from Somerset, considered by many to be a surprise winner, who won the championship with a 2/1 win over Pleasington’s Michael Hunt.
Earlier in the week, Hunt had taken over the mantle of tournament favourite when he defeated defending champion John Kemp by 3/2 in the quarterfinals.
Perrett, Hunt and Kemp are in the field for Muirfield but will have to contend with a particularly strong entry from the U.S. from where 49 players will be seeking to become the first overseas winner of the title.
One American player who realised the challenge of Muirfield’s famed links was the great Jack Nicklaus who first played there in the 1959 Walker Cup match.
In his autobiography he stated of Muirfield, "A challenging course, certainly but also an inviting one. Above all, I remembered Muirfield as being fair."
Players from the British Isles who might be considered contenders for the title include Steve Sansome of Birstall, the winner of the English Mid-Amateur title last year at Fairhaven and John Longlake, the winner the previous year at Royal Birkdale.
Roger Roper, the 2004 Scottish Mid-Amateur titleholder and 2002 winner Craig Elliot of Carrickvale are competing alongside Andrew Farmer and Stephen East, both former winners of the British title.
Muirfield has hosted 15 Open Championships, 10 Amateur Championships and two Walker Cup matches.
Each of the 144 competitors plays two rounds of stroke play and the top 64 qualify for the match play commencing on Friday 12 August.
ABOUT THE British Mid-Amateur
The British Mid-Amateur Championship has an age qualification of over 25 on the first day of the tournament, and there is a handicap limit of two for the event.
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