Far Hills, N.J. – Two college All-Americans – Jonathan Moore of Portland, Ore., Webb Simpson of Raleigh, N.C. – and two-time Walker Cupper Trip Kuehne of Dallas, Texas, have been selected as the USA squad that will compete at the 2006 World Amateur Team Championship in South Africa Oct. 26-29, the United States Golf Association has announced.
The World Amateur Team Championship is conducted by the International Golf Federation, which comprises national governing bodies of golf in more than 100 countries. A record 75 teams from around the world have entered the 2006 Championship, which will be played at De Zalze Golf Club and Stellenbosch Golf Club in Stellenbosch, South Africa. It is played in conjunction with the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship, which will be played on the same courses Oct. 18-21.
Chris Kirk of Woodstock, Ga., is the first alternate and Billy Horschel of Grant, Fla., is the second alternate.
Moore, 21, the 2006 NCAA Division I individual champion who plays at Oklahoma State, also qualified for the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club. He won the Arnold Palmer Trophy as the NCAA champion and was also the NCAA Freshman of the Year (Phil Mickelson Award) this year in helping Oklahoma State win the NCAA team championship. A first-team All-American in 2006, he won the Maxwell Intercollegiate tournament. He was recognized by the American Junior Golf Association with the Jerry Cole Sportsmanship Award in 2002. He played in his third U.S. Amateur in August and advanced to the second round of match play. Moore, who took a red-shirt year in 2005, will begin his sophomore season at Oklahoma State this fall.
Simpson, 21, a two-time All-American at Wake Forest, advanced to the semifinals of the recent 2006 U.S. Amateur, losing to eventual champion Richie Ramsay of Scotland. In the 2005 U.S. Amateur, he advanced to the second round of match play at Merion Golf Club, where he was defeated by 2005 USA Walker Cupper Anthony Kim. Simpson was a quarterfinalist at the 2003 U.S. Junior Amateur and is a junior at Wake Forest.
He won the Sunnehanna Amateur in 2006 and was runner-up at the Northeast and Dogwood Amateurs. An honorable-mention All-American choice in 2005, he was a second-team pick in 2006. He is also a two-time All-Atlantic Coast Conference choice and was that conference’s Freshman of the Year in 2004. He has also won the 2005 Southern Amateur and the 2004 Azalea Amateur.
Kuehne, 34, reached the quarterfinals at the 2006 U.S. Amateur and was runner-up to Tiger Woods in 1994. He was a member of the 1995 and 2003 USA Walker Cup squads and the runner-up at the 2006 Sunnehanna Amateur. The stroke-play medalist at the 1997 U.S. Amateur Public Links, he advanced to the third round of the 2002 U.S. Mid-Amateur. He played in the 1995 Masters and has competed in U.S. Opens, including 2003 at Olympia Fields (Ill.) Country Club when he was the low amateur. This year, he won the Old Palm Invitational. He also has victories in the 2003 and 2004 Coleman Amateur, where he was runner-up in 2005 and 2006. In his senior year at Oklahoma State, he won the Ben Hogan Award. He is married and has a 6-year-old son. A fund manager, he is a lifelong amateur. His brother, Hank, won the 1998 U.S. Amateur, with Trip as caddie. Their sister, Kelli, won the 1994 U.S. Girls’ Junior as well as the 1995 and 1996 U.S. Women’s Amateur.
Kirk, 21, was the runner-up at the 2006 NCAA Division I Championship, playing for the University of Georgia. He was the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year in 2006 and was a finalist for the Ben Hogan Award. A first-team All-America in 2006, he set the team record for single-season scoring average. This season, he won the Puerto Rico Classic and was fourth at the Sunnehanna Amateur. In 2005, he won the Augusta State Invitational and was runner-up at the Dogwood Invitational and All-American Classic. He also helped Georgia win the 2005 NCAA Division I team title.
Horschel, 19, shot a USGA-championship record 60 at the Chaska (Minn.) Town Course in the first round of stroke-play qualifying at the 2006 U.S. Amateur. It was two strokes lower than the previous best round owned by Christina Kim and Loren Roberts. Horschel advanced to the third round of match play, where he dropped a 1-up decision to 2005 U.S. Amateur quarterfinalist Ryan Yip of Canada. Earlier this year, Horschel qualified for the U.S. Open and he advanced to the first round of match play at the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship. He will be a sophomore at the University of Florida this fall, where he earned first-team All-America honors this past season.
The USA captain is Reed Mackenzie of Chaska, Minn., who was the USGA president in 2002-2003.
The World Amateur Team title is determined by four days of stroke play. A country may field a team of two or three players. In each round, the total of the two lowest scores by players from each team constitutes the team score for the round. The four-day total is the team’s score for the championship.
The competition has been played every two years since 1958 for the Eisenhower Trophy. The USA is the defending champion, having won the 2004 championship at Rio Mar Country Club in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico. Represented by Ryan Moore, Spencer Levin and Lee Williams in 2004, the USA won its third consecutive World Amateur and its 13th since the competition began in 1958.
The championship is rotated biennially among three geographic zones: Asia-Pacific, American, and European-African. The 2006 competition is hosted by the South African Golf Association and Women’s Golf South Africa.
For more information, please contact the USGA at (908) 234-2300.
Contact:
http://www.usga.org
E-mail address: mediarelations@usga.org
