World’s Top Four Amateurs to Meet at North Shore CC, Aug. 2-6
GOLF, IL (July 27, 2011) – The 20-year-old Englishman who recently shot the lowest round by an amateur in the 140-year history of the British Open – and who was Low Amateur for the championship – is set to play in the 109th Western Amateur, Aug. 2-6, at historic North Shore Country Club in Glenview, Ill.
Tom Lewis, the No. 3-ranked amateur in the world, committed to the Western this week, setting the course for his final few amateur events prior to turning professional following the Walker Cup team competition in September.
“The Western Golf Association is excited to have Tom Lewis enter the 2011 Western Amateur at North Shore Country Club,” said Vince Pellegrino, vice president of tournaments for the WGA. “Tom’s presence will help continue the Western Amateur’s longstanding tradition of strong international fields and will make an already competitive championship that much better. Like Tom, a number of this year’s contestants already have proven themselves against the greatest players in the world.”
The addition of Lewis means the Western Amateur’s field of 156 players will feature the top four amateur golfers in the world: Patrick Cantlay, Peter Uihlein, Lewis, and Russell Henley.
On July 14, Lewis shot a 5-under par 65 at Royal St. Georges GC in the opening round of the British Open to co-lead the championship. Lewis’ magical performance was made even more poignant by his being paired with 61-year-old Tom Watson, the five-time British Open champion for whom Lewis is in part named.
In the end, the soft-spoken, blond-haired, blue-eyed son of a golf pro shot 9-over par 289 on rounds of 65-74-76-74 and earned the prestigious Silver Medal presented to Low Amateur at the Open Championship. Lewis tied for 30th along with 2009 British Open champion Stewart Cink, a pre-tournament favorite Jason Day, and multiple PGA Tour winner Bubba Watson. Uihlein, the reigning U.S. Amateur champion, shot 12-over 292.
Meanwhile, 2010 Western Amateur champion David Chung, a rising junior at Stanford, will defend his Porter Cup title this week at Niagara Falls Country Club near Buffalo, N.Y., before returning to the Chicago area to defend his Western Amateur crown.
Cantlay finished in a tie for ninth Sunday (July 24) at the RBC Canadian Open and Uihlein tied for ninth at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Invitational in Columbus, Ohio on the Nationwide Tour. Jordan Spieth, the University of Texas-bound teenager, won his second U.S. Junior title over the weekend.
Spieth, who turns 18 today (July 27), is only the second player in the history of the prestigious U.S. Golf Association championship to win it more than once. On Saturday (July 23), the Dallas resident and recent high school graduate won the 64th U.S. Junior, overwhelming Chelso Barrett, 16, of Keene, N.H. 6-and-5 in match play at Gold Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton, Wash.
The only other player to win the U.S. Junior multiple times was Tiger Woods, who won it three times from 1991-93. Spieth also won the championship in 2009. Spieth previously was best known for having made the cut the last two years at the Byron Nelson Championship, an annual PGA Tour event near his home town. In fact, this year, Spieth missed his class graduation from Jesuit College Prep to play in the final round of the event, where he tied for 32nd.
Cantlay won the college Player of the Year Award as a freshman at UCLA and led the PGA Tour’s Travelers Championship going into the final round after shooting a 60. In May, Henley won the PGA Nationwide Tour’s event on his home course at Georgia.
Admission to the 2011 Western Amateur championship is free.
In addition to the top challengers mentioned above, Chung will defend his title against Illinois’ Scott Langley, the 2010 NCAA champion, and Langley’s fellow Illini Luke Guthrie; Chung’s fellow Stanford teammates Andrew Yun and Patrick Rodgers, a soon-to-be-sophomore who won last year’s Western Junior championship. Also returning will be Gregor Main of UCLA, whom Chung defeated in the final round of match play last year at Skokie Country Club to win the 2010 Western Amateur title.
Top international players include Australia’s Matt Stieger; Ben Campbell and Ryan Fox of New Zealand, and Cheng-Tsung Pan of Taiwan, who won Western Amateur medalist honors for lowest stroke play score the last two years. A total of 156 amateurs from approximately a dozen nations are expected to compete in the event, which runs Tuesday through Saturday. Practice rounds begin Monday, Aug. 1.
Players with a local connection include Iowa’s Vince India of Deerfield, recently named Big Ten Player of the Year; Iowa’s Brad Hopfinger of Lake Forest, a first-team All-Big Ten selection; Brad Benjamin of Rockford, the 2010 U.S. Public Links champion; Auburn’s Kyle Kopsick of Highland Park; Northwestern’s Eric Chun and David Lipsey, and Notre Dame’s Max Scrodo of Chicago.
NORTH SHORE COUNTRY CLUB
The golf course is likely to be as formidable as the competition. Designed by the legendary golf course architecture firm of Harry S. Colt and Charles H. Alison (with Alison taking the lead role), North Shore is a Chicago area classic that measures 7,012 yards and will play to a par of 71 for the championship. Opened to members in 1924, the club has hosted the 1928 Western Open, the 1933 U.S. Open, the 1939 U.S. Amateur, and the 1983 U.S. Amateur. In addition, it has been the site of U.S. Open qualifiers and other significant events, including the 2010 Windon Memorial, a major collegiate tournament.
Over the years, the club has made a point of preserving the spirit and aesthetic of the original design while adapting the course to improvements in today’s club and golf ball technology. The firm of internationally known golf course architect Rick Jacobson – who caddied at North Shore as a teenager – has led the preservation effort for the last 17 years.
“North Shore Country Club is proud to host the Western Amateur and to support the Western Golf Association, which has been conducting this great championship since 1899,” said Reb Banas, North Shore president. “We are also particularly proud to be strong supporters of the WGA’s Evans Scholars Program.”
North Shore is the third in an eight-course Chicago-area rotation to host the Western Amateur from 2009-2015. Next year, the championship moves to Exmoor Country Club in Highland Park. The tournament had been played for 38 consecutive years (since 1971) at Point O’ Woods Golf & Country Club in Benton Harbor, Michigan.
North Shore has been a staunch supporter of the Evans Scholars program, with 40 of the club’s caddies having graduated from college as Evans Scholars. Currently, one North Shore caddie is an Evans Scholar.
THE GREAT CHAMPIONS
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.
Characterized as “The Masters of amateur golf” by 1994 champion Tiger Woods, the Western Amateur is consistently ranked among the top three amateur tournaments in the world, with the U.S. Amateur and the British Amateur, in the Scratch Players World Amateur Ranking (www.scratchplayers.org).
While today’s Western Amateur is among the elite events of the current era, the tournament’s rich heritage connects today’s players with many of the all-time greats of the game. With more than a century of history, the Amateur’s roster of past champions and participants reads like a Who’s Who of American golf.
Past champions include such venerable names as eight-time winner Charles “Chick” Evans Jr., Francis Ouimet, Jack Nicklaus, Lanny Wadkins, Andy North, Ben Crenshaw, Curtis Strange, Hal Sutton, Scott Verplank, Phil Mickelson, Justin Leonard, Ryan Moore and Woods. Runners up and stroke-play medalists include such PGA TOUR players as Ben Curtis, Jason Gore, Jay Haas, Tom Kite, Rocco Mediate, Gil Morgan, Mark O’Meara, Chris Riley, Camilo Villegas, and Tom Watson. The legendary Bobby Jones was stroke play medalist in 1920.
THE GRUELING FORMAT
A combination of stroke play and match play competition, the Western Amateur can be the most demanding event in professional or amateur golf.
Competition includes two 18-hole stroke play rounds on Tuesday and Wednesday followed by a cut to the players with the low 44 scores and ties. Those who make the cut then play 36 holes of stroke play on Thursday, with the low 16 advancing to match play on Friday. Qualifying for the Western Amateur’s “Sweet 16” match play competition is one of the treasured accomplishments each year among the world’s top-ranked amateurs.
The first two rounds of 18-hole match play on Friday narrow the field to four semifinalists, who compete in a pair of 18-hole matches on Saturday morning. Winners of the two morning matches then play in the 18-hole championship match Saturday afternoon.
Following is the 2011 Western Amateur daily schedule:
Monday, Aug. 1 Player Registration/Practice Rounds
Tuesday, Aug. 2 First Round, Stroke Play
Wednesday, Aug. 3 Second Round, Stroke Play (cut to low 44 and ties)
Thursday, Aug. 4 Third Round and Final Round of Stroke Play (cut to low 16)
Friday, Aug. 5 First Two Rounds of Match Play
Saturday, Aug. 6 Semifinal and Championship Rounds of Match Play
THE WESTERN GOLF ASSOCIATION
The Western Golf Association was founded in 1899 by 11 Chicago-area golf clubs. Today, more than 500 member clubs in states throughout the nation support the WGA, which conducts three national golf championships and sponsors the nationally acclaimed Chick Evans Caddie Scholarships.
Headquarters for the WGA and the Evans Scholars Foundation are in Golf, Illinois, which is also home to the Glen View Club, host of the first WGA-sponsored professional and amateur championships in 1899. In 1914, a national junior championship was added to the WGA tournament schedule.
In addition to the Western Amateur at North Shore Country Club, the WGA’s 2011 championship schedule includes the BMW Championship – the third of four PGA TOUR Playoff events in the TOUR’s FedExCup competition – set for September 12-18 at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in Lemont, Illinois, and the Western
Junior, which was held June 20-24 at Beverly Country Club in Chicago. This will be the first year since 1928 that all three WGA championships have been conducted in the Chicago area.
Since 1930, the WGA has supported the education of young men and women by sponsoring the Evans Scholars Foundation, which administers a college scholarship program for golf caddies. The Foundation, established by famed Chicago golfer Charles “Chick” Evans Jr., has provided college educations to more than 10,000 caddies while making tuition scholarship payments totaling more than $130 million. Currently, 855 caddies are attending college on Evans Scholarships.
Contact:
Gary Holaway
Communications Director
Western Golf Association
Evans Scholars Foundation
847-724-4600, x3724
holaway@wgaesf.com
Barry Cronin
Cronin Communications, Inc.
847-698-1801
bcronin@cronincommunications.com
