The Amateur Championship

[David_Tepper]

From an article on the R&A website yesterday:

"As well as winning one of the most prestigious titles in the amateur game, the victor tomorrow can look forward to competing in The Open at St. Andrews next month, the 2023 US Open and, by tradition, an invitation to play in the Masters Tournament."


Clearly, the R&A knows the spoils that accrue to the victor of the Am. You would think they could do a better job of planning their tournament schedule so that the victor does not have to make a choice of which tournament to play in the following year. 
 

[Niall C]

John


Are we seriously saying the R&A should move the Amateur Championship for the Sunnehanna (whatever that is) ? The golfing calendar is jammed  packed especially during the summer months and there is always going to be clashes. The R&A runs a number of tournaments and have to make sure they don't clash with themselves.


David,


Did you really think the R&A were unaware that the Amateur champion was invited to those majors ?


Niall

[jeffwarne]

Jeff


From a quick scan of wikipedia I see that the last multiple winner was Gary Wolstenholme who won in 2003 and prior to that 1991. You have to go back to the 1970's to find further multiple winners in Peter McEvoy, Dick Siderowf and Trevor Homer who all won twice and right at the start of the 70's Michael Bonnallack who won it 5 times.


Peter McEvoy did make the final again in 1987 but apart from that there doesn't appear to be any repeat finalists. I might be wrong in saying that but at any rate not having the defending champion doesn't seem to have significantly weakened the field. Of course the reason for that might be that the top amateurs tend to turn professional quite quickly but they will do that anyway.


Niall

It certainly sucks for the winner to miss his week as defending champion and exemption to match play, and anyone who makes it to the US open skips the Amateur, so The Amateur field definitely loses some of its luster.
There certainly won't be anymore repeat winners given the schedule conflict, so your logic about the dearth of defenders is self fulfilling.
Very sad they have to pick between a US Open and defending.

[Niall C]

The final just finished with a young 17 year old South African by the name of Aldrich Potgieter winning 3&2 over Sam Bairstow after Potgieter being 7 up for most of the match. A very impressive performance and this young lad looks like he could be a world beater in a few years time. I also like the fact he's the antithesis of the tall rangy athletic type. 


As an aside another thing I loved about the coverage was a relative absence of statistics. Beyond commenting on whether they were hitting a driver, 3 wood or iron off the tee the commentators there was no analysis of what club they would be playing and I can't recall once hearing how far they had driven.


Niall

[David_Tepper]

"Did you really think the R&A were unaware that the Amateur champion was invited to those majors ?"

Niall -

Why do you ask such a question? Nothing in my post implies the R&A were unaware of this. I stated the R&A is clearly aware of this.


The question to ask is, why, knowing the Amateur receives this entry into the US Open, does the R&A choose to schedule the Amateur championship so that the winner will be forced to choose between defending his title or playing in the US Open.

DT 

[Brian_Ewen]

If the Amateur was moved, it might get a few more top US players over there also.

 

[Bill Shamleffer]

The final just finished with a young 17 year old South African by the name of Aldrich Potgieter winning 3&2 over Sam Bairstow after Potgieter being 7 up for most of the match. A very impressive performance and this young lad looks like he could be a world beater in a few years time. I also like the fact he's the antithesis of the tall rangy athletic type. 


As an aside another thing I loved about the coverage was a relative absence of statistics. Beyond commenting on whether they were hitting a driver, 3 wood or iron off the tee the commentators there was no analysis of what club they would be playing and I can't recall once hearing how far they had driven.


Niall

Niall:
I agree, I watched last year's final and this year's final.  I love the minimalist coverage.  Also, good job of showing the course.  The other nice thing is that this stays on YouTube.  One can go back and watch this full match, or parts of it anytime on YouTube.


That was a fascinating final match to watch.  I missed the 1st 18 (was not waking up at 3:30 am), but caught the last 16.


You are right, this young kid from South Africa, kind has a retro golfer look.  He won't be borrowing any pants from Will Zalatoris.  Maybe a little bit of a Bobby Locke look without the Plus-Fours.




JohnVDB & Brian Ewen:
No matter when they schedule this Championship, I highly doubt any top level college ams will want to play.  The current summer am circuit that is dominated by the college golfers is too busy to give up 2-3 weeks just to play in the British Am.  I think in the past when some US ams used to play, it was more often post-college ams.

[Richard Fisher]

Likewise I really enjoyed watching the final on YouTube yesterday, which made a nice complement to the last day of Royal Ascot on ITV....amateur scheduling was problematic pre-COVID and is if anything even moreso in the aftermath. Even within the UK three of the major 72-hole amateur scratch events of the year, the Berkshire Trophy, the Tennant Cup (Glasgow) and the St David's Gold Cross, are taking place this weekend, so ruling out anybody taking part in the final stages of the Amateur itself - a far cry from the experience of Walker Cup players of a previous generation like (e.g.) Michael Lunt and David Marsh and Charlie Green.


That said, the field for the Amateur was truly international, with very strong continental European, Australian and South African representation: a young RSA squad have been here for five weeks, playing with great success in the big 'spring sweep' here which includes the Brabazon Trophy (effectively the amateur strokeplay championship, even though run by England Golf), the Lytham Trophy, the St Andrews Trophy, and the Amateur Championship. 


Historically US representation in the (British) Amateur has always been strongest in UK-hosted Walker Cup years, and of course for many years the two events were deliberately dovetailed, on both sides of the Atlantic (ditto the Curtis Cup and the Ladies' Amateur). Next weekend we can all enjoy similar R&A coverage of the Ladies Amateur final stages from Hunstanton, which will give American friends an opportunity to watch golf on the only west-facing seaside links in the east of England. Enjoy...