Just announced today, to The River Course and Cassique (the island's private courses. Here the article from today's Post and Courier:
Kiawah lands '09 Mid-Amateur
BY TOMMY BRASWELL
The 2009 U.S. Mid-Amateur, one of the world's most prestigious amateur golf tournaments, will be played at Kiawah Island Club's River and Cassique courses, adding to Charleston's reputation as one of the country's top golf destinations.
The U.S. Mid-Amateur, an event for players 25 and older, originated in 1981 with the stated purpose of providing a national championship for post-college players. One of the perks for winning is an invitation to play in The Masters at Augusta National the following year.
Kiawah Island Resort's Ocean Course will serve as the site of the 2007 Senior PGA and the 2012 PGA Championship, while the Nationwide Tour has signed a five-year deal for a tournament to be played at Daniel Island Club beginning this October.
The 2009 U.S. Mid-Amateur will be played Oct. 3-8. The tournament starts with a field of 264 players determined through sectional qualifying tournaments. The top 64 players after 36 holes of stroke-play qualifying advance to match play, with the final two golfers competing in a 36-hole championship match.
"We began talking about a USGA event immediately after opening the River Course in late 1995," said Pat McKinney, president of Kiawah Island Real Estate and a member of the USGA's Mid-Amateur Committee. Early next month, McKinney will officially join the USGA Executive Committee, the first person from South Carolina to serve on the organization's top committee.
"We had various USGA officials who had visited and looked at our facilities. We determined the kind of event like the Mid-Amateur, the Senior Amateur of the Women's Senior Amateur, was appropriate for the type of club we had. The Mid-Am seemed to suit the USGA and us," he said.
McKinney said Kiawah Island Club first proffered its invitation in 1999 when Cassique was under construction. The completion of that course along with the resort's prestigious Sanctuary hotel were instrumental in the selection.
He said the USGA has not determined which of the two courses will be used for the match play portion of the tournament. Tom Fazio designed the River Course, while Tom Watson was the architect on Cassique. The River Course is ranked No. 38 on America's Top 100 Residential Courses by Golfweek Magazine and No. 85 on Golfweek's top 100 best modern U.S. courses. Cassique, Watson's first solo effort in the U.S., was ranked No. 11 on America's Top 100 Residential Courses by Golfweek and No. 10 on Golf Digest's list of America's Best New Private Courses in 2001.
Bert Atkinson has played in a dozen U.S. Mid-Amateurs, and in 1991 made it to the final match before losing to Jim Stuart at Long Cove Club on Hilton Head Island. In 1997 in Dallas, Atkinson set or tied records for the lowest 36-hole score (132), lowest 18-hole score (64) and lowest nine-hole score (29). He won the qualifying portion of the tournament by six shots. "We have some great facilities in town," Atkinson said. "Both (River and Cassique) courses can be very difficult which will be great for match play. When you get hard courses where people take chances, it produces great matches."
McKinney said the club would love to showcase its facilities and at some point host a U.S. Amateur. He's pleased with the 2009 opportunity and thinks the club's membership will enjoy it as well.
"One of the nice things is after they go into match play, the membership gets the course back in the afternoon," he said. "I particularly like the time of year. Late September and early October is one of the prettiest times on the island. The sweet grass is blooming, and it's a perfect time for the golf course."
McKinney also said the club is going to close the River Course at the end of May or first of June to redo the greens. The course is expected to reopen in September.
"We think the River Course doesn't take a back seat to anybody in the way of design, and we have not made any major changes since it opened," McKinney said. "We had begun to get some mutations in the grass, so it was time to get ahead of the curve."