By Kent Gray
Old Tom Morris, five-time Open champion James Braid and famed course and equipment designer Ben Sayers all played a role in the sculpting and development of The Nairn Golf Club which is set to host The Amateur from June 14-19. 

With views across the Moray Firth to Black Isle and gorse as menacing a hazard as the wind, the COVID-19 reduced field including Dubai-based England age-group international Josh Hill, are in for an exacting test of golf in a championship where starts in The Open, The U.S. Open and the 2022 Masters will be on the line. The Nairn G.C., in the Highland council area 27km east of Inverness, was founded in 1887, two years after the inaugural Amateur Championship won by Scot Allan Macfie at Royal Liverpool. Englishman John Ball holds the record for most wins with eight while former champions include Bobby Jones, José María Olazábal and Sergio Garcia. nairngolfclub.co.uk

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By Kent Gray
Josh Hill had hoped to slip under the media radar this UK summer, freeing himself of added pressure in his efforts to refine his pro-tour bound game and importantly reignite competitive embers dulled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The only problem with that commendable plan is that the 17-year-old Dubai-based English Boys’ representative works far too hard and possesses way too much game to stay in stealth mode for long.

After a rare missed cut at the Scottish Men’s Open Championship at Southerness G.C. late last month, Hill’s name is back in lights and at the Home of Golf no less. The world record holder as the youngest winner of an OWGR event will enter the final day of the prestigious St Andrews Links Trophy on Sunday just one stroke off compatriot Charlie Thornton’s halfway pace.

After an opening-round 70 on the Jubilee course, Hill joined Ireland’s Richard Knightly on -6, 138 courtesy of a 68 in his second round on the Old Course on Saturday. It left the duo a shot shy of Thornton (66-71) heading into the final two rounds, both on the fabled Old Course.

Hill’s four-under circuit of golf’s spiritual birthplace was the second equal best score of Saturday’s second round and three strokes better than all but one player in the top-13.

That will undoubtedly give the MENA Tour winner confidence heading into what could be a pivotal and especially memorable Sunday of his amateur career. At worst, it is golden opportunity for Hill to skyrocket up the World Amateur Golf Rankings from his current position of 313th, down from career-best ranking of 257th.

The top 40 players and ties play the final round of the St Andrews Trophy which boasts former U.S. Open champion and Ryder Cup star Justin Rose among its former champions.

Established in 1989, the event is considered one of the world’s top amateur tournaments and has served as a launch pad for major championship-bound careers including Ernie Els, Trevor Immelman, Geoff Ogilvy, Padraig Harrington, Rose, Rory McIlroy and Francesco Molinari.  Lee Westwood is another former starter in an event that ranks as one of the strongest in the British Isles outside of The Amateur Championship, the 126th edition of which Hill intends contesting at Nairn, also in Scotland, from June 14.

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By Ryan Herrington
When the inaugural Latin America Amateur Championship was held in 2015, the number of golfers in the field playing collegiately in the United States, one barometer for the competitiveness of the event, was in the single digits. With the sixth edition of the tournament set for this week at Mexico’s Mayakoba Resort, that number is expected to be in the high 30s.

Recognizing the tournament’s improved profile, officials with the R&A announced on Monday that they will offer a full exemption to the LAAC winner into the Open Championship starting this summer at Royal St. George’s.

“The championship has made huge strides in the five years since it was first played,” said R&A CEO Martin Slumbers in a press release, “and you only have to look at the success that [2018 LAAC champion] Joaquin Niemann has enjoyed on tour to recognize the growing strength of the top players in this region. There is a strong tradition of amateurs competing in the Open and we look forward to seeing more players from Latin America and the Caribbean competing in the years to come.”

The exemption into the Open means the LAAC winner will get invitations to play in two majors, with a spot in the Masters already reserved for the champion. A chance at playing in a third major is also available, as the winner gets entry into sectional qualifying for the U.S. Open.

Runners-up at the LAAC also get a place in U.S. Open Sectional Qualifying and final qualifying for the Open.

With the new exemption, the R&A now affords winners of five amateur events with direct entry into the Open, the others being the champions of the British Amateur, U.S. Amateur, European Amateur and Asia-Pacific Amateur.

The Latin America Amateur is conducted in partnership with the R&A, the Masters and the USGA. This week’s field will consist of 108 golfers from 28 countries, with qualifying based on their position in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.

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By John Huggan
Never once behind, but hunted all the way to the 36th green during Saturday’s final match, Irishman James Sugrue is the 2019 Amateur champion. Calling him the “British” Amateur champion would be technically incorrect, as the event was played for only the second time in its 134-year history at Portmarnock in the Republic of Ireland. That fact will make the biggest win of Sugrue’s life only more special for the man from the Mallow club in County Cork.

It was an intriguing if sometimes scrappy final against Scotsman Euan Walker, one dominated early by the eventual champion. After winning the opening three holes, Sugrue was 5 up by the turn in the morning round of the championship match. By lunch, the lead was reduced to 3 up, and it was Walker who played most of the better golf thereafter. An approximate four under par for the first 15 holes of the afternoon round, the Kilmarnock Barassie member (the club is actually in Troon) tied the match on the 33rd hole.

A crucial mistake from Walker, however, came on the 35th, where he made his first bogey in 17 holes. And the 36th hole was even worse for the Scot. Technically, it was conceded, making the final margin of victory 2 up. Whatever, in the 22-year-old Sugrue, Ireland has its eighth Amateur champion since World War II and the first since Alan Dunbar in 2012.

Victory comes with many perks—places in the upcoming Open Championship at Royal Portrush and next year’s Masters and U.S. Open—even in an event that has lost some of its lustres in recent years. Only two Amateur champions—Matteo Manassero in 2009 and Romain Langasque six years later—have made the cut at Augusta National in this century. And you have to go back to 2007, when Drew Weaver lifted the famous trophy, to find an American winner.

This year, the two finalists were at best unlikely. Sugrue, the 2017 South of Ireland champion, was actually the lowest ranked (249th) of the eight quarterfinalists, 178 spots down from Walker, who himself was 64 places behind the highest-ranked survivor at that stage (Australia’s David Micheluzzi). A quarterfinalist last year, Micheluzzi lost, 3 and 1, to Sugrue in the semifinals, after seeing off the last American, Cameron Sisk.

Neither finalists distinguished themselves in the 36-hole stroke-play qualifying led by Thomas Plumb of England and Dane John Axelsen. Walker was T-29 on 145, six shots behind the leaders, and Sugrue finished T-45 on 146, a second-round 69 on The Island course redeeming his opening 77 at Portmarnock.

Even in the knock-out stages, neither finalist had an easy time. Only once in his six matches did either man play fewer than 17 holes; four times each was taken to the 18th green or beyond. Neither, at least, can be faulted for endurance.

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