Club hosted championship for 37 consecutive years

Benton Harbor, Mich. (July 26, 2019) – One of the world’s oldest amateur golf championships will return to Point O’ Woods Golf and Country Club where it was played in Benton Harbor, Michigan from 1971-2008, 37 consecutive years. The 117th Western Amateur will be played from July 31 – August 3.

Founded in 1899, the Western Amateur is the world’s third oldest amateur championship behind the British Amateur (1855) and the U.S. Amateur (1895), and regularly attracts the top amateur players from across the country and around the world. Past champions include Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson, and Tiger Woods; two of which won at Point O’ Woods.

The 2019 Western Amateur will feature a stacked field led by Arizona State Senior, Chun-An Yu, the No. 1 ranked amateur in the world. He was champion of the 2015 Western Junior Championship and also played in the 2018 and 2019 U.S. Open Championships.

The field also includes 2018 Western Amateur defending champion and Texas Sophomore Cole Hammer; 2018 Western Amateur semifinalist and Stanford graduate, Brandon Wu, who also played in the 2019 U.S. Open; Junior at Oklahoma State, 2019 U.S. Open competitor Austin Eckroat; Vanderbilt Senior, 2018 Western Amateur quarterfinalist John Augenstein; Florida State Junior, 2019 ACC Champion, PING All-America first team John Pak; Georgia sophomore, PING All-America Second team, 2019 All-SEC First Team, and 2019 SEC Freshman of the year Trent Phillips.

“We’re excited to bring the Western Amateur back to Point O’ Woods,” said Vince Pellegrino, WGA senior vice president of tournaments. “A club that holds such importance to the history of the Western Amateur is special to us and we are happy to be back.

We strive each year to attract the best amateur players in the world, and we’re pleased that so many of them have chosen to play in this year’s Western Amateur.”

Point O’ Woods was established in 1956 and opened for play in 1958. The course was designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. and has not changed since its introduction. The historical track features fast greens and thick rough that will surely bring out the field’s top competitors.

Point O’ Woods also has been a supporter of the Evans Scholars Foundation, a nonprofit established by the Western Golf Association that has awarded full college tuition and housing scholarships to more than 11,000 caddies since 1930.

Thirty-eight of those caddies were from Point O’ Woods. Four current caddies will be enrolled in school this fall.