Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel will host the 2020 Western Amateur from July 27-Aug. 1, the first time the championship will be played in central Indiana.
Founded in 1899, the Western Amateur features one of the deepest and strongest fields in amateur golf as well as the game’s most grueling format. It is the world’s third oldest amateur championship behind the British Amateur (1885) and the U.S. Amateur (1895), and attracts top-ranked golfers from around the world. Past champions include Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.
The Western Amateur has never been played at Crooked Stick and has been contested in the state of Indiana just two times in its storied history, in 1938 and 1951 at South Bend Country Club.
Crooked Stick has twice been home to the WGA’s BMW Championship. The club hosted the penultimate event in the PGA TOUR’s FedExCup Playoff in 2012 and 2016.
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. 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.
The Western Golf Association will conduct six golf championships in 2020, including the BMW Championship, the penultimate event of the PGA TOUR’s FedExCup Playoffs.
Also on the WGA schedule are the Evans Scholars Invitational on the Korn Ferry Tour and the annual Western Junior. In addition, the WGA will partner again with the Women’s Western Golf Association to conduct the Women’s Western Amateur and Women’s Western Junior.
“We’re proud and excited to be hosting golf championships at all levels and for top men and women golfers,” said Vince Pellegrino, WGA senior vice president of tournaments. “We’re expecting excellent competition among some of the finest junior, amateur and professional golfers in the world.
“We’re also looking forward to conducting five of the six events in the greater Chicago region,” Pellegrino said. “Chicago-area golf fans won’t have far to travel to see some of the year’s finest golf championships.”
Olympia Fields Country Club in south suburban Chicago will host the WGA’s flagship event, the BMW Championship, on Aug. 18-23.
The 2020 BMW Championship will be hosted by Olympia Fields Country Club in Olympia Fields, Illinois, from Aug. 18-23. The event is the penultimate event in the PGA TOUR FedExCup Playoffs, with the TOUR’s top 70 players vying to earn a spot in the season-ending TOUR Championship.
The 2020 BMW Championship will mark the sixth time the event has been contested at Olympia Fields, and the first since 1971 when Bruce Crampton claimed the title. Other past champions of the event at Olympia Fields are Jock Hutchinson (1920), Walter Hagen (1927), Macdonald Smith (1933) and Jack Nicklaus (1968).
Olympia Fields has a rich championship tradition of offering a challenging test for the world’s top players. Most recently, Olympia Fields has hosted the 2003 U.S. Open, the 2015 U.S. Amateur, and the 2017 Women’s PGA Championship.
The event will be played on Olympia Fields’ famed North Course, designed in 1923 by professional golfer and course architect Willie Park Jr. With the hosting of the U.S. Amateur in 2015, Olympia Fields joined only eight other American clubs – including Winged Foot, Oakland Hills and Cherry Hills – that have hosted the U.S. Open (1928, 2003), the U.S. Senior Open (1997) the PGA Championship (1925, 1961) and the U.S. Amateur.
The Western Amateur will be the lone WGA championship to be contested outside of Illinois. Crooked Stick hosted the BMW Championship in 2012 and 2016.
All proceeds from WGA championships will once again benefit the Evans Scholars Foundation as it provides full tuition and housing college scholarships to youth caddies with limited financial means.
“We not only provide golfers of all ages the opportunity to experience the thrill of competition, we’re raising funds for one of golf’s favorite and most impactful charities,” noted Pellegrino. “We look forward to fulfilling that mission once again in the coming year.”
Since 2007, the BMW Championship has raised more than $35 million for the Evans Scholars Foundation. This academic year, 1,010 Evans Scholars are enrolled at 18 universities. More than 11,050 caddies have graduated as Evans Scholars since the first two Evans Scholarship recipients enrolled at Northwestern University in 1930.
Prestwick Country Club in Frankfort, Illinois, will host the Women’s Western Amateur from July 20-25, 2020.
The Women’s Western Amateur features an outstanding field of promising golfers, with many competitors starring in collegiate and professional tournament play. This will be the first time Prestwick Country Club has hosted the prestigious amateur championship. The club opened in 1964 and embodies a Larry Packard course design.
The Women’s Western Amateur field will consist of 120 amateurs with a handicap of 5.4 or less. Held without interruption since its founding, the event is one of the oldest annual championships in women’s amateur golf. The first and second day will each consist of 18 holes of stroke play. After the second day, the field will be reduced to the top 32 players for the match play portion of the championship.
Westfield’s Gabriella Gilrowski won the Women’s Western Amateur last year, when it took place at Woodland Country Club in Carmel. Another Westfield golfer, Jocelyn Bruch, was the runner-up.
