US Amateur Championship Preview
History of the U.S. Amateur Championship The U.S. Amateur Championship was born in 1895 due to a controversy. In 1894, two clubs - Newport (R.I.) Golf Club and New York's St. Andrew's Golf Club - had conducted invitational tournaments to attract the nation's top amateur players. Newport's stroke play tournament was won by club member W.G. Lawrence, who triumphed over a field of 20 competitors. The match-play competition at St. Andrews attracted 27 golfers and was won by Laurence Stoddart, of the host club. Both clubs proclaimed their winners as the national champion. Clearly, golf needed a national governing body to conduct national championships, develop a single set of rules for all golfers to follow, and to promote the best interests of the game. With that, representatives from five clubs founded the USGA on Dec. 22, 1894. As a result, in 1895, its first full year of operation, the USGA conducted the National Amateur and Women's Amateur Championship as well as the Open Championship. The National Amateur and Open Championships were conducted at Newport Golf Club during the same week of October and Charles B. Macdonald became the first U.S. Amateur champion. The Amateur Championship is the oldest golf championship in this country - one day older than the U.S. Open. Many of golf’s greatest players had held the U.S. Amateur title. It was, however, longtime amateur Robert T. Jones Jr., who first attracted media coverage and spectator attendance at the Amateur Championship. Jones captured the championship five times (1924, 1925, 1927, 1928, 1930).
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