The PGA TOUR Superstore World Amateur Handicap Championship has grown into the world’s largest single-site golf tournament, attracting the most diverse crowd in golf to Myrtle Beach. Doctors and lawyers ride with construction workers and plumbers, all in pursuit of golf glory.
The World Amateur has been the “Every Man’s Major” for more than two decades, adding a one-of-a-kind event to the golf calendar.
The tournament’s contributions to the game were recognized when the World Am (official website) won the International Network of Golf’s (ING) prestigious “Tournament Service” award, besting a field that included the Tiger Woods Chevron Charity Tournament.
“It’s an honor for the tournament to be recognized among a national field of events,” tournament director Dave Macpherson said. “The World Am is a unique event and to have our place in the game recognized with the Tournament Service award is gratifying.”
The Tournament Service award is presented annually to an individual or group that improves tournament golf. The World Amateur, which annually draws 3,700 people from all 50 states and more than 20 foreign countries, has raised the bar for tournament golf locally and nationally during its 25 years.
“Year after year, the World Am is one of the great stories in golf,” ING president Mike Jamison said. “Just to pull off an event of this magnitude is amazing. To do it with consistency and style for 25 years is a feat to be admired. It’s a well-deserved award.”
A 72-hole stroke play tournament, the World Amateur is played on more than 50 Myrtle Beach area courses the week before Labor Day. The World Am is open to anyone with a verifiable handicap, and golfers are grouped in tightly bunched flights.
The winner of every flight advances the World Championship Playoff – an 18-hole shootout - at the Dunes Club with the winner crowned World Champion.
But the World Amateur won the Tournament Service award for its work on and off the course. Every evening after tournament play, participants and their guest attend the World’s Largest 19th Hole, a nightly party at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. The 19th Hole features free food and drinks, in addition to live entertainment, instruction seminars from some of the game’s best teachers and much more.
Called by some the “Academy Awards of the golf industry,” the ING Industry Honors program is conducted by the non-profit International Network of Golf to recognize outstanding achievement in the golf business. Nominations were accepted throughout the year from anyone in the golf industry. Sub-committees trimmed the nominee list down to the top three in each category. ING members then voted electronically to determine the winners, who receive a statue from Heritage Creations in New York.
The World Am joins a list of Tournament Service Award winners that includes, the Brad Faxon/Billy Andrade Charity Event; Chick-Fil-A; ATT Pebble Beach Pro-Am; Heather Farr Leader Dog and the EWGA Golf Committee.
The 26th PGA TOUR Superstore World Amateur Handicap Championship will be held August 31 – September 4, 2009. More information is available at www.WorldAmGolf.com.
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