Posted: Wed, 15 Jun 2011 01:47 PM - 11,127 Readers

By: Kevin Robbins

The Texas Amateur returns this week to Austin Country Club. But in a big way, it's never been there at all.




The tournament — the oldest major amateur golf championship in Texas — has come to ACC five times in its 102-year history. The last one took place in 1975. Robert Hoyt of Houston won that championship on the old Riverside Drive property in East Austin.

Founded in 1899 at what is now the city-run Hancock Golf Course, the club moved from Riverside to Davenport Ranch in 1984. That's where architect Pete Dye created the course that a field of 144 will play Thursday and Friday, before a cut to the low 54 scores and ties determines which players will remain for the weekend rounds.

Organizers say they're eager to see how the newer ACC stands up to the state's oldest major.

"It's an opportunity for us to showcase another golf course," said head golf professional Dale Morgan.

The movement to bring the Texas Amateur back to ACC began years ago. Some members at the club expressed the desire to open their course to the best players in the state as both a gesture of goodwill and a way of exposing potential future members to the 7,061-yard course on Lake Austin.

The effort resulted in ACC being awarded the 2009 State Mid-Amateur, a championship for players 25 and older.

Austin resident Cameron Osler won that tournament in a playoff. He shot a 2-under 142 in the rain-shortened championship — a score that proved the newer ACC course gave elite players an equal number of challenges and chances to recover from them.

"It's like you're playing two different golf courses," Osler said. "They're two different looks and feels."

The front nine at ACC plummets down the fairway at No. 3 to a series of lowland holes that play along the edge of the lake. The back nine sweeps through the oaks and hurdles a number of canyons, consummating in a dramatic par-4 18th hole that many players consider one of the stronger closing holes in Texas.

The Texas Golf Association, which conducts the Amateur and a dozen other championships each year, selected ACC because it's long enough to test such an elite field yet strategic enough to require astute calculation and execution. The par-72 course requires exacting play and, in places, heroic risks.

"It's not just a bomber's golf course," said TGA executive director Rob Addington.

The club brought Dye back to the course a few years ago to massage some areas, create new bunkers and extend the back-tee yardage to more than 7,000 yards.

The work helped the playability of the course for members using the shorter tees. But it also strengthened ACC for scratch players.

"A lot of A-minus shots out here get Fs," said ACC member Louis Cannatti, a retired dentist who serves as the Texas Amateur's tournament chairman.

Members and club officials hope ACC gets straight As this week.

Bringing in the 2009 Mid-Am and the 2011 Texas Amateur could lead to consistent consideration from the Texas Golf Association for future championships.

"The TGA plays the premier spots in the state," said ACC member Michael Cooper, who played college golf at Texas two decades ago and competes often in state events. "Our course is as good as any in the state. This (the Texas Amateur) is the crown jewel of Texas amateur golf."



Notable players: Corey Whitsett (Alabama sophomore, 2007 U.S. Junior champion); Texas Longhorns golfers Cody Gribble, Alex Moon and Johnathan Schnitzer; Austin Country Club players Michael Allen, Michael Cooper, Jaime Beaman and Wehman Hopke; Cameron Osler (2009 Texas Mid-Amateur champion); Stratton Nolen (Westlake High School, 29th-ranked junior by Golfweek)


Former champions - Year Course Winner

• 2010 Royal Oaks Chris Ward
• 2009 Miramont James Sacheck
• 2008 Houston CC Kelly Kraft
• 2007 Whispering Pines Charlie Holland
• 2006 Dallas CC Paul Haley
• 2005 Barton Creek Kevin Schultz
• 2004 Carlton Woods Zach Atkinson
• 2003 Dallas Athletic Club Ryan Baca

*  Story Contributed by: Kevin Robbins