Posted: Thu, 16 Jun 2011 02:04 PM - 17,795 Readers

By: Conroe News

The 2011 Texas Amateur presented by Insperity will be played Thursday through Sunday at Austin Country Club.

Conducted by the Texas Golf Association, the championship brings together the most accomplished amateur players in the state to compete for the H.L. Edwards Memorial Trophy.

Founded in 1899, Austin CC is one of the state’s most venerated clubs and has been the site of five previous Texas Amateurs, the most recent of which was won by Houston’s Robert Hoyt in 1975.

But the 2011 Amateur is the first to be decided on the club’s exacting Pete Dye-designed layout, which opened in 1984 when the club moved from its old Riverside Drive address to its current location northwest of the city on the shores of Lake Austin.

The championship is open to male amateur golfers who belong to a facility that is a member of the Texas Golf Association, have a GHIN Handicap Index not exceeding 6.4 and are current Texas residents.

Of the more than 700 entries received this year, 41 players were fully exempt from qualifying based on past performance. To determine the remaining 103 spots in the 144-player starting field, 18-hole qualifiers were held at 19 sites across the state from April 17 through June 6.

The format for the Texas Amateur is 72 holes of individual stoke play. All contestants will play 18 holes on both Thursday and Friday. After those 36 holes, the field will be cut to the low 54 scores and ties heading into the final two rounds on Saturday and Sunday, when a new champion will be crowned at Austin Country Club.

Chris Ward, of McKinney, who won last year’s title at Royal Oaks Country Club in Dallas, joined the professional ranks and is therefore ineligible to defend his championship.

Visit the Texas Golf Association website, txga.org, once the action gets under way for the most up-to-date information, including live scoring, starting times and daily video press conferences.