World Amateur Course Field Stronger Than Ever

Numbers don’t always tell the whole story. In the case of the 2007 PGA TOUR Superstore World Amateur Handicap Championship, though, they’re as good an indicator as any of just how strong this year’s competition will be for the “World’s Largest Amateur Golf Tournament.”

As the Aug. 27-31 tournament in Myrtle Beach draws near, consider that:

• Seven of Golf Digest’s entries to its 2007-2008 list of “America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses” are among the 55 participating courses, including The Dunes Golf and Beach Club (#38), Tidewater Golf Club & Plantation (#41), Rivers Edge Golf Club (#62), Tiger’s Eye Golf Links (#73), King’s North at Myrtle Beach National (#76), Caledonia Golf & Fish Club (#86) and True Blue Plantation (#87).
• Tidewater is one of seven new courses participating in this year’s World Amateur. The others are Barefoot Resort & Golf (Dye Club and Norman Course), Legends Golf Club (Heathland and Moorlands courses), Leopard’s Chase Golf Club and Thisle Club.
• Some 4,000 participants are expected, representing all 50 states and more than 23 foreign countries.
• More than $500,000 in prizes will be up for grabs.

Moreover, tournament officials are marveling at the elite caliber of this year’s host courses. “This is, without a doubt, the strongest field of courses that we’ve ever had in the PGA TOUR Superstore World Amateur Handicap Championship,” said Steve Mays, Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday tournament director. “To have seven of our 10 “Top 100” courses host golfers in the 2007 World Am shows the importance of the World Am to the Myrtle Beach golf community.”

A complete listing of participating courses can be found at the tournament’s Web site at www.WorldAmGolf.com.

Other 2007 World Am highlights include the return of the International Pairs Championship, which gives a twosome the chance to become the U.S. qualifier for an all expense-paid trip to St. Andrews to represent the United States in the 2008 International Pairs World Finals; and the debut of the Cory Lemke Parent-Child Championship, being played in memory of a boy who played countless rounds of golf with his father Mark, won his flight in 2002 at the age of 15, and who tragically lost his life in a 2006 motorcycle accident.

More information about the 2007 World Amateur can be found at the tournament Web site at www.WorldAmGolf.com or by calling 1-800-833-8798.

Sources: Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday and World Amateur Web site