The Amateur Championship

The Amateur Championship (sometimes referred to as the British Amateur or British Amateur Championship outside of the UK) is a golf tournament which is held annually in the United Kingdom. It is one of the two leading individual tournaments for amateur golfers, alongside the U.S. Amateur. It normally has the widest international representation of any individual amateur event, with 34 golf federations from all six continents represented in the 2010 championship. It has been held in the UK on all but one occasion; in 1949 Ireland hosted the championship.

Before World War II it was regarded as one of golf's major championships, but given the modern dominance of the sport by professional golfers, this is no longer the case. Only one Amateur Championship winner in the post-World War II era has gone on to win a professional major championship: José María Olazábal.

History

1885

The championship was founded in 1885 by the Royal Liverpool Golf Club and was, for many years, regarded as an unofficial event. In 1922, the R&A decided that Allan Macfie, the winner of the event, should be added to the list of Amateur Championship winners.

Amateur

An amateur (French amateur "lover of", from Old French and ultimately from Latin amatorem nom. amator, "lover") is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science in a non-professional or unpaid manner. Amateurs often have little or no formal training in their pursuits, and many are autodidacts (self-taught).

See also

British

British may refer to:

Places

Peoples and culture