By Staff
BENTON HARBOR – The 2007 Western Amateur field again will feature many of the world's greatest amateur golfers, including 12 returning Western Amateur Sweet 16 match play qualifiers. Also, 13 NCAA All-Americans in 2007 – four first-team, four second-team and five third-team – are set to compete in the championship, to be held July 30-Aug. 5 at Point O'Woods Golf &Country Club.
"We have one of the best fields in recent years committed to play in our 105th Western Amateur," noted John Kaczkowski, Western Golf Association tournament director. "Jamie Lovemark, our 2005 champion, heads a list of top-ranked national and international players who will be providing a very competitive week of golf at Point O'Woods."
Lovemark, of Rancho Sante Fe, California, a first-team All-American from the University of Southern California, won the 2007 NCAA Championship. In 2005, he became the youngest player to ever win the Western Amateur; he also advanced to the Sweet 16 match play in 2006.
Earlier this month, Lovemark finished in a tie for 45th at the AT&T National, a PGA Tour event, and in June he placed second in the Rochester Area Charities Showdown on the Nationwide Tour, losing on the second playoff hole to Chris Riley, who was the 1994 Western Amateur runner up to Tiger Woods.
Also one of the favorites this year is Kyle Stanley, of Gig Harbor, Wash., who was first in Golfweek's rankings entering this week.
Stanley finished second in the 2007 NCAA Championship, two strokes behind Lovemark, and won the 2006 Sahalee Players championship.
He is a first-team All-American from Clemson University and will be playing in his first Western Amateur.
Right behind Stanley at No. 2 in Golfweek's rankings is Dustin Johnson, of North Myrtle Beach, S.C. He was a 2006 and 2007 first-team All-American at Coastal Carolina and advanced to the quarterfinals in match play at the 2006 Western Amateur.
Another highly ranked player in this year's field is Billy Horschel of Grant, Florida, a first-team All-American at the University of Florida who is currently ranked 6th by Golfweek. He played in the 2006 U.S. Open and missed the cut by just two strokes. Playing in his second Western Amateur, he advanced to the Sweet 16 in 2006.
Among the other top-ranked amateurs playing in the 2007 Western Amateur are Rickie Fowler and Jon McLean. Fowler, of Scottsdale, Arizona, and a freshman at Oklahoma State University, was ranked seventh coming into the week. He will be playing in his fourth Western Amateur, advancing to the quarterfinals in match play in 2005.
McLean, a junior at Texas Christian University, was tied for 12th in Golfweek's rankings. A native of Weston, Florida, he made the Sweet 16 in his first try in 2005.
This will be his third Western Amateur. As the 105th Western Amateur unfolds, the Point O'Woods members and staff again will play key roles in hosting the championship.
"We could not possibly conduct a championship of this quality and reputation without the support and hard work demonstrated annually by everyone we work with at Point O'Woods," said Kaczkowski. "The members and staff roll out a red carpet of welcome that is unsurpassed in amateur golf. Tiger Woods once called the Western Amateur at Point O'Woods 'the Masters of amateur golf,' and I think most of the players who have experienced the Point's hospitality would agree."
The Western Amateur has been a prestigious national tournament since it was first held in 1899 at the Glen View Club in Golf, Illinois. The championship has been anchored at Point O'Woods, a Robert Trent Jones design that has consistently ranked among the nation's top golf courses, since 1971.
In recent history, with Point O'Woods as the host club, The Western Amateur has produced many notable champions, such as Phil Mickelson (1991), Justin Leonard (1992-93), Tiger Woods (1994) and Ryan Moore (2004). Woods' victory in the Western Amateur was his first major win in amateur competition, coming just three weeks before he claimed the 1994 U.S. Amateur title.
Many of the great names in American golf also won Western Amateur titles early in their careers, including Jack Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf, Lanny Wadkins, Ben Crenshaw, Curtis Strange and Hal Sutton. Many more of golf's top names competed for the championship but were unable to win the grueling marathon.
The Western Golf Association's very own Charles "Chick" Evans Jr., founder of the Evans Scholars Foundation and one of the great amateur golfers of all time, won his first Western Amateur in 1909 then repeated in 1912, 1914, 1915, 1920, 1921, 1922 and 1923.
Evans, Nicklaus and Woods are the only three golfers to have won the Western Amateur, Western Open, U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open.