For as much as the men behind some of the largest, longest running amateur golf events in the country have in common, they have communicated surprisingly infrequently about their events through the years. Banded together they’re a formidable force, which became evident in December when their master project was revealed.
The Elite Amateur Golf Series, a seven-tournament gauntlet for PGA Tour-bound amateurs with coveted tour starts and U.S. Golf Association exemptions on the line, was a project 20 months in the making, and one with an origin story rooted in COVID. The pandemic was a catalyst for opening the phone lines – it just took two years for the final iteration to form.
“Every time we felt like we were ready to announce,” said Andy Priest, executive director of the Southern Golf Association, “the timing just didn’t feel right, whatever that might have been.”
Part of that was recognizing that the carrots needed to be in place. The announcement wouldn’t have much sizzle without being able to tell players exactly what they were competing for in what has been dubbed the Elite Amateur Cup, which consists of the seven combined events: the Sunnehanna Amateur, Northeast Amateur, North & South Amateur, Trans-Miss Amateur, Southern Amateur, Pacific Coast Amateur and the Western Amateur.
Players must compete in at least three of the seven to be eligible for the exemptions, which range from five exemptions into the U.S. Amateur, five exemptions into U.S. Open final qualifying and exemptions into the 2022 Butterfield Bermuda Championship, 2022 Puerto Rico Open and a handful of Korn Ferry Tour events.
Top finishers will be determined based on cumulative World Amateur Golf Ranking points. No longer can a top player afford to sit on the sidelines for the summer, protecting his WAGR ranking for exemptions or a potential Walker Cup selection, and that’s exactly the kind of competitive environment Priest & Co., want to cultivate.
Tour players, after all, don’t take weeks off.