About the British Amateur Championship:
Tournament format: After two days of stroke play, 288 golfers are cut to the 64 who continue to match play. Players advance through 18-hole, single-elimination match play until two players remain. The championship match is 36 holes each.
Alan Dunbar defeated Matthias Schwab 1-up to become the 2012 British Amateur champ. Dunbar, age 23 and from Northern Ireland, is a graduate of the Darren Clarke Foundation in Portrush. He was a member of the Great Britain & Ireland winning side in the 2011 Walker Cup, winning two of the three matches he played. Schwab is a 17-year old from Austria.
2011 British Amateur
Bryden Macpherson of Australia defeated Michael Stewart of Scotland 3-and-2 in the 36-hole championship match. Macpherson, a collegiate golfer at the University of Georgia in the USA, became just the second Australian to win the British Am, and the first since 1954.
British Amateur Championship Records:
8 - John Ball (1888, 1890, 1892, 1894, 1899, 1907, 1910, 1912)
Most Consecutive Wins
3 - Michael Bonallack, 1968-70
Largest Winning Margin in Final
14 and 13 - 1934, Lawson Little def. Jimmy Wallace
British Amateur Championship Golf Courses:
The British Am also visits courses that are not part of the Open rota, such as Formby, Nairn, Royal Porthcawl in Wales and Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland.
British Amateur Championship Facts and Trivia:
- The winner of the British Amateur receives exemptions to play in the same year's British Open and the following year's Masters (but only gets into The Masters if the golfer still an amateur when The Masters is played).
- A tournament organized by Royal Liverpool in 1885 is now recognized as the first British Amateur Championship, won by Allen MacFie. The R&A began running the tournament in 1921.
- John Ball won the most titles with eight, the first in 1888 and the last in 1912. Despite all those wins, Ball never claimed back-to-back championships.
- Since World War II, the player with the most wins is Sir Michael Bonallack with five.
- Three of Bonallack's victories were consecutive, 1968-70. Bonallack is the only golfer to win the British Am three straight years.
- Only three golfers have won both the British Amateur and the British Open in their careers: Ball, Harold Hilton and Bobby Jones.
- Jones' lone win in the British Am was in 1930, his Grand Slam year. The British Am was the first of the four major tournaments Jones won that year, followed by the British Open, the U.S. Open, and finally the U.S. Amateur.
- The first American golfer to win the British Amateur was Walter Travis in 1904, but Travis emigrated to the U.S. after being born in Australia. The first golfer born in the U.S. to win the British Am was Jess Sweetser in 1926.
- Sweetser's victory in 1926 followed a remarkable act of sportsmanship on his part. His opponent in the final, A.F. Simpson, missed the tee time after his car broke down en route to the course. The R&A was set to declare Sweetser the winner by forfeit, but Sweetser insisted they wait for Simpson to arrive. Simpson showed up an hour late (on bicycle), and Sweetser then won the championship match 6 and 5.
- Lawson Little won both the U.S. and British amateur championships in 1934, and did it again in 1935. He's the only golfer to sweep both events in back-to-back years.
- The first golfer to win both the British Amateur and U.S. Amateur in the same year was Harold Hilton, in 1911.
British Amateur Championship Winners:
2011 - Bryden Macpherson def. Michael Stewart, 3 and 3
2010 - Jin Jeong def. James Byrne, 5 and 4
2009 - Matteo Manassero def. Sam Hutsby, 4 and 3
2008 - Reinier Saxton def. Tommy Fleetwood, 3 and 2
2007 - Drew Weaver def. Tim Stewart, 2 and 1
2006 - Julien Guerrier def. Adam Gee, 4 and 3
2005 - Brian McElhinney def. John Gallagher, 5 and 4
2004 - Stuart Wilson def. Lee Corfield, 4 and 3
2003 - Gary Wolstenholme def. Raphael De Sousa, 6 and 5
2002 - Alejandro Larrazabal def. Martin Sell, 1-up
(View full list of British Amateur winners)
