CHAMPIONSHIP

ROYAL PORTHCAWL will host the 50th staging of the Senior Amateur Golf Championship this summer, writes Tony Poole.

This will be the first occasion for the Rest Bay club to stage the tournament that was launched at Formby back in 1969.

The best Amateur Senior golfers will tee it up at Royal Porthcawl from August 1–3.

The tournament is contested over 54 holes with Bryan Hughes of the Hesketh club in Southport defending champion.

Last year over the Old Course at Sunningdale, he shot rounds of 74, 73, 67 for a four-over par winning score of 214.

He had two shots in hand over three competitors - the USA duo of Doug Hanzel and Gene Elliott along with Steve Williams (South Africa).

He became the first Englishman to be crowned champion since Roy Smethurst back in 2003, and in the process it terminated seven consecutive USA victories.

Royal Porthcawl this summer will become only the third Welsh venue for the Senior Amateur Championship.

Back in 1979, Royal St David’s in Harlech hosted the event with R J White the champion golfer while in 2012 the Machynys club in Llanelli were hosts and Chip Lutz (USA) won the day.

However, the most successful player in Senior Amateur Championship history is Scottish golfer Charlie Green, who won the tournament six times in seven years from 1988. – and it was also her 50th career title.

She came from three shots behind on the final day to pip the Oates Victoria Open winner from the previous week, Minjee Lee (Australia), by six shots.

The European Ladies Tour now moves on to the Classic Bonville at Coffs Harbour Golf Club, North Coast, New South Wales, and it tees off a week tomorrow (Thursday).