ROYAL TROON TO HOST 2003 AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

The Championship Committee of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club is pleased to announce that the 2003 Amateur Championship will be played at Royal Troon Golf Club from Monday 2 to Saturday 7 June. Irvine Golf Club will jointly host the qualifying rounds on Monday 2 and Tuesday 3 June.

Troon has hosted many R&A Championships of which the most recent was the 1997 Open Championship won by Justin Leonard, the seventh time the Open has been played there.

When Royal Troon hosts the 2003 Amateur, it will mark 25 years since Peter McEvoy, the current GB&I captain won his second Amateur Championship, defeating fellow Walker Cup player Paul McKellar 4/3 in the final.

Other winners of the Amateur played at Troon are American Charlie Yates in 1938; John Beharrell, the 1999 R&A Captain, who won in 1956 and remains the youngest Amateur Champion and lastly current R&A captain Sir Michael Bonallack who won the third of his five Amateur titles over the Ayrshire links in 1968.