The 29^th U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship will be held October 3 - 8, 2009 at The River and Cassique courses at The Kiawah Island Club in South Carolina. Cassique was designed by Tom Watson and opened in 2000, and The River Club is a Tom Fazio design that opened in 1995. Both golf courses will play at approximately 6,900 yards from the championship tees.

Mr. Randall Glover, golf course superintendent at Cassique, has the golf course in exceptional condition for the US Mid Amateur Championship.

A total of 264 players will participate with each golfer playing 18 holes at each course, and the low 64 qualifiers advancing to match play at Cassique. The champion receives a gold medal and custody of the Robert T. Jones Jr. Memorial Trophy for the ensuing year. Steve Wilson, Ocean Springs, MS, won last year’s championship at the Milwaukee Country Club and plans to participate again this fall. Many local players will compete from the SE Region, including Bert Atkinson from Charleston, SC, a past participant of numerous USGA championships.

Randall Glover and Jim Musci are the golf course superintendents at Cassique and The River Club, respectively. Cassique is a challenging layout with TifEagle bermudagrass putting greens and Tifway bermudagrass fairways and roughs. Tall bahiagrass rough at many areas adds to the difficulty. The River Club was renovated a few years ago to Champion bermudagrass on the putting greens and Emerald bermudagrass on fairways and tees. The River Club is the only site in the SE Region with Emerald bermudagrass at these playing areas.

Alli Jarrett is the USGA staff member is charge of the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship and Jay Rains from the USGA Executive Committee serves as chairman of the Mid-Amateur Championship Committee. Bill Hindman is the general chairman. Chris Hartwiger and Patrick O’Brien will work with the superintendents and assist with the agronomic preparations of both courses for the week of the championship.

Live scoring plus updates for the event are available on the USGA Web site (www.usga.org).

Source: Patrick O'Brien 770-229-8125 or patobrien@usga.org and Chris Hartwiger 205-444-5079 or chartwiger@usga.org