Read 116th Missouri Amateur Championship Program
HOLLISTER, Mo. (June 15, 2023) — The 116th Missouri Amateur Championship will be held at Payne’s Valley Golf Course in Hollister, Missouri beginning on Tuesday, June 20 with 144 Missouri golfers vying for the championship title. The week-long tournament will conclude with the final 36-hole match played on Sunday, June 25. The Missouri Amateur Championship was last played at Big Cedar Lodge in 2015 on the Buffalo Ridge Springs course and again in 2020 on Ozarks National, but has never been held at Payne’s Valley.
Payne’s Valley was designed by 82-time PGA Tour winner Tiger Woods and his golf course design firm TGR Design. Woods and Johnny Morris, Founder of Bass Pro Shops and Big Cedar Lodge, teamed up to create a public course that was immersive, picturesque and unique, complete with a natural spring-fed cavern system, remarkable cliff faces and stunning waterfalls.
It is Woods’ first public access course and it opened to the public in 2021. The course is named after golf legend and Ozarks native Payne Stewart, who won the Missouri Amateur Championship in 1979. Golf Digest named Payne’s Valley as the 2021 Best New Public Course in North America.
From the black tees, the course plays 7,370 yards for a par-72.
“The Missouri Golf Association is excited for the opportunity to conduct the 116th Missouri Amateur Championship at Payne’s Valley Golf Course,” MGA Executive Director Scott Hovis said. “The top amateur golfers in the state are going to enjoy the amazing, beautiful and challenging golf course designed by Tiger Woods. It is going to be a great week for everyone to enjoy.”
The Amateur will feature several past Missouri Amateur winners, including last year’s champion Chad Niezing (Manchester), three-time champion Brad Nurski (St. Joseph, 2010, ‘17, ‘18), Walker Kesterson (Ashland, 2019), MGA President Wayne Fredrick (Springfield, 1996), Sam Migdal (St. Louis, 2016), Skip Berkmeyer (St. Louis 1999, ‘09, ‘11), David Lucks (St. Louis, 1987) and Scott Thomas (Chesterfield, 1992).
The youngest player in the field is 13-year-old Anson Munzlinger (Columbia). He is one of 22 players in the field under 20 years old. These teenagers will square off against players at least double their senior in the stroke play rounds, including three competitors at least 60 years old; David Lucks is the oldest player in the field at 72. The average age of the field is 29.
Several family members will also be going head-to-head in the stroke play rounds – we have four pairs of brothers (Gaite and Gage Brauns, Patrick and Jeffrey Johnston, Jared and Jonathan Jordan and Ryan and Zach Walsh) and two fathers and sons (Kory and Max Bowman and Jared and Chayton Jordan) in the field.
The week will begin with two rounds of qualifying stroke play on Tuesday and Wednesday, after which the field will be cut from 144 to 64 players. Rounds 1 and 2 will be followed with a round of 64 match play on Thursday.
Two rounds of match play will be conducted on both Friday and Saturday, with the winners of each match continuing on to the next round. The semi-final round will include the top four players and will be held in the afternoon on Saturday. The final 36-hole match will be held on Sunday to determine the champion.
To view pairings or keep up with live scoring, visit: www.golfgenius.com/pages/3974715
For more information on the Missouri Amateur Championship, contact [email protected] or call the MGA office at (573) 636-8994.
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ABOUT MGA: The Missouri Golf Association is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to promote the best interests and true spirit of the game of golf throughout the State of Missouri.
The Missouri Golf Association was started in St. Louis in 1905 to run the Amateur Championship. Four founding clubs would be the ones in existence in St. Louis in those early years – St. Louis Country Club, Algonquin Golf Club, Glen Echo Golf Club and Normandie Golf Club. Four years later, the invite-only Missouri Amateur was held in Kansas City at Evanston Club. 1911 marked the real organization of the MGA with Bonner Miller as Secretary and Executive Director. Ever since then, the MGA has striven to provide tournaments and spaces for Missouri golfers to sharpen their skills and enjoy the game.
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