Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/95076
U.S. Mid-Amateur to be hosted by Country Club of Birmingham next year USGA national championships do not visit Alabama very often, so when the Country Club of Birmingham hosts next year's U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship it will be a highly significant event. We are now less than a year out from this championship which will be played Oct. 5-10, 2013, with both the West and East courses to be used. When the U.S. Amateur was played at Shoal Creek in 1986, the West Course held one of the rounds of stroke play qualifying, but the host course was Shoal Creek. And Shoal Creek hosted the only other USGA championship to visit the state when the U.S. Junior Amateur was contested there in 2008. The fact that BCC has two courses was a big plus in it being chosen. Two-hundred and sixty four players will play a round each on the West and East to whittle down the field to 64 players who will then enter match play, all of which will be played on the West. The winner will have to survive six matches over four days to be crowned champion, concluding with the 36-hole final. Not only will they be a national champion, but the winner has traditionally received an exemption to The Masters the following spring. Two players expected to be in conten- tion will be defending champion Nathan Smith and another for- mer champion Tim Jackson. Both are exempt courtesy of making it to this year's quarter-finals. Smith, who lives in Pitts- burgh, Pa., has a record four wins (2003, '09, '10 and '12). Jackson of Germantown, Tn., has a strong affinity for BCC hav- ing won their Invitational three years in a row (2006-08). He has also won the U.S. Mid-Amateur twice (1994, 2001) and both players have represented the U.S. team in the Walker Cup. To be eligible to play in this national championship, one must be 25 or older and have a 3.4 index or better. Qualifiers to make the field of 264 will be hosted across the country. Shoal Creek will host the Ala- bama qualifier on Aug. 26. BCC member and championship gen- eral chairman Richard Anthony took a party from the club on a visit to this year's U.S. Mid-Amateur played at Conway Farms, near Chicago, in September. Click here for information from this year's Mid-Amateur: www.usga.org Please take note of the Thompson TEES Off icon. Every place you see this icon, click on it to subscribe. An annual subscription is only $25 a year -- less than 50 cents an issue -- filled with exclusive, local content delivered to your in-box every Thursday.