The best mid-ams and senior amateur golfers in the world are soon descending upon Pawleys Island, South Carolina. The 2022 International Mid-Amateur & Senior Championship plays host to a who’s who of amateur golf. Considered as a major in the amateur golf world, the best of the best will be teeing it up August 4-7 for a piece of history.
Names like Paul Simson, Doug Hanzel, Bob Royak and Rusty Strawn all pop off the screen when looking at the senior roster.
Simson is one of the best American amateur golfers in the game’s history. Two U.S. Senior ams, a mini grand slam in 2010 winning the U.S., British, and Canadian Senior amateur championships in less than two months time, nine North & South victories (2 amateur wins, 7 senior amateur wins), and over 40 Carolinas Golf Association championships gives Simson a World Golf Hall of Fame worthy career.
Hanzel is coming off a win last month at the National Senior Hall of Fame tournament. Royak is constantly at the top of leaderboards and won the 2019 U.S. Senior amateur. Strawn is currently ranked No. 2 in the Golfweek Senior Amateur rankings, trailing Kevin VandenBerg, who is also in the field this week.
In all, 38 seniors in the field are ranked in the World Amateur Golf Rankings.
As for the mid-ams in the field this week, 13 are ranked in WAGR. Brett Viboch, ranked 1,599 in the world, is the top ranked mid-am at the event. Constantly at the top of the leaderboards both at USGA mid-ams and Northern California amateur championships, Viboch is due to break through.
Other notables in the field include Jay Livsey, Justin Young, Domingo Jojola, and Gant Bills.
Mike Stranz’s masterpieces Caledonia and True Blue are the courses playing host this week. With remnants of the rice plantations that once stood where the courses now reside, both tracks take a players best golf if they are going to claim a championship.