The United States Golf Association on Monday announced The Honors Course in Ooltewah as the host of the 2016 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship. The dates for the championship are July 18-23.
“The USGA is delighted to continue its long relationship with The Honors Course with the 2016 U.S. Junior Amateur, particularly considering its founding vision to uphold and celebrate the values and integrity of amateur golf,” said Thomas J. O’Toole Jr., USGA vice president and chairman of the Championship Committee.
The 2016 U.S. Junior Amateur will be the fifth USGA championship conducted at The Honors Course, and the 14th championship held in the state of Tennessee. The club previously hosted the 1991 U.S. Amateur, won by Mitch Voges; the 1994 Curtis Cup Match, which ended in a 9-9 tie; the 2005 U.S. Mid-Amateur, won by Kevin Marsh; and the 2011 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur, won by Terri Frohnmayer.
“The Honors Course is very pleased to host another USGA event, and particularly the U.S. Junior Amateur, as it will enable the club to continue to carry out its mission of honoring amateur golf,” said Joel W. Richardson, Jr., president of The Honors Course.
Designed by Pete Dye and opened in 1983, The Honors Course sits at the foot of White Oak Mountain near Chattanooga. The course was also the site of the 1996 and 2010 NCAA Men’s Division I Championships, won by Tiger Woods and Scott Langley, respectively. The Honors Course was also the site of the 1986 and 2004 Southern Amateurs.
This will be the second U.S. Junior Amateur to be held in Tennessee. Richland Country Club in Nashville was the site of the 1975 championship, which was won by Brett Mullin.
The U.S. Junior Amateur Championship was first played in 1948 and is open to amateur golfers who have not reached the age of 18 prior to the close of the championship and who hold a USGA Handicap Index no higher than 6.4. Notable past champions include Johnny Miller, David Duval, Tiger Woods, Hunter Mahan, Jordan Spieth and Honors Course member Charlie Rymer, who grew up in nearby Cleveland, Tenn.
The 2014 U.S. Junior Amateur will be conducted July 21-26 at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas, while the 2015 championship will be played at Colleton River Plantation Club in Bluffton, S.C., July 20-25.