The USGA announced Thursday that The Honors Course in Ooltewah will be the host site for both the 2026 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship and the 2031 U.S. Amateur Championship.
Designed by Pete Dye and opened in 1983, The Honors Course sits at the foot of White Oak Mountain. The 2026 U.S. Women’s Amateur, which is scheduled for Aug.
3-9, and the 2031 U.S. Amateur, scheduled for Aug. 11-17, will be the seventh and eighth USGA championships conducted at The Honors Course. The club previously hosted the 1991 U.S. Amateur, won by Mitch Voges; the 1994 Curtis Cup Match, a biennial competition between the USA and Great Britain and Ireland that was halved, 9-9; the 2005 U.S. Mid-Amateur, won by Kevin Marsh; the 2011 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, won by Terri Frohnmayer; and the 2016 U.S. Junior Amateur, won by Min Woo Lee.
The course will also host the 2021 U.S. Senior Amateur Championship on Aug. 28-Sept. 2.
“Having three USGA championships at our course over the next 11 years is an incredible honor and a tremendous reflection of the hard work of our members and staff in carrying out our club’s dedication to amateur golf,” said Joe Richardson, chairman of The Honors Course. “The 2031 U.S. Amateur will have special significance as we mark the 40th anniversary of hosting the championship. We are proud and excited to welcome everyone to our home.”
The state of Tennessee previously hosted the U.S. Women’s Amateur in 2018 at The Golf Club of Tennessee, won by Kristen Gillman, and in 1938 at Memphis Country Club, won by Estelle Lawson Page. The Honors Course will become the 26th course to have hosted both a U.S. Amateur and U.S. Women’s Amateur, joining among others, Pebble Beach Golf Links, Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, Pinehurst Resort and Country Club and Merion Golf Club.
Women’s competitive golf in this country began with the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship in 1895. Along with the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Open, the Women’s Amateur was one of the USGA’s first three championships that year. In 2019, Gabriela Ruffels became the first Australian to hoist the Robert Cox Trophy with her victory at Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss. The U.S. Women’s Amateur champion receives a full exemption into the following year’s U.S. Women’s Open. The 2020 championship will be played Aug. 3-9 at Woodmont Country Club, in Rockville, Md. The 2021 championship will be hosted by Westchester Country Club, in Rye, N.Y., from Aug. 2-8.
Mitch Voges, 41, took home the Theodore A. Havemeyer Trophy in the 1991 U.S. Amateur at The Honors Course, defeating Manny Zerman, 7 and 6, in the final.
The U.S. Amateur Championship is open to amateur golfers with a Handicap Index® not exceeding 2.4. Throughout its history, the U.S. Amateur has been the most coveted of all amateur titles, with notable winners such as five-time champion Bob Jones, three-time champion Tiger Woods, two-time winner Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Lanny Wadkins, Jerry Pate, Mark O’Meara, Hal Sutton, Phil Mickelson, Matt Kuchar and Bryson DeChambeau.
The 2020 U.S. Amateur Championship will be conducted Aug. 10-16 at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, in Bandon, Ore.; Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club will host the 2021 championship; the 2022 championship will be hosted by Ridgewood Country Club, in Paramus, N.J.; the 2023 championship will be played at Cherry Hills Country Club, in Cherry Hills Village, Colo.; Hazeltine National Golf Club, in Chaska, Minn., will be the site of the 2024 championship; the 2025 championship will be conducted at The Olympic Club, in San Francisco; and Merion Golf Club, in Ardmore, Pa., will host the 2026 championship.
“The U.S. Women’s Amateur and the U.S. Amateur are among the preeminent championships in the amateur game and we are excited to conduct them at a club that is so supportive of amateur golf,” said John Bodenhamer, USGA senior managing director, Championships. “The Honors Course will provide an outstanding test for the top players from around the world.”