The Players Amateur proves it doesn’t take several decades to become one of the elite stops on the summer amateur-golf circuit.
The 16th annual Players Amateur begins Thursday at Berkeley Hall Club in Bluffton, S.C., and the event commands respect even as a purely 21st-century invention — just look at this year’s field.
The tournament is the brainchild of two mid-amateurs, Duke Delcher and Tom McKnight. In 1999, they had the idea to create their own high-caliber amateur event, buoyed by their own unique twist: Cater everything to the participants.
Because of that, Delcher and McKnight have never struggled to draw a strong field.