Royal Melbourne to host Women's Western Amateur in 2019
While the 2019 Chicago golf tournament schedule will be relatively quiet compared to the past three years. it will include the return of the Women's Western Amateur.
Josh Lesnik, president of Northbrook-based KemperSports, announced Monday that the 119th playing of the tournament will be at Royal Melbourne, a private club in Long Grove. A Greg Norman design, Royal Melbourne opened in 1992 and has hosted three significant competitions - the Illinois PGA Championships (2003 and 2004) and the Illinois Open (2015).
Royal Melbourne will be the third straight Chicago area club to host the prestigious Women's Western Amateur. River Forest, located in Elmhurst, hosted in 2017 and Mistwood, in Romeoville, was this year's site in June.
Next year's event will mark a change in leadership for the Women's Western Amateur. The all-volunteer Women's Western Golf Association hosted the previous tournaments as well as an annual junior tournament. The Western Golf Association will join the management team at Royal Melbourne.
The WGA annually conducts the PGA Tour's BMW Championship, the men's Western Amateur and the Western Junior to spotlight its Evans Scholars Foundation, which provides college scholarships for deserving caddies. This year the WGA also played a role in producing the Constellation Senior Players Championship in June at Exmoor Country Club in Highland Park.
Sunset Ridge in Northfield hosted this year's Western Amateur, which concluded on Saturday. The men's tournament was played for the ninth time in the past 10 years at a Chicago area course, but that will change over the next two years when Michigan's Point O'Woods hosts in 2019 and Crooked Stick in Indianapolis is the venue in 2020.
The women's version of the Western Amateur drew players from 25 states and seven foreign countries this year. A new format was put in to place, which made the women's version more similar to the men's. The 120 invited starters went through 36 holes of stroke play competition before the low 32 decided the title in match play.
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