Around the Green

Texas Mid-Amateur Match Play Set for July 22-25

The state’s top amateur golfers age 25 and older will gather at Trinity Forest Golf Club for the 23rd Texas Mid-Amateur Match Play from July 22-25.

This will be the first TGA championship held at Trinity Forest Golf Club. One of the most unique venues in Texas, Trinity Forest served as the site of the PGA Tour’s AT&T Byron Nelson in 2018-19 and annually hosts an NCAA invitational tournament and additional high-profile professional and amateur events.

“We are extremely excited to have the opportunity to conduct this year’s Texas Mid-Amateur Match Play at Trinity Forest Golf Club,” said Chris Untiedt, TGA Tournament Director. “With numerous risk-rewards options and the demand for creative shot-making, the course is ideally suited for match play and is certain to identify a worthy champion.”

Opened in 2016, Trinity Forest was designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. Built in the Great Trinity Forest and surrounded on its edges by thousands of majestic hardwood trees, the classic links-style course artistically meanders through an open meadow of rolling, rumpled sand recalling the wind-swept land of Great Britain or the coastline of the Northeastern U.S.

With fairways twisting and turning at odd distances and angles, bold green complexes and surrounds plus firm and fast playing conditions, Trinity Forest provides a true challenge that tests the skill and cleverness of players of all levels.

“Hosting important championships was one of the original tenets of Trinity Forest Golf Club, and we are honored to welcome the state’s best mid-amateurs at the upcoming Texas Mid-Amateur Match Play,” said Richie Hare, Director of Golf at Trinity Forest.

First conducted by the TGA in 1999, the Texas Mid-Amateur Match Play is the only individual event on the annual schedule to feature head-to-head competition.

The championship format is 18 holes of stroke play qualifying on July 22, with the low 32 scores advancing to match play. First- and second-round matches will be played Friday, July 23; quarterfinals and semifinals on Saturday, July 24; and the final on Sunday, July 25. All matches are 18 holes.

At last year’s Texas Mid-Amateur Match Play, held at Willow Brook Country Club in Tyler, host club member Aaron Hickman defeated defending champion Corby Harwell of San Antonio, 5 and 4. Playing in front of a large crowd of friends, family and other well-wishers, Hickman never trailed in the final, building a 5-up lead after nine holes on Harwell, who also won the 2017 championship, before closing out the match on No. 14.

Once the action gets under way from Trinity Forest, log on to txga.org for match play brackets, starting times, live scoring updates and daily recaps.