Amateur Golf

Team Canada's Garrett Rank of Elmira, Ont. and Mike Zizek of Mississauga, Ont. are th elone two Canadians who will contest for the 2012 US Mid-Amateur Championship taking place at Conway Farms Golf Club in Illinois.

The starting field of 264 golfers will be cut after 36 holes to 64 players, after which six rounds of match play will be contested to determine the champion.

The championship is open to any amateur golfer who is 25 years old by Sept. 8 with a Golf Canada Hanidcap Factor / USGA Handicap Index not exceeding 3.4. The USGA accepted 3,810 entries for the 2012 championship, 67 more than were accepted for the 2011 Mid-Amateur. The record of 5,271 entries was set in 1997.

The champion receives a gold medal and custody of the Robert T. Jones Jr. Memorial Mid-Amateur Trophy and a three-year exemption from local qualifying for the U.S. Open, provided he remains an amateur. The player also receives a likely invitation into the next Masters Tournament.

Nestled on 209 well-manicured acres, Conway Farms Golf Club is a walking-only private club located in the northern Chicago suburb of Lake Forest. The course, designed by Tom Fazio, opened in 1991, and six years later it hosted the 1997 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship won by Pepperdine. A year later, the U.S. Junior Amateur was conducted at Conway Farms, where James Oh edged future PGA Tour winner Aaron Baddeley in the championship match.

The course at Conway Farms Golf Club will be set up at 7,078/6,996 yards and will play to a par of 35-36—71. Knollwood Club, which will serve as the companion course for the two days of stroke-play qualifying, will be set up at 7,148 yards and will also play to a par of 35-36—71.