Major announcement.
| Registration |
No seriously. Registration for the Middle-Amateur Championship, the first GAP Major of 2021, opens today.
The event’s 38th edition will take place May 26-27 at Lookaway Golf Club in Buckingham, Pa. The following GAP Member Clubs will host qualifying events for the Championship proper:
| Venue | Date |
| Five Ponds Golf Club | Saturday, April 17 |
| Spring Ford Country Club | Thursday, April 29 |
| Radley Run Country Club | Monday, May 3 |
| Valley Country Club | Tuesday, May 4 |
In 2020, GAP canceled Middle-Amateur Qualifying due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It also rescheduled the Championship proper from May to October as a result. GAP reduced the Middle-Amateur to a field of 78.
The Middle-Amateur is open to males 25 years of age or older with a Handicap Index of 7.0 or less. It is a two-day, 36-hole stroke play event.
Lookaway, site of the 2020 Pennsylvania Golf Association Amateur Championship, hosts for the first time. It welcomed the GAP Open Championship in 2008.
A William Hyndman, III Player of the Year points event, the Middle-Amateur started in 1984, three years after the USGA created the U.S. Mid-Amateur as a formal championship for post-college amateurs. GAP followed suit with the USGA in creating a Mid-Am, but initially differed in its administration of the tournament in a couple of respects.
The most obvious difference was the age requirement. Prior to 2001, the GAP Middle-Amateur was only available to players 30 years of age or older.
The GAP Executive Committee reviewed and revised that age requirement in 2001 to match the USGA’s guidelines of 25 years of age or older for eligible players. At that point, the Committee changed the format of the event to a two-day stroke play tournament (instead of a one-day medal play event) with a cut to the low 70 players and ties after the first round.
GAP
Celebrating Amateur Golf since 1897, GAP, also known as the Golf Association of Philadelphia, is the oldest regional or state golf association in the United States. It serves as the principal ruling body of amateur golf in its region. The Association’s 300 Member Clubs and 80,000 individual members are spread across the Eastern half of Pennsylvania and parts of Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey. The GAP’s mission is to promote, preserve and protect the game of golf.
