28th March 2017

UPDATE

Scott Gregory beat Curtis Luck on the 19th hole to win the 2017 Georgia Cup held at the Golf Club of Georgia.

Scott Gregory and The Georgia Cup (Photo: Georgia State Golf Association)

Here are the hole-by-hole scores from the match.

ME.

27th March 2017

The Georgia Cup is an 18-hole match play competition played the week before The Masters between the reigning United States and (British) Amateur champions.

Both Amateur champions are always in town in late March ahead of The Masters for which their respective wins gain them honorary invitations, albeit only one year competing.

The Georgia Cup (Photo: The Golf Club of Georgia)

The match was established by The Golf Club of Georgia (GCOG) and was first contested in 1998. Craig Watson, the current Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup captain, was the Amateur Championship representative in that first match. He lost to Matt Kutcher, obviously now a well known PGA Tour pro, 3 & 1.

Located in Alpharetta the GCOG has two Alfred Hills-designed courses, the Lakeside (L) and the Creekside (C). Both have hosted the event in the past but since 2006 the Lakeside has taken precedence with regard to hosting the Georgia Cup match.

The 2017 Georgia Cup is being played at 1.00pm (6.00pm GMT) on Tuesday 28th March. It is a charitable event with funds being raised for the Georgia State Golf Association Foundation which primarily provides educational scholarships for children.

Following last year’s win for Romain Langasque (FRA) over Bryson DeChambeau (USA) the Amateur champions leads the US champions 10 – 9. Langasque’s win made it four wins out of the last five for the Amateur champion. All of the previous results can be seen in the Appendix below.

This year’s match, the 20th, will be contested by Curtis LUCK (AUS) and Scott GREGORY (ENG).

Curtis Luck is arguably the best amateur golfer in the world, having won both the US Amateur Championship and the Asia-Pacific Amateur championship last year. He plans to turn Pro immediately following The Masters and this year has been playing in various professional tournaments gaining experience on both the European and PGA Tours.

Curtis Luck – 2016 US Amateur champion (Photo: USGA)

England’s Scott Gregory will be his opponent. Gregory is planning to stay amateur until after the 2017 Walker Cup. He arrives in Georgia after winning the New South Wales Amateur Championship in Australia, another match play event, in early February.

Scott Gregory – 2016 Amateur champion (Photo: Andrew Griffin)

It will be interesting to see which player wins and gains a confidence boost ahead of next week’s main event – The 2017 Masters at Augusta National.

Appendix

The previous results are shown below (with the Amateur titles won shown in brackets): –
1998 (L) – Matt Kuchar (US) def. Craig Watson (British) – 3 & 1
1999 (L) – Sergio Garcia (British) def. Hank Kuehne (US) – 5 & 4
2000 (L) – David Gossett (US) def. Graeme Storm (British) – 3 & 2
2001 (C) – Mikko Ilonen (British) def. Jeff Quinney (US) – 6 & 4
2002 (C) – Michael Hoey (British) def. Bubba Dickerson (US) – 4 & 2
2003 (L) – Ricky Barnes (US) def. Alejandro Larrazabal (British) – 4 & 2
2004 (C) – Gary Wolstenholme (British) def. Nick Flanagan (US) – 4 & 2
2005 (C) – Ryan Moore (US) def. Stuart Wilson (British) – 2 & 1
2006 (L) – Brian McElhinney (British) def. Edoardo Molinari (US) – 3 & 2
2007 (L) – Richie Ramsay (US) def. Julien Guerrier (British) – 2 & 1
2008 (L) – Colt Knost (US) def. Drew Weaver (British) – 2 & 1
2009 (L) – Danny Lee (US) def. Reinier Saxton (British) – 2&1
2010 (L) – Matteo Manassero (British) def. Byeong-hun An (US) – 5&4
2011 (L) – Peter Uihlein (US) def. Jin Jeong (British) – 4&2
2012 (L) – Brydon Macpherson (British) def. Kelly Kraft (US) – 2&1
2013 (L) – Alan Dunbar (British) def. Steven Fox (US) – 1Up
2014 (L) – Garrick Porteus (British) def. Matthew Fitzpatrick (US) – 3&2
2015 (L) – Gunn Yang (US) def. Bradley Neil (British) – 3&2
2016 (L) – Romain Langsaque (FRA) def. Bryson DeChambeau – 4&3

ME.

Copyright © 2017, Mark Eley. All rights reserved.