The Kittansett Club in Marion, Mass., has been selected by the USGA as the host site for the 2022 U.S. Senior Amateur Championship. To be contested Aug. 27-Sept. 1, the 68th U.S. Senior Amateur will be the club’s second USGA championship and first since hosting the 1953 Walker Cup Match.
“We are thrilled to announce our return to this truly exceptional seaside club,” said Stuart Francis, USGA Championship Committee chairman. “We look forward to a great test of golf for the world’s best senior amateur players and are confident this course will live up to expectations in identifying a worthy champion and providing a memorable experience for all.”
Designed in 1922 by William Flynn and Fredric Hood, The Kittansett Club is located on a point extending into Buzzards Bay, across from Cape Cod. Since the 1990s, designer Gil Hanse has led an ongoing renovation project that included the removal of hundreds of trees to restore the course to its original coastal links design. Hanse is working from original Flynn drawings discovered in a barn in Philadelphia in 2001, where they sat for more than 70 years unknown to the club. Today, the course routing offers a combination of coastal holes and inland tree-lined holes.
“On behalf of The Kittansett Club, we are honored to host the 68th U.S. Senior Amateur Championship,” said club president William Creevy. “It is very gratifying to see the club’s rich history culminate in the hosting of a USGA championship in 2022, the same year we celebrate our 100-year anniversary. We look forward to giving back to the game of golf, and particularly celebrating amateur players by hosting this wonderful event.”
In the 1953 Walker Cup Match, the USA defeated Great Britain & Ireland, 9-3. The 10-man USA Team featured eight USGA champions, including future U.S. Open champions Gene Littler (1961) and Ken Venturi (1964) and future USGA president William C. Campbell. The club has also hosted several USGA qualifying events, most recently for the 2013 U.S. Senior Open.
The Kittansett Club has also hosted five Massachusetts State Amateur championships (1958, 1978, 1990, 1999 and 2008) and will host again in 2020.
The U.S. Senior Amateur is open to amateur golfers who have reached age 55 on or before the start of the championship who have a Handicap Index® not exceeding 7.4. The championship features 36 holes of stroke play before the field is cut to the low 64 scorers for match play.
This will be the 59th USGA championship contested in Massachusetts, which most recently hosted the 2013 U.S. Amateur Championship at The Country Club in Brookline, won by Matthew Fitzpatrick of Great Britain. Upcoming USGA championships in the Bay State include the 2016 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur at Wellesley Country Club (Sept. 17-22), the 2017 U.S. Senior Open at Salem Country Club in Peabody and the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club.
Upcoming U.S. Senior Amateur Championships will be contested Sept. 17-22, 2016, at Old Warson Country Club in St. Louis, Mo.; Aug. 26-31, 2017, at The Minikahda Club in Minneapolis, Minn.; and Aug. 25-30, 2018, at Eugene (Ore.) Country Club.
