The 168-yard par three, fourth hole at Nairn GC which will host the 126th Amateur Championship in 2021. Picture by DONALD FORD IMAGES / The Nairn Golf Club

THE R&A has announced the venues for its amateur championships and international matches in 2021 – which include some of the most prestigious courses in Great Britain and Ireland.

Nairn, in the north of Scotland, will host The Amateur Championship for the second time 27 years after Dorset’s Lee James triumphed over Scotland’s Gordon Sherry 2&1, in the 36-hole final.

The qualifying rounds will also be played at Nairn Dunbar. It will be the 126th staging of The Amateur Championship, which features a field of 288 world-ranked players.

The winner earns a place in The Open and the following year’s US Open. Traditionally, the winner also receives an invitation to the Masters Tournament.

Hampshire produced back-to-back champions in 2016 and 2017 with Scott Gregory beating Robert MacIntyre at Royal Porthcawl, while Harry Ellis triumphed at Royal St George’s 12 months later, and is the last English winner.

Hunstanton in Norfolk, will host The Women’s Amateur Championship for a sixth time – and first since 1972 when Essex’s Mickey Walker successfully defended her title defeating France’s Claudine Clos-Rubin.

It will be the 118^th staging of The Women’s Amateur Championship which features a field of 144 world-ranked players.

The winner earns a place in the AIG Women’s British Open, US Women’s Open, The Evian Championship and Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship.

R&A executive director Duncan Weir said, “We are delighted to be taking our 2021 championships to venues of the highest quality that will challenge the world’s leading men and women amateurs.”

“Our aim is to provide the opportunity for those players to compete with their international peers and to show how good they are.

“Selecting outstanding venues is key and we are delighted to have such a strong schedule for 2021.”

Elsewhere, 2021 will see Kent’s Royal Cinque Ports, in Deal, and Sandwich’s Prince’s host the Boys’ Amateur Championship for the first time.

The links courses on the Kent coast will welcome the world’s leading boy golfers who will compete in the championship 100 years after it was first played at Royal Ascot.

The Girls’ Amateur Championship will be played at Fulford, in Yorkshire, and the Girls’ U16 Amateur Championship will be played at Staffordshire’s Enville – both venues hosting the championships for the first time.

The Men’s Home Internationals will be played at Surrey’s Hankley Common, which hosted the English Amateur Championship won by Stoke Park’s 16-year-old Conor Gough, in August.

Elsewhere, the Boys’ Home Internationals will be played at Trentham, in Staffordshire, the Women’s and Girls’ Home Internationals at Ganton, in Yorkshire, and the Women’s and Men’s Senior Home Internationals at Machynys, in Wales.

On the international stage, Great Britain and Ireland teams will compete against the Continent of Europe in the Jacques Leglise Trophy (Boys) in Sweden,

The Vagliano Trophy (women) and The Junior Vagliano Trophy (girls) both take place in Switzerland.

The men’s team will compete against the United States of America in the Walker Cup at Seminole, Florida, with the biennial clash moving from its traditional September date to avoid the southern state’s hurricane season.

The full schedule of tournaments is:–

The post Amateur Championship to go back to Nairn where Lee James beat Gordon Sherry appeared first on Golf North.

Past winners of the Reid Trophy include Eddie Pepperell and Bradley Neil, who both have graduated to the European Tour – Hugh Adams is looking to be the first back-to-back winner in 25 years when the English U14s Boys Amateur Championship takes place at Trentham Golf Club, this week. Picture by LEADERBOARD PHOTOGRAPHY

HUGH Adams will be attempting to become the first player to win the Reid Trophy two years in a row when he tees up in the English Boys’ Under 14 Open Amateur Championship, at Staffordshire’s Trentham Golf Club, on Tuesday.

The 14-year-old, from Worcestershire’s Hagley Wood Golf Club, defeated Spain’s Angel Ayora with a par on the fifth hole of a sudden-death play-off in last year’s championship at Reading GC.

Adams joined a list of champions in the Reid Trophy’s 25-year history that includes Frilford Heath’s Eddie Pepperell, who claimed the title at Bristol & Clifton in 2005, and Scotland’s Bradley Neil – who won in 2010 at Hesketh.

Neil would go on to win The Amateur Championship in 2014, at Royal Portrush, while Oscar Sharpe, the 2006 winner – who was described as being better than Tiger Woods as a 13-year-old by Butch Harmon – never lived up to his prodigy status, despite winning the McGregor Trophy at the English U16s Championship in the same season.

The Reid Trophy always attracts a strong international field and this year is no different with competitors travelling to Trentham from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Morocco, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands, The Czech Republic and Wales.

The trophy has ended up in foreign hands in four out of the last seven years most recently in 2017 when South Africa’s Casey Jarvis pulled off a wire-to-wire victory at Manchester Golf Club.

A sizeable number of English competitors warmed up for the Reid Trophy by competing in the North of England Under 14 Junior Open Strokeplay Championship at South Moor.

But not included in that group was 14-year-old Essex golfer Harley Smith, from The Rayleigh Club, who has made quite a mark since making his debut at last month’s English Boys’ Under 16 Open Amateur Championship at Radcliffe-on-Trent Golf Club in Nottinghamshire.

He finished tied sixth in that event and also won the Jean Case Salver awarded to the leading player under the age of 15

Smith has since also claimed a tie for fourth place in the Hazards Salver presented to the leading under 16-year-old at the English Boys’ Under 18 Open Amateur Championship for the Carris Trophy.

The English Under 14 Boys’ Open Championship for the Reid Trophy is a 54-hole strokeplay event staged over three days.

The full field plays 18 holes on each of the first two days with the leading 70 competitors and ties progressing to play the final 18 holes on the third day.

Follow live scoring here

The post Adams looks to become first player to win Reid Trophy back-to-back in 25 years appeared first on Golf North.