Players Amateur golf tournament officials announced Wednesday during the RBC Heritage PGA TOUR event on Hilton Head Island that Nautica will be coming aboard as presenting sponsor for 2014. The Players Amateur is conducted by the Heritage Classic Foundation with Steve Wilmot serving as Tournament Director.
“Nautica is proud to support The Players Amateur and all of the participants of this year’s event,” Jason Parker, Manager Sponsorships and Cause Marketing with Nautica, said at a press conference on the Harbour Town Links. “The Nautica consumer lives an active lifestyle and golf is an important part of this. The young men who take part in the Players Amateur embody the Nautica spirit.”
“As an alumnus of The Players Amateur I am excited to see that Nautica, one of my sponsors on the PGA TOUR, is coming on board to support the tournament,” Cameron Tringale, PGA TOUR Player and Nautica brand ambassador said at the press conference. “The Players Amateur features the best of the best in amateur golf, and has a track record of producing future tour players while offering an unforgettable experience, one that I am grateful to have experienced during my amateur career.”
The Players Amateur is celebrating its 15th anniversary July 7-13, 2014. Played at the Berkeley Hall Club Golf Club in Bluffton, the Players Amateur has a partnership with the RBC Heritage and was one of the first major amateur events to offer its champion an exemption into a PGA TOUR event.
Former British Open Champion Ben Curtis was the winner of the first Players Amateur in 2000. PGA TOUR pros Bill Haas, Mark Anderson, Brian Harmon, Camilo Villegas, Rickie Fowler, Bud Cauley, Kevin Tway and Corbin Mills are also past winners of the Players Amateur.
Former Walker Cup team members Duke Delcher and Tom McKnight, while competing in the 1999 U.S. Amateur Championship at Pebble Beach, discussed bringing a tournament to the Hilton Head area where they both lived. The result of that discussion was the Players Amateur, originally played at Belfair Golf Club in Bluffton. The tournament has been contested at Berkeley Hall Club, home of two Tom Fazio courses and top-notch facilities, since the 2012 event.