The Atlanta Athletic Club is getting back in the championship business in a big way.
The Johns Creek club announced Tuesday that it would host three major amateur championships over the next 13 years: the 2025 U.S. Girls’ Junior, the 2030 U.S. Amateur and the 2035 U.S. Women’s Amateur.
The most significant was the U.S. Amateur, which will commemorate the 100th anniversary of Bobby Jones’ Grand Slam at his home club.
“We are thrilled to return to Atlanta Athletic Club to conduct these three USGA championships. It was very intentional. There are deep connections here."
Unquestionably the game’s greatest amateur, Jones won 13 major championships during his career. He was a five-time U.S. Amateur champion, including 1930 when he also won the British Amateur, U.S. Open and British Open. He retired after 1930 and from that point competed only in the Masters.
Bob Jones IV, the grandson of Bobby Jones and a member of the Atlanta Athletic Club, said, “For me personally to know that the centennial of the Grand Slam is coming to my grandfather’s club in my hometown, it’s almost moving beyond words. It really is. We have an opportunity over the next seven or eight years to help retell the Bobby Jones story for an entire new generation and get people to see him more in living color than just simply as a sepia photograph. We’re very excited about it.”
The Atlanta Athletic Club’s mission statement includes the desire to host major championships. Since the club moved to its current location in Johns Creek, it has hosted the U.S. Open (1976), PGA Championship (1981, 2001, 2011), U.S. Women’s Open (1990), U.S. Amateur (2014), KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (2021), U.S. Mid-Amateur (1984), Arnold Palmer Cup (2017) and Junior World Open (1982).
“The Atlanta Athletic Club is proud to continue its tradition of hosting national championships,” said Kevin Costello, club president. “Building on our enduring relationship with the USGA, it’s an honor to showcase our golf courses to the world and play host to these prestigious championships that truly embody the spirt of the amateur game and support the next generation of golfers.”
The club will use its two courses, Highlands and Riverside, to conduct the two rounds of stroke play at the Amateur and Women’s Amateur. The match-play portion will be contested on the famed Highlands course.
The USGA is undecided but may opt to use the Riverside course for the Girls’ Junior. The course, which hosted the 1990 U.S. Women’s Open, is being renovated by architect Tripp Davis.
“We are thrilled to return to Atlanta Athletic Club to conduct these three USGA championships,” said Mark Hill, USGA senior managing director of championships. “It was very intentional. There are deep connections here.”
The 2014 U.S. Amateur was won by unheralded Gunn Yang, who bested a field that included future U.S. Amateur winners Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau.
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