Preview: 2024 European Mid-Amateur Championships

The first event of the EGA’s 2024 championship season is set to begin at Jurmala Golf Resort & Hotel, Latvia.

The 2024 European Mid-Amateur Championships, open for elite amateurs aged 25-and-over, will be contested over three rounds of stroke play from Thursday to Saturday this week.

Here’s everything you need to know before the event gets underway on Thursday:

ABOUT THE EVENT

The event sees two separate european-titled tournaments, the European Mid-Amateur Men’s Championship and European Mid-Amateur Ladies’ Championship, contested in parallel over 54 holes of stroke play.

The men’s edition was inaugurated in 1991, with this year’s edition set to be the 34th. The tournament’s age limit was previously 30+ but was reduced to 25+ in 2021. Formerly played on its own, the championship is now contested in conjunction with the women’s equivalent, inaugurated in 2019.

The field, typically with a maximum of 144 players (90 men and 54 women), is cut to 54 men and 33 women and ties after 36 holes.

Players not only compete for the European titles of their age-categories, but also exemptions into the European Amateur/ Ladies’ Amateur Championships and US Mid-Amateur/ Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship which are granted to the winners.

Medals are awarded to the top-three finishers in each tournament, and prizes are also presented to the top players aged 40-and-over.

With the inaugural European Mid-Amateur Team Championships set to take place in September, players will have the extra motivation of proving themselves worthy of selection for their national teams.

THE VENUE

Jurmala Golf Club & Hotel will set the stage for the first ever EGA European Individual Championship to be held in Latvia.

Located less than 15 kilometres from the centre of Latvia’s capital, Riga, and just 3 kilometres from the Baltic Sea, the course is one of the youngest in northern Europe having opened in 2018.

The par-72 Nicklaus Design course was laid out on top of Saliena Golf Club which was created in 2007, and bears little resemblance to its predecessor. With strategically placed bunkers, penalty areas on virtually all holes, and tall fescue rough to capture errant shots, the course will provide a tough test to the 144 competitors this week.

The venue will host its second EGA tournament in the space of three years, having staged the European Men’s and Ladies’ Team Shield Championships in 2021.

DEFENDING CHAMPIONS

The 2023 championships at Bogogno Golf Resort in Italy saw two German players emerge victorious.

Michael Thannhäuser came from behind in the final round with four birdies on his closing nine to claim a two-shot victory in the men’s tournament, while Alena Oppenheimer won the 2023 ladies’ championship on the first hole of a three-way playoff.

THE FIELD

98 men and 46 women from 24 different countries will compete for the European Mid-Amateur titles this year.

Germany, on top of having the most winners in the history of the events, also has the most players in the field in both the men’s and women’s tournaments. In addition to the two defending champions, 13 men and 11 women will look to earn a first gold medal of the European championship season for Germany.

Switzerland’s Steven Rojas, the 2021 champion, is the only other former men’s winner in the field and will look to add his name to the trophy for a second time this week.

England’s Ben Welch finished runner-up behind Michael Thannhäuser at Bogogno Golf Resort in 2023 and will be one to watch as he looks to go one better this year.

On the women’s side, the two players that narrowly missed out in the three-way playoff in 2023, Céline Manche (BEL) and Jessica Ross (IRL) will tee it up with hopes of securing gold this time around.

Spain’s Ane Urchegui García, the 2022 champion, will also be one to look out for this week as she aims to win the title for a second time in three years.

18 men and 15 women will have the chance of becoming the first players under-30, following the reduction in minimum age-limit in 2021, to win the tournaments.