Australian Amateur

Three players have won the championship four times: Harry Howden between 1896 and 1901, Michael Scott between 1905 and 1910 and Jim Ferrier between 1935 and 1939.

Harry Howden retained the trophy with a score of 348, 33 strokes ahead of William McIntyre.

[12] The championship returned to the Sydney area in 1901, being played at The Australian Golf Club on 11 and 12 July.

Harry Howden won with a score of 352, 7 strokes ahead of Hugh MacNeil, although he had trailed by 5 after the first day.

Hugh MacNeil won with a score of 328, six ahead of Peter Anderson and Walter Carre Riddell.

The format was revised, there being a 36-hole stroke-play qualification stage after which the leading 8 played match-play with a 36-hole final.

In 1905 Dan Soutar, a professional, won the Open with a score of 337, 10 strokes ahead of the runner-up, Scott, who therefore became the amateur champion.

As in 1904. it was won by a player who had performed relatively poorly in the Open, Ernest Gill beating Clyde Pearce 5&4 in the final.

The Tasmanian Clyde Pearce, having already won the Open, beat Neptune Christoe 10&8 in the final.

Scott had returned to Britain and Jim Howden won his second title, beating Claude Felstead 4&3 in the final.

[25] In 1912 the event was won by Hector Morrison, who beat Gordon Burnham, a member of the Governor-General's staff, 3&1 in the final.

[26] The 1913 tournament was originally planned to be played at The Australian, but was moved to Royal Melbourne because of a smallpox outbreak and the poor condition of the course, caused by wet weather.

[29][30] In late 1921 it was announced that Lord Forster, the Governor-General of Australia, had given a Challenge Cup, to be held by the winner until the following championship.

[31] The cup was presented to Legh Winser, the 1921 champion, by Archibald Weigall, the Governor of South Australia, at a ceremony at Adelaide Golf Club in April 1922.

Alex Russell had won the Open in 1924, beating Whitton on the way to the final, but lost 2&1 to Sinclair, the runner-up in 1923.

[36] Whitton won the Open for the third time in 1926 and then reached the final of the amateur, but was beaten by Len Nettlefold, 2 up.

However, the Open no longer acted as a qualifying event and the amateur championship became match-play only with 18-hole matches except for the final.

The format for the amateur championship was revised with a 36-hole stroke-play qualifying event with the leading 32 players playing in the match-play stage.

Bob Stevens led the qualifiers with a score of 141 and went on to win the title, beating Bill Higgins 7&6 in the final.

[58][59] The 1963 event was played soon after the 1963 Commonwealth Tournament in Sydney, resulting in an unusually large number of overseas entries.

The change was not immediately successful since only one of the six members of the Australian team for the upcoming Commonwealth Tournament qualified for the match-play stage.

[64] Colin Kaye won in 1972, the first time a medallist had gone on to win the event since stroke-play qualifying had been introduced in 1959.

He beat Chris Bonython at the 40th hole in 1977 but lost to Ray Jenner in 1973, Peter Sweeney in 1976 and Mike Clayton in 1978.

The event was moved to March, having traditionally been held in the second half of the year, and was won by Englishman Warren Bennett.

The main difference was that there was a playoff in the event of a tie, whereas previously medalist honours were shared.

[1] The 2010s saw a number of overseas winners, Marcel Schneider won in 2012, Tae Koh in 2014, Connor Syme in 2016, Keita Nakajima in 2018 and Conor Purcell in 2019.

[96] The 2021 championship was originally planned to be played in Melbourne in January but was rescheduled to February at Kooyonga Golf Club.

Jack Thompson led by 5 shots at the start of the final round but took 82 and was later disqualified for signing for an incorrect score.