Here are 10 things you didn’t know about the Crump Cup at Pine Valley

For 100 years, the Crump Cup has been played at Pine Valley, and yet the tournament and the host club remain a mystery to many. The course, despite maintaining its #1 ranking for decades, is unknowable to most, even more so since the tradition of allowing spectators for the Crump Cup final Sunday matches has been suspended.

But for those invited to play in the George A. Crump Memorial Tournament, it is a treasured opportunity to go behind the curtain and experience a place that most will never see, in a tournament with a set of traditions and playing conditions that make it unlike any other event on the amateur schedule. The tournament is September 22-25.

Here are 10 things you might not know about what might be the best tournament in amateur golf:

1. The tournament dinner is held after two rounds of stroke play qualifying are played to determine five match-play brackets (three mid-amateur brackets of 16 players and two senior brackets of 8 players). Since only those in the top flight have a chance at the overall championship, one of the past Crump Cup traditions has been to honor these 16 players by sitting them together at a broad table facing the rest of the players. At this table, Pine Valley flags have been laid out at each place setting, with each player awarded a flag corresponding to his match play seed (e.g., the 3rd seed receives a flag from the 3rd hole) and the next day’s opponents seated next to each other for dinner.

2. There is a 10-hole short course at Pine Valley that is sometimes used for consolation competitions for those who don’t make match play. Eight of the ten holes on the short course are replicas of approach shots on the main course.

3. There are probably fewer eagles made at the Crump Cup than in any other major tournament. The reason? It is almost unheard of to have an eagle putt. There are only two par 5s on the course, both stretching over 600 yards, and both requiring an aerial approach. Two of the par 4s, the 8th and 12th, are at times technically driveable, but the targets are so tiny that it almost never happens. So approach shot hole-outs are pretty much the only way to put two circles on the card.

4. There is no out of bounds at Pine Valley, and all structures on the course are considered through the green. So if a competitor finds his ball behind, in, or on top of one of these structures, he will not get relief. Carlton Forrester found this out at the 2012 Crump Cup, when his second shot on the long…