Titleist: The No. 1 Ball at the 2016 U.S. Amateur Championship

(RELEASE) - The 116th US Amateur, the most prestigious championship in amateur golf, is underway at historic Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, MI. The best amateur golfers in the game have assembled at this legendary course with their eyes firmly set on making it through the 36 holes of qualifying medal play and being among the top 64 finishers to advance to match play.

And it’s in this final exam where a champion will emerge after six rounds of head-to-head competition.

Serving as a perfect backdrop to this contest, Oakland Hills CC has a championship pedigree that includes serving as host to six U.S. Opens, three PGA Championships, a Ryder Cup, two Senior U.S. Opens and two U.S. Amateurs (including the 2016 edition).

This year, among the field of 312 golfers looking to claim top amateur honors, 253 players are trusting Titleist Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf balls for their success. That's more than seven times the nearest competitor with 35 and more than four times all competitors combined.

Titleist also leads the field across most major club categories including fairway metals (116), hybrids (89), and iron sets (127). Titleist Vokey Design wedges also topped the approach, sand and lob wedges (464) category and Scotty Cameron putters (111) were the top choice in the putter category.

It's sure to be an exciting weekend as the action unfolds, final matches are decided and one player raises the Havemeyer Trophy, earning the distinction of forever being known as a major champion.

FUN FACT:
(Courtesy of USGA.org): The U.S. Amateur Championship was created in 1895 as the result of a controversy. In 1894, two clubs -- Newport (R.I.) Golf Club and St. Andrew's Golf Club (NY) -- hosted invitational tournaments for the nation's top amateur golfers.

Both clubs proclaimed their winners as the U.S. national champion, a dispute that prompted an agreement. An association composed of all the clubs in the United States would be formed, a new national governing body that would oversee a universally recognized championship and create a written set of rules for the game.

With that, representatives from Newport Golf Club, St. Andrew's Golf Club, The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, N.Y., and Chicago Golf Club founded the USGA on Dec. 22, 1894. The inaugural U.S. Amateur Championship was conducted the following year, along with the U.S. Open and U.S. Women's Amateur.

The Amateur and Open Championships were conducted at Newport Golf Club during the same week of October.