One of the most exclusive and treasured events in mid-amateur golf has a more international presence this year.
The Coleman Invitational, a storied mid-am and senior am tournament that takes place each spring at venerable Seminole Golf Club, will host nine European first-timers this week in southeast Florida.
In total, a record-breaking 14 players hail from outside the United States. Spain, Argentina, Canada, Japan, England, Sweden, France, Ireland, Portugal, Norway and Germany will be represented in the 54-hole stroke-play tournament that commences on Thursday.
“Over the past six or seven years, we’ve continued to add more international players to the field,” Seminole head pro Matt Cahill said. “We’ve been trying to get more of an international component in our tournament. It’s such a global game now, and we want the Coleman to reflect that.”
The initiative has been driven, at least in part, by the success of the Concession Cup. Multiple Seminole members were involved in the biennial match last year in Spain – that led to more conversations about how mid-ams and senior ams around the world could get together more often to play against one another. That section of competitive golf is well-developed in the U.S. but often lacks structure and support in other parts of the world, so the tournament has a rare opportunity to bring the globe’s best mid-ams and senior ams together.
“We think that there’s enough really, really good mid-amateur golfers out there that we should try to get them together and help move the mid-amateur game forward.”
Alan Fadel
The Coleman, which began in 1992, has a steadfast mission to promote the amateur game. That is in line with Seminole’s recent hosting of the 2021 Walker Cup and the 2022 Jackson T. Stephens Cup. To build on that with a field more representative of the world’s mid-amateur and senior amateur talent only made sense.
“There’s nobody around the world that really supports mid-amateur golf to any degree, and at Seminole, we're all about the amateur game,” said Alan Fadel, the Coleman tournament chairman. “And we think that there's enough really, really good mid-amateur golfers out there that we should try to get them together and help move the mid-amateur game forward.
The tournament was canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic and then it wasn’t played in 2021 because hosting the Walker Cup took precedence. The tournament returned last year with Stewart Hagestad winning his first Coleman.
For 2023, the invitation list was “expanded dramatically,” according to Fadel. A year after there were 93 contestants in the tournament, there will now be 110 for this edition. Cahill noted that only three or four invitations were declined.
Players generally earn an invitation through outstanding play in national and state tournaments – many of them write to the club in hopes of receiving an invitation. Seminole members have their own qualifying to get in as the club championship and senior club championship serve as qualifiers. There are 12 Seminole members in this year’s field.
There is a lot that goes into whether a player receives an invite. It is not solely performance-based; character and personal conduct play meaningful roles. Slow play is not tolerated, as all players are expected to complete their rounds in four hours or less.
While the field has been expanded this year, Fadel indicated that the field size could be narrowed down in the future.
“This is probably the biggest field by far that we've ever had, and we actually tried to limit the field to under 100, close to 96, really,” Fadel said. “I think one of the messages that will be delivered this year, based on some of the people that aren't there and some of the people that won't come probably in the future, is that it is going to be merit-based. As much as I hate to not invite a lot of people, we're going to do a merit-based event, for the most part.”
Former winners are exempt for five years, and the top 15 finishers for the mid-ams and seniors earn exemptions for the next Coleman. Remarkably, there are 26 competitors – nearly a quarter of the field – making their tournament debuts this year. Those players will be hunting for a top finish so they can guarantee a return to Seminole in 2024.
“It’s not a good ol’ boy thing anymore.”
Fadel noted that the field has, on the whole, become younger in recent years. The face of the event has changed, and it is a priority that the field becomes more diverse in all aspects moving forward. Ideas are always being discussed for how to follow through on that.
“It’s not a good ol’ boy thing anymore,” Fadel said. “I would say our focus is on having the best mid-ams. And I think the mid-ams are getting the message that this is a good one to try to get into. We want there to be a robust, elite mid-amateur game that people know about.”
For many mid-ams, getting an invite to the Coleman has a lasting impact that goes beyond golf. That is part of why the tournament has become so essential to the game.
“When you look at guys like Bobby Wyatt and Evan Beck, you know, they were top college players,” Fadel said. “They’re getting their businesses established, they’re getting their lives established, but they're finding time to play one kind of golf, and that's the elite, competitive golf. They probably don’t even play at their clubs, just practice. I mean, we all went through it. You know, there’s guys that like that. That’s their hobby.”
And for that level of player, the Coleman only continues to grow in importance.
E-MAIL SEAN
Top: Englishman Stephen Jensen is one of 14 Coleman Invitational competitors from outside the United States.
Kathryn RILEY, USGA