News-Record.com

GREENSBORO -- Golf fans unwilling to wait for next week's Wyndham Championship can get their fix starting today with the 30th Cardinal Amateur.

The 54-hole tournament at Cardinal Country Club has one of its strongest fields ever, thanks in part to many of the world's top amateurs heading this way for the U.S. Amateur in Pinehurst later this month.

"The field just keeps getting better and better," said longtime tournament director Gil Happel. "I think a lot of the guys hear about how well they're treated here and want to check it out for themselves."

Seventy-eight golfers are in the field, including defending champion Zach Sucher, a senior from Alabama-Birmingham. Sucher defeated Wake Forest's Webb Simpson earlier this year at the Azalea Invitational in Charleston, S.C., and is a favorite to defend his title at the Cardinal's Pete Dye-designed course.

Greensboro's Scott Harvey is considered the strongest of the nine local golfers in the field.

Contact Robert Bell @ 373-7055 or robert.bell@news-rcord.com