It’s been more than five decades since a St. Joseph man won the Missouri Amateur golf championship. And it’s been 21 years since St. Joseph has hosted it.

A few local golfers hope that St. Joseph Country Club — this year’s host site — provides the opportunity to change those streaks.

“You know a few things here and there (about your home course) that maybe help out a little. And you get to stay at home and sleep in your own bed,” said Brad Nurski, one of the contenders in the six-day tournament that begins this morning. “You’d like to think that you have a good chance. Hopefully, maybe one of us come out on top. Even better, maybe make it all the way to the final.”

Country Club last hosted the tournament in 1988. No other St. Joseph course has hosted the event.

But despite the lapse between hosting duties, Country Club has a long history with the Missouri Golf Association’s premier annual event. It has hosted the event seven times, which is more than any other course.

It also served as a launching pad for golfing legend Tom Watson, the Kansas City native who went on to dominate in the PGA Tour. A 17-year-old Watson won the event when it was at Country Club in 1967.

“This tournament always features a lot of great golfers,” said Dr. Bill Fricke, a local dentist who is an MGA board member. “It’s a pretty big deal for amateur golf in Missouri, and it’s always great when it’s back in St. Joseph.”

St. Joseph’s Brian Haskell and Nurski both are considered serious contenders for this year’s title. Haskell made the championship round in 2006, making a run to the final day of the tournament that combines stroke play and match play for 156 golfers.

The tournament boasts a unique format. The first two days are stroke play, and the 64 golfers who shoot the lowest scores advance to match play. In match play, each qualifying golfer faces off against one other qualifier. The golfer who wins the most of the 18 holes — lowest score wins each hole — advances to the next round. That continues through the final day, when the last two golfers standing face each other in a 36-hole match-play final.

“For me it’s the funnest tournament of the year,” Nurski said. “The match play-stroke play format, you don’t get to do that very often.”

The field also features the state’s best golfers, several of whom have gone on to PGA Tour success — including Watson, Springfield’s Payne Stewart and Kansas State star Jim Colbert.

“This is the biggest (tournament) of the year, really, the one that’s been around longest,” Haskell said. “Everyone shoots for this. There are at least 20 or 30 golfers who have the chance to win it. It’s never easy. That’s what makes it so satisfying is the caliber of competition.”