Garth McGimpsey is among three former winners competing in the British Amateur Championship which starts with strokeplay qualifying on the Royal Co Down and Kilkeel courses this morning. In fact, 32 Irish challengers will be in action, led off by Connemara's David Mortimer in the first three-ball at 7.30 a.m.

When the championship was last played at Royal Co Down in 1970, Michael Bonallack captured it for a fifth time. A notable change since then has been the recent restructuring of the par-five 18th, where the hogs-back fairway has been lowered and bunkers and mounding have been added to the right-hand side.

The quality of the field of 288 can be gauged by a handicap limit of plus 0.2 (exact). And they include Sutton's John Carr and former Walker Cup player Arthur Pierse, both of whom played in the championship at St Andrews in 1981. That was the occasion when, against all the odds, Carr got to the semi-finals only to be out-putted by the eventual winner, Philippe Ploujoux of France.

Sergio Garcia, last year's champion, is currently competing as a professional at Wentworth. But the line-up includes former winners Gary Wolstenholme (1991) and Craig Watson (1997), and American Tom McKnight who beat Garcia in the semi-finals of last year's US Amateur before losing to Hank Kuehne in the final.

The last American winner was Jay Sigel, who beat compatriot Scott Hoch in the 1979 final at Hillside. Their successors this week are hoping, no doubt, to follow Sigel's route to automatic qualification for this year's British Open at Carnoustie and next year's US Masters.

As it happens, this is also the golden jubilee of the only staging of the championship in the Republic of Ireland. That was at Portmarnock in 1949 when, appropriately, the title went to a home player, Max McCready.

However, reigning Irish strokeplay champion, Gary Cullen, has had to withdraw from the championship. The Beaverstown player injured his back last week but with treatment he hopes to be fit to take his place in the East of Ireland championship at Co Louth next weekend.

All competitors play one round each over Royal Co Down and Kilkeel today and tomorrow, with the leading 64 and ties going through to the matchplay stage exclusively at Co Down. This gets under way on Wednesday with a preliminary round, if necessary, and the first round and culminates in the 36-hole final on Saturday.