The United States Golf Association flag flies with the American flag in front of the Bandon Dunes Lodge this week. World Photo by John Gunther.

BANDON — Bandon Dunes Golf Resort hits the national stage again this week.

A year after hosting the Curtis Cup matches between the United States and the Great Britain and Ireland squad, the resort hosts one of the biggest annual amateur events, the U.S. Mid-Amateur.

The Mid-Am is in its 27th year and is for players at least 25 years old. The field includes 264 golfers, though more than 4,400 tried to qualify at 64 regional qualifying events, including one in Bandon.

Starting Saturday and continuing Sunday, they will play 18 holes each on both Bandon Dunes and Bandon Trails to reduce the field to 64 golfers for the match-play portion of the event, which begins Monday. By Thursday, the field will be reduced to just two golfers for a 36-hole final.

The awards the winner receives include a berth into next year’s U.S. Amateur, a 10-year exemption for the Mid-Am, and, traditionally, a bid to next year’s Masters.

Resort officials are thrilled to be hosting their second United States Golf Association event.

“I think it’s one of the greatest events in golf,” said Bandon Dunes General Manager Hank Hickox, citing the range of players from across the country competing this week, their commitment to the sport and the resort’s chance to work with the USGA as reasons the event is special.

“This is a great opportunity,” Hickox said.

Unlike the Curtis Cup, which was filled with pageantry and included just 16 golfers, the Mid-Am is a massive tournament with relatively little fanfare. Resort officials have spent hundreds of hours planning the details of the event, including coordinating many volunteers and scheduling morning and afternoon tee times Saturday and Sunday so that, ideally, all 264 players will have completed their two rounds before daylight runs out Sunday evening.

Starting at 7:25 a.m. on Saturday, golfers will tee off on holes 1 and 10 at Bandon Dunes and 1 and 11 at Bandon Trails — where starting a round on No. 10 is not as practical because of the course routing. Half the golfers will have morning rounds Saturday and afternoon rounds Sunday. The other half will have the opposite.

Because it’s likely there will be a tie for the final spots in the match play field, given the sheer number of golfers, officials anticipate a tiebreaker Monday morning, which will be played on Bandon Trails. That will allow the matches — one-on-one 18-hole competitions where a golfer gets a victory by winning more holes, not necessarily posting a better score — to begin Monday morning on Bandon Dunes, where the entire match play portion of the tournament will be contested.

The field will be cut to 32 Monday, then to 16 and eight Tuesday. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be held Wednesday, setting up the final Thursday.

The prospect of winning six straight matches is daunting, said 1997 champion Ken Bakst.

“Six matches in four days following two medal-play rounds — it’s a lot of golf,” Bakst said. “You’re not going to win unless you’re playing pretty good.

“When I won, everything clicked. That week, I played some of the best golf I had ever played.”

While the golfers are in Bandon to compete, they’re also there to see old friends they have met at competitions across the country through the years, Bakst said.

“A lot of the guys know each other,” he said. “That’s fun.”

And unlike the U.S. Amateur, an event dominated by college golfers and the only tournament that rivals the Mid-Am for size, golfers this week aren’t playing with prospects of turning pro soon.

“The Mid-Am is really for the lifelong amateurs,” Bakst said. “We’re not playing for money. We’re playing for the love of the game.”

According to a history of the event provided by the USGA, the Mid-Am was created specifically because the golfers beyond their college years were at a disadvantage competing against collegians who played year-round while not having to balance jobs and families.

The first Mid-Am was played at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis in 1981, and 1,638 golfers entered the qualifying stages for the tournament.

It has grown steadily since then, with a record of 5,271 entries in 1997.

This year’s tournament features nine past champions — Dave Womack (2006), Kevin Marsh (2005), Austin Eaton III (2004), Nathan Smith (2003), George Zahringer (2002), Tim Jackson (1994 and 2001), Danny Green (1999), Bakst and Michael Podolak (1984).

Two South Coast players are in the field: Bandon Dunes caddies Tim Tucker and Jason Humphrey, a former Southwestern Oregon Community College golfer. Others competing include Tim Mickelson, the younger brother of professional Phil Mickelson; former professional hockey player Mike Dunham; U.S. Senior Amateur Champion Mike Bell; George “Buddy” Marucci, the captain of this year’s United States Walker Cup team; Trip Kuehne, a three-time member of the Walker Cup team; and Gary Wolstenholme, a six-time member of the Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup Team.

The interested observers Tuesday included Bill Coore, who designed the Bandon Trails course along with partner Ben Crenshaw.

This will be the first national event played on Bandon Trails, and for many of the golfers this week, their first competition on links-style courses complete with challenging weather conditions.

“It’s fun to watch good players negotiate their way around the course,” Coore said. “It’s different golf for a lot of these players. It will be interesting to see how they adapt.”

One of those at the resort for the first time is Bakst, who developed the renowned Friar’s Head course on Long Island in New York, a layout designed by Coore and Crenshaw.

“He was the Mike Keiser of Friar’s Head, Coore said, comparing Bakst with the owner of Bandon Dunes. “He’s the fellow whose idea it was. What he did at Friar’s Head is amazing.”

Bakst had a similar first impression of Bandon Dunes.

“What (Keiser) has done here is incredible,” he said after having a chance to play at least part of all three courses — the third is Pacific Dunes, which has received the highest national and international rankings — during his first two days at the resort. “Three different architects did a spectacular job.”

The Mid-Am is one of 10 national amateur events each year conducted by USGA, which also runs the U.S. Open, U.S. Women’s Open and U.S. Senior Open, and helps run four international events — the Walker Cup, Curtis Cup and men’s and women’s Amateur Team Championships.

As with last year’s Curtis Cup, there is no admission fee and spectators are encouraged. People watching matches can follow the golfers down the fairways, though they are asked to keep clear of the greens. Volunteers will help visitors with parking throughout the six days of the tournament. The golfers began arriving earlier this week and were scheduled for practice rounds today and Friday.

—Staff Intern Lucas Clark contributed to this story.