SLIPPERY ROCK — The field is full for the 27th annual Butler Eagle Amateur Open.

The 18-hole stroke play event takes place Sunday at Slippery Rock Golf Club. A field of 164 golfers — 80 in the morning session, 84 in the afternoon — makes this year's Eagle Amateur the second largest in the event's history.

“The field filled up quickly,” committee member Rob Voltz said. “This should be quite a tournament with a lot of the top players from the area.”

Defending champion Geoff Patterson, who defeated Jeremy Plaisted in a playoff last year, will be playing in a foursome with Plaisted in the afternoon session. Other former Eagle Amateur champions in the field include Jim Hepler (1997), Voltz (2007, 2016), Mike Marron (2016) and Brent Rodgers (2019).

Two-time defending women's champion Casey Morrow, a Mars resident, will try to make it three in a row on Sunday. Paige Scott and Jane Wymer are other former women's champions in the field.

“It's an interesting field overall,” Voltz said. “Jim Marron, Greg Chiappini and Jacob Wolak (hard-hitting Slippery Rock youth) are all playing. Ryan Pinkerton and Paul Ajak are among the bigger names, too.

“The only tournament field bigger than this one was at Cranberry Highlands in the mid-2000's. A lot of people are curious about the golf course since the new ownership put a lot of money into it.”

Among the changes made on the golf course over the past year are a re-done greens complex on No. 3, expanded and resurfaced tee boxes ion. No.'s 3 and 11, drainage across the No. 8 fairway and renovation of the bunker on the right side of No. 12.

The course also has a new fleet of carts.

“We've also renovated the bar and restaurant,” said Gino Baroffio, tournament director at Slippery Rock Golf Club. “We are ecstatic to be hosting this tournament.

“It's a great event. It's one of the few tournaments left that is true golf, no gimmicks involved. This is golf in its purest form and we can't wait to have it back here again in a couple of years.”

Voltz played the course Tuesday and described it as “firm and fast.

“They've only had three-quarters of an inch of rain over the past two weeks,” Voltz added. “It's going to play fast. But that course is in tremendous shape.”

Voltz added that the renewed public interest in golf, originally created by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Slippery Rock course have helped spike the Eagle Amateur numbers.

“I think it's a combination of those things, and this tournament has a lot of history to it,” he said.

The Eagle Amateur has had five different overall champions in the past five years. The only golfers to win the event more than once are Mark Young, Voltz, Sean Knapp and Scott Vice.