Tide's Justin Thomas In World Amateur

Alabama men’s golfer Justin Thomas will compete this weekend at the 2012 World Amateur Team Championship hosted by the Turkish Golf Federation in Antalya, Turkey.

Justin Thomas helped Alabama to last year's Southeastern Conference championship and runner-up finish in the NCAA Championship Tournament. He is ranked among the best amateur players in America.

Bama is ranked number one in the nation in pre-season and Thomas, last year's national player of the year as a freshman, is considered the top college player in the nation this year.

The four-day, 72-hole tournament will be played at the par-72 Cornelia Golf Club and the par-71 Sultan Course of the Antalya Golf Club.

Consisting of over 125 countries, the International Golf Federation organizes the World Amateur biennially in three different zones, with this year’s tournament being held in the Europe-Africa zone.

The 2012 edition of the World Amateur marks the 28th anniversary and this year’s tournament will feature a record-number of 72 teams competing for the team championship.

Each country has three players and the two lowest scores from each round are counted. The summation of each of the four rounds gives the team their final score for the championship.

In 2010, France won the team championship by four strokes over Denmark, with the United States finishing five strokes behind and taking home third.

Thomas will tee off the first round of the World Amateur Team Championships at at the Cornelia Golf Club. The United States will be paired with India and Spain for the first round.