With nearly a century of history, the WPGA Senior Amateur Championship has become the marquee event for senior players in the region.

The first WPGA Senior Amateur was played in 1929, coinciding with many senior golf organizations forming during that era. John N. Jamison won the competition that year at Oakmont Country Club.

Oakmont was the host of the WPGA Senior Amateur for the first 45 years of its existence, from 1929-1976. Since then, the championship has been hosted at numerous top courses in Western Pennsylvania. It was not played in three years, from 1943-1945, due to World War II.

Two players dominated the Senior Amateur its first two decades – George T. Gregg and Joe Wells, who won a record five consecutive titles from 1947-1951. Both men captured five victories in the event and are tied with eight-time WPGA Senior Player of the Year, Paul Schlachter, for the most victories in the WPGA Senior Amateur Championship. Schlachter added a victory in the Super-Senior division in 2017, as well.

David Brown has won the competition on four occasions, all coming between 2016 and 2023. His 66-69–135 performance at Allegheny Country Club in 2017 set the event’s 18-hole and 36-hole low score records.

The major championship has been won three times by four men – Sean Knapp, Phil Saylor, Arnold Horelick, and Knox Young, who was a top player in the 1950's and 1960's.

In 1965, Bob Kiersky won the WPGA Senior Amateur title at Oakmont Country Club and, later that fall, won the U.S. Senior Amateur at Fox Chapel Golf Club.

In 2000, the 18-hole competition for players 55 years of age and older was reformatted to a 36-hole championship played over two days. 14 years later, the WPGA introduced the Super-Senior division into the competition, allowing players 65 years of age an older a division to compete with a similarly aged field.

The Super-Senior division has been won on three occasions by Don Erickson III, who took home titles in 2018, 2019 and 2022.

Winners of the WPGA Senior Amateur Championship receive the Thomas S. Jamison Vase.