ELMSFORD, N.Y. (March 11, 2005) - As another golf season approaches, the Metropolitan Golf Association is set to provide the Met Area golfer’s with a season of exciting and highly competitive golf, as it has done for more than 100 years.  The MGA offers local golfers and fans the opportunity to experience tournaments and courses that rival those of PGA Tour.  This year looks to be no different, as some of the country’s most time-honored courses will provide the setting for the area’s most prestigious golf championships.

The season’s three major events, the “Ike”, presented by Canon USA, Met Amateur, and Met Open, presented by MetLife, will be contested on three of the most challenging courses in the Met Area-- the “Ike” at Plainfield Country Club, a Donald Ross masterpiece, in Plainfield, NJ, the Amateur at the demanding Creek in Locust Valley, NY, designed by Seth Raynor, and the Open at the Old Westbury Golf and Country Club, designed by William Mitchell. These three venues represent three distinct generations of golf course design.

 

 

During the 2005 season, the MGA will conduct a total of 16 Championships, part of a schedule that includes 34 MGA qualifying rounds as well as 14 qualifying rounds for USGA Championships.  For the 25th consecutive season, the MGA welcomes MetLife as a sponsor of seven MGA events and our Calendar of Competitions. Canon USA returns for a third year as sponsor of the Ike and Senior Open championships.  As always, our sponsors’ support helps the MGA tournament program maintain its premier reputation across the country.  A complete rundown of the schedule follows:

               

MAY

The 2005 season commences with the seniors in action during the second week of May, at the Senior Amateur Championship, May 9-10 at the scenic Woodway Country Club in Darien, CT.  While the seniors are battling it out at home, an eight-man team of the Met Area’s finest golfers will head to Ireland to compete in the bi-annual Carey Cup.  The event, taking place on May 10-12 at the Carton House course in Maynooth, (County Kildare) Ireland, matches the best eight players from the Golfing Union of Ireland against our own MGA team. 

 

JUNE    

After an eight-week championship hiatus, during which 13 MGA and USGA qualifying rounds are played, one of which is the US Open Sectional Qualifier at Canoe Brook on June 6-7, the season shifts into high gear with the “Ike", the MGA’s Stroke Play Championship, which will be played for the first time ever at Plainfield, which hosted the 2004 French-American Challenge and has hosted all of the MGA majors, and sponsored for the third consecutive year by Canon USA.  The full “Ike” field will compete in the first round on June 27th, after which the field will be cut to the low 40 (plus ties).  The final two rounds of the 54-hole event will be played on June 28th, and will decide the individual and team champions.  Four-time Ike Champion George Zahringer III of Deepdale is likely to be on hand to defend his title, having bested the field at Quaker Ridge by seven shots in 2004.

 

JULY

Four championships will be contested in July, beginning with the MGA/MetLife Net Team Championship, often referred to as “The U.S. Open for the Average Golfer,” which will take place on July 5th at the picturesque New York Country Club in New Hempstead, NY.  The “Met Net” will be followed on July 6th by the popular WMGA/MGA Women’s Public Links Championship, which will be held this year at the Hudson Hills Golf Club in New Castle, NY.

On July 8th the 36-hole MGA/MetLife Public Links Championship will be played at the famed Black Course at Bethpage State Park, site of the 2002 US Open and where the Open will return in 2009.  This event has attracted large and talented fields in recent years, and is likely to do so again in 2005.

The MGA Junior, the nation’s oldest junior championship, will be played July 19-21 at Hempstead Golf and Country Club in Hempstead, NY, which has hosted the event four times in the past. The event, presented by MetLife, is open to Met Area young men not yet 19 years of age.  The MGA Junior often provides an early look at future contenders for the region’s top amateur events.  Look for Sun Ho Kim, 16, and Mark Costanza, 17, to be top contenders for the 2005 title.   The MGA/MetLife Pro Junior, a pro/am event held prior to the start of the MGA Junior, pits teams of three juniors and one club professional against one another and will also be held at the Hempstead Golf and Country Club on July 18th.

 

AUGUST

August begins with the youngsters showcased again at the third edition of the MGA Junior Stroke Play Championship, The Carter Cup, which switches venues from one historic club to another.  Played at Baltusrol Golf Club the past two years, the event will move temporarily to Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, NY on August 3rd to accommodate the PGA Championship being held at Baltursol.  The 36-hole invitational event has become one of the nation’s most prestigious junior titles and will return to Baltusrol in 2006.  This year’s event will have special meaning with the recent passing of MGA Vice President J. Michael Carter, who was a member of both Baltusrol and Winged Foot.  The Carter Cup is named in memory of Michael Carter’s son, Michael P. Carter, a promising collegiate golfer who lost his life in an automobile accident in 2002. 

The following day the 103rd Met Amateur begins at The Creek.  The tournament will run from Thursday, August 4th through Sunday, August 7th.  The 36-hole qualifier on the first day will identify the 16 golfers who will advance to the match-play portion of the tournament contested over the next three days.  The final match will be played over 36 holes.  The Met Amateur will go a long way in determining the 2005 MGA Jerry Courville, Sr., Player of the Year Award. Despite the loss of  2004 Met Amateur champion Andrew Svoboda to the professional ranks, players like Tyler Randol, George Zahringer III, Michael Quagliano and 2004 Player of the Year Pete Meurer could make this year’s tournament one to remember. 

On Thursday, August 11th, the MGA/MetlLife Boys Championship will be played at the Rumson Country Club in Rumson, NJ. Last year’s winner, Sun Ho Kim from Flushing, NY, has moved on to the Junior circuit, leaving the door open for another young star to emerge.

The region's top professionals and leading amateurs will vie for the Met Open title at Old Westbury Golf and Country Club on August 16-18.  The players will compete for a purse of $125,000.  Sponsored for the 25th year by MetLife, the Met Open will be preceded on August 15th by the MGA/MetLife Caddie Scholarship Pro-Am.  Let’s see if this year can top the exciting finish provided by last year’s winner, Rick Hartmann, whose clutch sand-saving par on the 54th hole at Hudson National won him his second Met Open title.

The MGA Father Son (Net) Championship will be held on August 22nd at the Saint Andrews Golf Club in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY.  On the following day, August 23rd, Crestmont Country Club in West Orange, NJ, will play host to the Father & Son (Gross) Tournament, two ever-popular MGA events.

Our busy August continues with the MGA Senior Net Tournament being held at Glen Ridge Country Club in Glen Ridge, NJ, on the 25th.  The MGA Senior Open Championship finishes off the month at The Tuxedo Club in Tuxedo, NY, on August 29-30 and is sponsored by Canon USA for the third straight year.   The top field of senior professionals and amateurs (ages 50 and up) will compete over 36 holes for a record purse of $30,000 in what has become the area’s most competitive senior event.  Knickerbocker’s Ed Whitman made a clutch 10 foot birdie putt on the 36th hole to clinch a one shot victory over Deepdale’s Darrell Kestner in last year’s event held at Century Country Club.

 

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER             

The 2005 season continues after Labor Day, first with the MGA Mixed Pinehurst to be played on September 19th at the The Patterson Club in Fairfield, CT.  And finally, the MGA/MetLife Women's Net Team Championship will be played at the The Cedar Brook Club in Old Brookville, NY, on October 6.

You are encouraged to enter events on the MGA website (www.mgagolf.org).  You may download a printable form from our website or call the MGA office to request a form by mail or fax.

For more information, please contact: Gene Westmoreland or Brian Mahoney of the MGA,  914-347-4653, or e-mail gwestmore@mgagolf.org, or bmahoney@mgagolf.org