July 10, 2009 – An outstanding field of 64 Met Area junior golfers are ready to compete at Engineers Country Club in Roslyn Heights, N.Y., in the92nd Met Junior Championship sponsored by MetLife. The Met Junior, a three-day, match play competition that is the nation’s oldest junior championship, begins on Wednesday, July 15 and concludes on Friday, July 17.

Headlining the list of 13 exempt players is 2006 MGA/MetLife Boys champion and 2009 U.S. Junior qualifier Cameron Wilson of Norwalk, Connecticut. Wilson, 16, reached the semifinals of last year’s Met Junior at Rockaway River, where he was defeated by eventual champion Anthony Aloi, and later reached the semifinals of the 2008 Met Amateur at Friar’s Head. This year, Wilson was the medalist in a U.S. Junior sectional qualifier on July 1 at The Farms Golf Club in Connecticut, shooting 72-69.

Another player coming into the Met Junior in good form is 17-year-old Jonathan Renza of Cortlandt Manor, N.Y. Renza, the 2007 MGA/MetLife Boys champion, made the cut at the 2009 Ike Championship presented by Canon, and also qualified for the 2009 Met Amateur. Renza reached the semifinals of the 2007 Met Junior.

The 11 other exempt players in this year’s field include 2006 champion David Pastore, 17, of Greenwich, Conn.; the 2008 Met Junior runner-up, 16-year-old Dillon Corbo of Montville, N.J.; 14-year-old Anthony Alex of Wayne, N.J., who won the 2008 New Jersey State Boys Championship; 17-year-old Michael Miller of Brewster, N.Y., who was runner-up to Renza in the 2007 MGA/MetLife Boys Championship; and 14-year-old Peter Kim of Metuchen, N.J., the 2008 MGA/MetLife Boys champion. Pastore, Alex and Miller, like Cameron Wilson, qualified for the 2009 U.S. Junior Championship, which will be held later this month at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.

Rounding out the exempt players are Sam Bernstein, 17, of Riverdale, N.Y., 14-year-old Mark Reilly of Babylon, N.Y., 18-year-old Jeremy Quinn of Lafayette, N.J., 18-year-old Sean Keller of Bellport, N.Y., 17-year-old John Torrell of Bronxville, N.Y., and 15-year-old Jordan Woldenberg of Old Brookville, N.Y., who plays out of the host club, Engineers.

Sponsored by MetLife for the 25th consecutive year, the Met Junior consists of three consecutive days of match play. It is a test of mental as well as physical endurance, as the eventual champion will have survived two 18-hole matches each day. The field is pared down from 64 to 16 after the first day, and there are traditionally some surprising results. Before taking the course for the first-round matches, the players will have the opportunity to test the historic 6,780-yard Engineers layout on Tuesday, July 14, when the MGA/MetLife Pro-Junior is held for the 42nd time. Each Met Junior entrant will team up with a PGA professional in a better-ball competition.

The Met Junior Championship sponsored by MetLife, is open to all male golfers, not yet 19, who are accredited students at schools in the MGA district or who have playing privileges at MGA member clubs. Complete coverage of the Met Junior Championship will be available at www.mgagolf.org, where you can also find live scoring for the semifinals and finals.