50th MGA/MetLife Boys Returns to Gardiner's Bay
ELMSFORD, N.Y. (August 7, 2018) – The Met Area’s youthful talent will be on full display, August 9-10, when 16 players square off in the 50th MGA/MetLife Boys Championship at Gardiner’s Bay Country Club in Shelter Island Heights, N.Y.
Related: Match Play Bracket | Boys History
Qualifying for competitors not yet 16 years of age took place concurrently with qualifying for the 101st Met Junior and decided the players who will compete in match play for the title.
Luke Sample of New York City and Garrett Kessler of North Caldwell, N.J., lead a quartet of players making their second-consecutive appearance in the event, having advanced to the semifinals last year at Glen Ridge Country Club. Sample also competed in this year’s Met Junior and is fresh off a victory in the New York State Junior Amateur. Meanwhile, Kessler recorded a win in the Essex County Tournament to close out his freshman season of high school and competed in the IMG World Junior Championships earlier this summer in San Diego, Calif.
Nathan Drogin of Essex Fells, N.J., advanced to match play in this year’s Met Junior and aims to build upon last year’s Boys Championship, in which he won his opening match. Harrison Blech of Suffern, N.Y., is also in the field once again and will look to register his first match play victory in the event.
A number of additional players in the field also qualified for the 101st Met Junior, including Owen Walsh of Katonah, N.Y., Michael Foley of Sparta Township, N.J., James Alden of East Northport, N.Y., Tyler Donnellan of Riverside, Conn., and Ryan Rittberger of Huntington, N.Y., who recently finished tied for 7th in the Hebron Amateur Championship at Bethpage Black.
The MGA/MetLife Boys Championship was first played in 1969 at Westchester Country Club. Since 1987, the event has rotated between Gardiner’s Bay, Rumson in New Jersey and Bedford Golf & Tennis in Westchester County.
Scoring updates will be available throughout the championship, while additional coverage will be available on the MGA’s social media outlets.