Explore the MGA Honors

At the MGA's 122nd Annual Meeting and Dinner in December, the Association proudly introduced the MGA Honors, a platform dedicated to celebrating and showcasing the rich history of the MGA and golf in the Met Area. The MGA Honors includes an online archive, and its launch was celebrated with a cover story in the November/December 2019 issue of The Met Golfer.

The MGA Honors consists of three elements:

• Hall of Achievement: Recipients of the MGA’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, and the Player of the Year Awards.
• Hall of Champions: Winners of the MGA’s oldest and most prestigious championships – the Met Open, Met Amateur, Ike Stroke Play, and Met Junior.
• Hall of Merit: The Hall of Merit singles out those with ties to the Met Area whose contributions to golf—not only in the region—are so large that the story of the game cannot be told without them. They shaped the game in many ways: as players, teachers, organizers, architects, entrepreneurs, inventors, writers, leaders.

As Pike noted in The Met Golfer: “We have a history of recognizing the Player of the Year and the Distinguished Service Award winner, but we want to bring attention to a broader group of individuals who’ve contributed to the game in the Met Area over a long period of time.”

Related: MGA Honors Home | Hall of Merit Inductee Videos

The inaugural class inducted into the Hall of Merit includes eight individuals—a group of five, and three honored on their own. All of them are part of the grand tapestry of a century-plus of the MGA:

• The Founding Fathers: The group of sportsmen that led the charge in establishing the MGA in 1897: Daniel Chauncey of Dyker Meadow, Oliver W. Bird of Meadow Brook, Grenville Kane of Tuxedo, Richard H. Williams of Morris County and T. Hope Simpson of Staten Island Cricket.
• A.W. Tillinghast: The prolific golf architect whose gems are found throughout the Met Area, with treasures such as Winged Foot's East and West courses, Baltusrol's Upper and Lower courses, Quaker Ridge, Ridgewood, Somerset Hills, and Bethpage continue to stand among the world's greatest.
• Marion Hollins: One of the most accomplished sportswomen of her day, a three-time winner of the WMGA Amateur Championship, and 1921 U.S. Women's Amateur champion who later founded the National Women's Golf & Tennis Club in Glen Head, N.Y.
• Ben Hogan: Nine-time major champion that spent his formative years in golf serving as an assistant at Century Country Club, where he honed his craft and developed his own game.

We encourage all MGA members to explore the Honors archive and learn more about these great champions, award winners, and contributors to the game.