ELMSFORD, N.Y. (December 4, 2025) – The Metropolitan Golf Association looked back on its 2025 season and honored year-end award winners on Wednesday evening, hosting its first Awards Celebration at Westchester Country Club in Rye, N.Y. The night formerly served as the MGA’s Annual Meeting and Dinner, but shifted to its new format as the annual meeting moves to the spring.
The 2025 player of the year recipients, Christian Cavaliere, Megha Ganne, and Lucas Rizo-Patron were all recognized, as was Distinguished Service Award honoree, Rich Lerner.
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After a welcome from MGA President Ned Zachar, Michel Breed served as emcee for the evening’s presentations. Breed opened by acknowledging the season’s champions in attendance and touching upon season highlights, from the MGA’s victory in the Carey Cup to the variety of successes on the national stage for Met Area players.
Neither Rizo-Patron (MGA Junior Player of the Year Award, Presented by Callaway) nor Ganne (MGA Women’s Player of the Year Award) could attend to accept their awards as they finish their semesters at Richmond University and Stanford University, respectively. Ganne’s sister, Sirina – who is in her first year at Harvard where she competes on the women’s golf team – accepted the award on her sister’s behalf.
Cavaliere delivered a heartfelt thank you to his family, friends, and network of support and detailed his journey to earning the MGA Jerry Courville Sr. Player of the Year Award that had been a longtime dream. He shared how over the last few years he went from frustration with the game to finding his competitive passion once again and achieving a goal that had eluded him several times before – all while launching and growing his business, Tremont Sporting Co.
“The people, the experiences and the opportunities that this game has given me are more than I could have ever imagined,” said Cavaliere as he closed. “I’m forever grateful for this sport and for everything it’s made possible in my life. To have grown up with it, to build a life around it, and to stand here tonight and accept an award that I’ve dreamed about for as long as I can remember, I don’t take that for granted for a second.”
After dinner, Golf Channel host and essayist Lerner was presented with the MGA’s highest honor. Friend and Golf Channel colleague Paul McGinley shared his congratulations via video, while Brandel Chamblee provided an eloquent introduction of Lerner, reflecting on his on-air partner’s unmatched story-telling abilities.
Lerner thanked his family and friends in attendance, as well as his Golf Channel family for their unwavering support through the years. He closed by telling a story about Izzy – a fellow club member where Lerner grew up playing the game that was some 65 years his senior – and how the game is about such connections, relationships, and memories made.
“Think how the game of golf has made all our live better,” Lerner closed. “The friends we have made. The places we have gone. The laughs we’ve had. The trophies you’ve won. The bonds you’ve forged. The memories we’ve created. From my dad’s driving range to the Golf Channel to right here tonight, my life better, thanks to this association, thanks to all of you.”
Created in 1973, the MGA Distinguished Service Award is presented annually to a candidate who has contributed “distinguished service to golf and its related activities, consistent with the valued standards and honorable traditions of the game.” Lerner’s contributions to the game on and off the air have been great, easily placing him among the list of previous honorees. Some of the award’s earliest winners include Joe Dey, Harry Cooper, Robert Trent Jones, Sr., and P.J. Boatwright, while names such as Jeff Holzschuh, Mike Davis and Suzy Whaley have received the honor in recent years.
