No fewer than three U.S. Mid Amateur champions top the list of contenders who will begin their quest for the 2003 Ike Championship title on Monday, July 30th at the demanding Meadow Brook Club in Jericho, NY.  A field of 101 players, pared from an entry of 691, will compete over two days, 54 holes, stroke play to take home team and individual titles in the MGA’s prestigious Stroke Play Championship. This year, Canon USA takes over the sponsorship of The Ike, the beginning of what is hoped to be a long and successful relationship.

 

With defending champion Johnson Wagner now enjoying some success on the Nationwide Tour, the bid for the 2003 title could shape up as a battle of generations. Heading the veteran field is reining U.S. Mid Amateur champion, George J. Zahringer III of Deepdale, 1997 Mid Am champion Ken Bakst of Friar’s Head, and 1995 champion Jerry Courville Jr. of Shorehaven. Courville and Zahringer each hold three Ike titles, Zahringer’s coming in three different decades, the most recent in 2001 - and continue to chase the record of six Ike wins held by Courville’s father Jerry Sr.  Other former Ike champs in the field include Greg Rohlf of Wykagyl (1998), Ed Gibstein of Engineers (1994) and Mike Giacini of Bethpage (1977).

 

Leading the youth movement is Winged Foot’s Andrew Svoboda, 23. The recent St. John’s grad and 2002 Westchester Amateur champion finished two shots behind Zahringer in the 2001 Ike, was on site medalist and runner up to Wagner in the 2002 Met Amateur and is ready to take a run at his first major MGA title. Joining Svoboda will be Rockaway Hunting’s Zach Randol, 22, the 2002 Long Island Amateur Champion and current star for Ohio State University golf team, and 20 year-old Reggie Bergholtz of Centennial, a top ten finisher in last year’s Ike and who qualified for the 2002 U.S. Amateur.

 

The format for the Ike includes 18 holes of stroke play on Monday, July 30th with a cut to the top 40   (+ ties).  Qualifiers advance to 36 holes on Tuesday, July 1st to determine the 2003 Ike Champion.

 

As always, the Ike team trophy will be up for grabs as well, with the title going to the two individuals representing the same club who post the lowest 54 hole total. If no two players from the same club make the cut, the title will be determined using the lowest combined 18- hole total.  Last year’s winning team of John Bauman and Jerry Courville Jr. (Shorehaven) will be on hand to defend their crown.

 

This year’s host club, Meadow Brook, is one of the Met Area’s classic layouts designed primarily by architect Dick Wilson in the mid 1950’s. The club’s history dates back to 1887, when it gained international fame as home to some of the country’s most memorable polo matches and to a quartet of polo players that ranked among the world’s best. The modern course, for many years the site of the PGA Senior Tour’s Long Island Classic, will play at a demanding 7,120 yards for the Championship and is one of only eleven clubs to have hosted all three MGA majors.

 

Live Scoring by Blue Golf will be available during the final round of the Ike on Tuesday, July 1st by logging on to www.mgagolf.org.

 

For more information, contact Gene Westmoreland, Jeanne McCooey or Ryan McKenna at the MGA at 914-347-4635.

 

For Pairings and Starting Times click here.