Ike Championship Begins June 30 at Nassau
ELMSFORD, N.Y. (June 25, 2009) — A stellar field will gather at historic Nassau Country Club in Glen Cove, N.Y., next week for the 2009 Ike 
Championship presented by Canon. The 54th renewal of the Ike, the MGA’s amateur stroke play championship, will be played on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 30 and July 1. This will be the second Ike played at Nassau, the first coming in 2000, and the 16th MGA championship hosted by the club. The course, originally designed by Tom Bendelow and which recently underwent a successful renovation, will surely challenge this impressive field of 106 players.
After a tremendous victory last year in a see-saw battle with Morgan Hoffmann of Arcola, Kevin Foley of Neshanic Valley will try to defend his title against the area’s best amateurs. Foley, a standout member of the golf team at Penn State, won the prestigious Sunnehanna Invitational earlier this month. Top players looking to challenge Foley include Long Island native Joe Saladino of Huntington, the 2008 MGA Jerry Courville Sr. Player of the Year who is looking for his first MGA championship victory; Chris DeForest of Rondout, the 2006 Carter Cup champion and a First Team All-Big Ten at the University of Illinois; former Met Junior champion and Duke University golf team captain Michael Quagliano of GlenArbor; 2008 Carter Cup champion Curtis Loop of New Canaan; and Southern Methodist University sophomore and 2007 Carter Cup winner Max Buckley of Westchester Hills.
The 2009 WGA Amateur champion, Mike Ballo Jr. of Woodway, along with 2009 Brae Burn invitational winner Chris Scialo of Spook Rock, look to continue to their successful 2009 seasons. Two other tournament winners from this year are NYC Amateur champion Patrick Pierson of Minisceongo and LIGA Amateur champion Bryan Pendrick of Oyster Bay.
Along with Foley, three former Ike champions are in the field: Ed Gibstein of Engineers (1994), Greg Rohlf of Winged Foot (1998) and Roger Hoit of Baltusrol (2006). Rohlf and Gibstein also competed for the MGA in the Carey Cup matches against the Golfing Union of Ireland in early May. Other amateurs of note include Marc Issler of Pine Barrens, runner-up at the 2007 Met Amateur; 2007 MGA Senior Amateur champion and 2006 NJSGA Player of the Year Jay Blumenfeld of Mountain Ridge; 2008 MGA Senior Amateur and former MGA Player of the Year Ron Vannelli of Metuchen; Michael Stamberger of Plainfield, also a former Met Amateur winner; and Peter Van Ingen of Deepdale, the 1981 Met Amateur champion. Also in the mix is Jim Graham of Winged Foot, who was the low amateur at the 2008 MGA Senior Open. Vito Abbondandolo, Steve Alchermes and Michael Curcio will represent the host club in the championship.
The Ike was conceived in 1953 by F.M. Flynn, publisher of the New York Daily News. It was nurtured through its early years by Daily News columnist Dana Mozley and his close friend, the late George Sands, who was president of the MGA in 1974-1975 and a strong advocate of Met Area golf. Although the tournament was quite successful for nearly two decades, by the late 1970s the event faced an uncertain future due to sponsorship difficulties. After the tournament was not conducted in 1979, 1980, and 1985, the MGA acquired the rights to the Ike, and made the tournament its annual Stroke Play Championship. Canon has now sponsored the event for the seventh year, and the Ike remains one of the most coveted titles in the region. Over the years it has been contested at nationally revered courses such as Garden City Golf Club, Winged Foot, Quaker Ridge, Stanwich, Metedeconk National, Bethpage Black and last year’s host, Mountain Ridge.
The Ike is open to any amateur golfer with a USGA Handicap Index of 5.0 or less and who holds membership in a golf club in the MGA district. An entry of 688 golfers was pared down by means of five qualifying rounds to a final field of 106, including 24 exempt players. The 54-hole championship begins with 18 holes on Monday, June 30, after which the low 40 players and ties move on to the 36-hole conclusion on Wednesday, July 1.
An accomplished field, a historic and championship-tested golf course, and the Ike’s 36-hole final day should provide for an exciting championship, as it did last year when Kevin Foley won his first MGA title in a drama-filled final round. The MGA is proud to bring the Met Area’s most prestigious amateur stroke play event to Nassau Country Club.
