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Brown Sets the Pace at Seawane

HEWLETT HARBOR, N.Y. (August 26, 2024) Three-time Met Open champion Mark Brown fired a 6-under 66 on Monday to begin the 28th MGA Senior Open Championship at The Seawane Club, earning a one-shot lead entering Tuesday’s final round. Brown has a pack of past MGA champions and competitors chasing him, as 16 golfers carded rounds of even par or better.

Related: Day 1 Results | Photos | Day 2 Pairings

Brown had a great start to the day with a bogey-free 31 on the front nine. He continued to strike the ball well, recording just a single bogey on the back alonside two birdies to push himself up the leaderboard. He credited his driving off the tee, which put him into good positions down the fairway and around the green.

“My driver was good today," said Brown, 57. "I was getting it out there pretty deep and that gave me a bunch of short shots in to the green.”

Brown recorded five birdies in the opeing round to just one bogey, as well as an eagle on the par-5 ninth hole.

 

 

“The ninth hole I hit a 7-iron in there to probably two feet, which lead to an easy eagle," said Brown. "For me, out here it was attacking the par fives, which I did well, I was 4-under on the par fives, which was the goal.”

Meanwhile, chasing Brown is a strong field of competitors. Mark Mielke, a record three-time MGA Senior Open champion and two-time Met Open champion sits just one shot back alongside Pedro Bennenati of Harbor Links Golf Course.

Mielke, who's aiming to become just the third player to successfully defend their title in the Senior Open, recorded a bogey-free round that featured five birdies including a stretch of three in a row on Nos. 4-6.

“I hit a lot of fairways, I hit a lot of greens, and I had a lot of looks at birdie, so it was pretty low stress," said Mielke, 62. "It was a lot of fun. I drove the ball well today and hit some irons really close which is always a bonus.”

Benenati tied for the most birdies on the day, making eight including four in a row on Nos. 4-7 before adding one more on No. 9 to turn in 5-under. The 55-year-old cooled down slightly over his last nine, making three birdies and three bogeys for an even-par side coming in.

Finishing just two shots off the pace is a group of five golfers, including 2007 Met Open champion Frank Bensel of Century Golf Club, Michael Laudien of Philip J. Rotella Memorial Golf Course, amateur Trevor Randolph of Arcola, Greg Bisconti of The Saint Andrew’s Golf Club and past champion Jim McGovern of White Beeches.

Following the opening round a cut was made to low 40 scores plus ties, with 47 players advancing behind scores of 3-over 75 or better.

Tuesday’s final round will begin at 7:30 a.m. with the final pairings of Mark Brown and Mark Mielke teeing off at 11:30 a.m. Brown and Mielke played in the final group in 2018 at Glen Head Country Club, where Mielke claimed his second career Senior Open title.

The Seawane Club has been a frequent host of Long Island Golf Association championships and a variety of qualifiers, but will be hosting its first MGA event since 1996 when it welcomed the Women’s Four-Ball. In fact, though the club has hosted four different events, this will be just the second individual championship staged at the venue, with the Senior Amateur having taken place at Seawane in 1946 and 1949.

The Devereux Emmet, links-like layout traverses flat, nearly treeless terrain laid out on land reclaimed from marshes. All the elements found near the ocean – winds, water, and sand – stand as vital defenses in addition to contoured greens. The club’s most recent course work has been led by Jeff Stein, notably incorporating views of sand and fescue from tee to green to convey a seaside feeling.

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