MGA Public Links Championship Returns to Spook Rock
ELMSFORD, N.Y. (June 11, 2024) – For a record ninth time, the MGA’s Public Links Championship heads to Spook Rock Golf Course in Suffern, N.Y., with the 36-hole event taking place Thursday, June 13.
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Each of the last two champions will tee it up in the 76th edition of the MGA Public Links, with Matthew Lowe of Bethpage and Peicheng Chen of Rock Hill set to play alongside one another. MGA eClub – Connecticut member Thomas McCarthy rounds out the grouping and will certainly be a factor in the championship as well, having recently come up just short of claiming the Connecticut State Golf Association’s 54-hole Palmer Cup after competing in a four-player playoff.
Lowe has already had a hot start to the season, claiming victories in the LIGA’s season-opening Richardson Memorial and Fenway Golf Club’s Mittelmark Invitational. Meanwhile, Chen is coming off a solid junior season at Saint John’s University, where he captured the BIG EAST individual title and was named to the PING All-Northeast Region Team.
There’s also plenty of young, rising talent in the field, including recent NSCHSAA individual champion Dean Muratore, a MET PGA Junior Golf Club member, who will head to Michigan this fall; Matthew DiFiore, who in early May won the AJGA Preview at Bethpage; and Elias Kennon of Golf Performance Center, who plays at University of Louisville and made the cut this week at the Westchester Open.
Spook Rock last hosted the MGA’s Public Links in 2016, when Michael Miranda edged a trio of players including eventual two-time champion Jonathan Jeter. The course has produced outstanding champions through the years, with eventual two-time Met Open and three-time MGA Senior Open champion Mark Mielke taking the Public Links title in 1987 at the course. Alan Specht, Jeff Thomas, Peter Muerer and Brian Komline all earned MGA Public Links titles at the venue as well.
“I think the greens are going to be rolling pretty fast,” says Spook Rock head golf professional Jim McCann. “For here, for golfers at Spook Rock, when the greens are rolling fast, there are limited pins on some of these greens. The greens here are very sloped back-to-front.”
According to superintendent Trapper Van Dunk, position off the tee will be crucial if players aim to be in contention.
“It’s a shot-makers golf course,” says Van Dunk. “You’ve got to put yourself in position for your second shot to actually score around here.”
The 36-hole championship begins at 7:30 a.m., with a split-tee start. Second round times are already set as well, with play slated to begin in the final round at 12:45 p.m.