Schedule Spotlight: Seniors
The Seawane Club in Hewlett Harbor, N.Y., welcomes the 28th Lexus MGA Senior Open Championship at the end of August.
ELMSFORD, N.Y. (February 15, 2024) – The MGA’s championship schedule includes opportunities for all competitive players, with senior players having four specific championships throughout the season.
Related: 2024 MGA Schedule
The MGA Senior Amateur Championship has become a staple to kick off the season, even bringing many snowbirds back to the Met Area in early May to take part in what’s always one of the quickest sellouts on the year’s schedule. The 97th playing of the Senior Amateur this year heads to GlenArbor in Bedford Hills, N.Y., on May 8-9.
The venue no doubt brings excitement for a pair of recent champions. The 2020 champion, Ned Zachar will be right at home for the championship and in 2023 won the Westchester Senior Amateur at GlenArbor, while 2022 champion claimed the second of his back-to-back MGA Mid-Amateur titles at the club. They’ll likely have plenty of competition from what’s always a deep, decorated field of the Met Area’s top players aged 55 and above.
Competitors vie for the Horace L. Hotchkiss Trophy, named for the “father of the seniors” who came up with the idea for what eventually became the United States Seniors’ Golf Association and its annual Seniors’ Tournament, which attracts some 500 participants per year. The trophy was donated by then-MGA president Walter Z. Schafer upon the event’s establishment in 1928.
The 31st MGA Senior Net Four-Ball Tournament comes shortly after, taking place May 14 at Harrison Meadows Country Club in Harrison, N.Y. The event began in 1993, offering a competitive atmosphere for players whose Handicap Indexes fall closer to that of the average golfer. Though it started as an individual event, it shifted to a two-man team event in 2006 and provides the unique opportunity for players from different clubs to partner with one another.
Related: MGA Announces 2024 Schedule
Toward the end of the summer, the region’s top professionals and amateur aged 50 and older vie for the Lexus MGA Senior Open Championship, which this year heads to The Seawane Club in Hewlett Harbor, N.Y., on August 26-27.
The links-style layout was carved out originally by Devereux Emmet. While Robert Trent Jones worked on the course after Hewlett Harbor residents purchased the club in 1960, recent years have seen course architect and shaper Jeff Stein work alongside Seawane superintendent Ryan Bell, using Emmet’s work at Garden City, St. George’s and National Golf Links as inspiration.
Senior Open competitors aim to have their name etched on an ornate tray that has it’s own rich history. The tray was donated in 2005 by the family of Oswald Kirkby, the Met Amateur champion in 1914, 1916, and 1919.
The final senior-specific event on the calendar comes on September 19, as the 13th MGA Senior Masters Tournament heads to Southward Ho Country Club in Bay Shore, N.Y. The event was first played in 2012 and is for players aged 65 and over. The 18-hole championship tees off as an early afternoon shotgun, and though young by MGA standards has already had an incredible list of champions including Ron Vannelli, Jay Blumenfeld, and three-time champion George Zahringer.
Championship registration will open on March 1 at 10 a.m., on the Golf Genius platform.