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Summers Sits Atop Ike Leaderboard

GLEN COVE, N.Y. (June 25, 2024) – Playing firm and fast, Nassau Country Club yielded just three under-par scores on Tuesday in the opening round of the 69th Ike MGA Stroke Play Championship, with Colin Summers of Plainfield leading the way with a 3-under 67.

Related: Rd. 1 Results | Photos

Jack Wall of Manasquan River added a 2-under 68, while Will Lodge of Country Club of Darien tallied a 1-under 69 to round out those in red figures.

“I feel like it’s a very strategic golf course, you need to put the ball in the right spots,” said Summers, the 2021 Met Junior champion. “You definitely have to keep it below the hole, since these greens are running pretty quickly right now.”

Summers opened with nine consecutive pars before a birdie on the par-3 10th. After five more pars, the 20-year-old rising senior at Fairfield University closed with birdies on the par-3 16th and par-4 18th.

According to Summers, keeping it light on the course led to a relatively stress-free round.

“Me and my caddie Nick, we just kept it lighthearted and didn’t really think about how we were playing,” he said. “Had a ton of tap-in pars, so that definitely takes the stress off throughout the round.”

 

 

Looking ahead to Tuesday, Summers is already planning on using his past experience. Just last year, Summers fired a 65 in the opening round of the Ike to take the overnight lead before finishing fourth after 54 holes.

“I have a lot of experience that I can lean on for the next 36 holes, and it should be fun tomorrow,” he said.

Meanwhile, Wall had a relatively clean card as well and cited stress-free pars, but made three birdies on his inward nine en route to his 2-under 68.

“I feel like I putted well all day,” said Wall, who finished tied for 19th in last week’s Northeast Amateur. “On the front nine I wasn’t making any birdie putts, and had pretty stress-free pars I would say. The back nine, I just rolled in a couple putts and got the driver going a little bit, so I was hitting it straight and pretty far.”

Wall also reiterated the importance of being careful on the greens around Nassau.

“Once you get to the greens you can’t really be too aggressive,” said Wall, who just finished his fifth-year season at Texas Tech University. “You can let the ball get away from you in certain spots, so you just have to be kind of poised and just know it’s ok lagging 20 footers and making pars.”

 

 

Lodge, a rising junior at Yale University, had four birdies in his round to three bogeys. He played his final six holes in 2-under, making birdies on Nos. 14 and 17.

Six players, including past MGA Mid-Amateur and Met Amateur champion Pat Wilson of Hamilton Farm and newly reinstated amateur Tim Hegarty of Sleepy Hollow, turned in rounds of even-par.

While Nassau played just over 6,700 yards for round one, the championship layout proved testing, with the scoring average standing at 76.47. Following the opening round, a cut was made to the low 40 scores and ties, with 48 players advancing to Wednesday’s final 36 holes with scores of 4-over 74 or better. Round two will begin at 7:30 a.m., Wednesday.

Nassau is hosting its record 14th MGA major as it welcomes the Ike for the third time, last hosting in 2009 when Mike Ballo, Jr., claimed the title. As a founding member of the MGA, the club has been a longtime supporter of MGA championships, first hosting the Met Amateur in 1900.

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