ELMSFORD, N.Y. (January 22, 2010) – Led by defending champion Cameron Wilson of Shorehaven Golf Club, the top amateur players in the Met Area will travel to Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale, N.Y., for the 108th Met Amateur Championship from July 29-August 1. The MGA returns to Quaker Ridge for the first time since 2004, when George Zahringer III cruised to a seven-stroke victory at the Ike Championship.

Quaker Ridge has long been considered one of the top golf courses in the country and one of A.W. Tillinghast’s finest creations. The course was ranked by The Met Golfer as the sixth best course in the Met Area in 2007 and is consistently ranked as one of the top 50 courses in the United States by a number of national publications. Unlike some other top clubs in the Met Area, Quaker Ridge has chosen to avoid the national spotlight; a cloak of anonymity that was lifted slightly in 1997 when the club hosted the Walker Cup Match. The area’s top amateurs will test their games at the historic course for only the fourth time in the Met Amateur’s 108-year history and first since 1998. The club has also hosted three Met Open Championships (1936, 1978 and 1993) in addition to the 2004 Ike Championship.

The name “Quaker Ridge” traces its roots all the way back to 1774, when Quakers owned the land and convened frequently at a meeting house at the intersection of Griffen Avenue and Weaver Street. During the Revolutionary War, George Washington is said to have slept under the Quaker Ridge Oak, located to the right of the 10th hole. In 1914, the Metropolitan Golf Links purchased 112 acres on Quaker Ridge and leased the land for 10 years to the Quaker Ridge Field & Country Club. In 1915, John Duncan Dunn was hired to lay out a nine-hole golf course.

In 1916, a small group of members from the Quaker Ridge Field & Country Club purchased the land and formed the Quaker Ridge Golf Club. The group hired Tillinghast to expand the existing golf course to 18 holes and the new layout opened for play in 1918. The Tudor-style clubhouse, designed by Buchman & Kahn, opened on August 18, 1923, with a testimonial dinner for William Rice Hochster, the club’s first president (1916-1928). The Hochster Memorial is named in his honor and annually draws the top amateur players in the Met Area. It has been won by the likes of Zahringer, Willie Turnesa, and Dick Siderowf.

 

The Quaker Ridge golf shop has been the home to some of the game’s top professionals over the years. The club hired Jimmy and Johnny Farrell to serve as club pros in 1920. Johnny won seven professional events in 1927, including the Met Open, and the following year won the U.S. Open in a playoff over Bobby Jones. Victor Oberhammer served as head pro for more than 40 years before retiring in 1974. Jim McLean, a nationally recognized golf instructor, was the head pro from 1983-1987. The club’s current head pro, Rick Vershure, is a former Met PGA Section and New York State PGA champion.

The MGA has been a frequent visitor to the club for its major championships, starting with the 1931 Met Amateur, won by Leonard Martin. In 1986, Zahringer won his third consecutive Met Amateur title, and fourth overall, at the club. Jerry Courville Jr. won his second consecutive Met Amateur title in 1998 at Quaker Ridge, one year after being a member of the United States Walker Cup team when the matches were played at the club.

The 1936 Met Open, then considered one of the “big four” events on the pro tour, was a landmark event at Quaker Ridge and featured a great field, including Gene Sarazen, Paul Runyan, Johnny Farrell and Tommy Armour.  But it was 24-year-old Byron Nelson, then an assistant at Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey, who topped them all. This was Nelson’s first major professional title and was a stepping stone to later success. The Met Open returned to the club in 1978 and 1993 and was won by David Glenz and Bruce Zabriski, respectively.

In 2010, the competitors will face the fast, well-bunkered greens and tree-lined fairways that make Quaker Ridge one of the most demanding courses in the country. A talented field and a great golf course should provide for an exciting week at the 108th Met Amateur Championship.