The Farrell Begins Friday
UPDATE (September 30, 2023) -- Due to Friday's significant rainfall, The Farrell has been modified to an 18-hole stroke play championship. Tee times for Sunday will begin at 11:15 a.m.
Related: The Farrell History | Pairings
ELMSFORD, N.Y. (September 26, 2023) – After an exciting inaugural year that produced a trio of worthy champions, The Farrell returns for its second playing at The Stanwich Club in Greenwich, Conn., September 29 – October 1.
Competitors in three divisions – Men’s Mid-Amateur, Women’s Mid-Amateur, and Men’s Senior – will compete over 18 holes of stroke play, with the top 16 finishers advancing to match play to determine a champion over the weekend.
The Farrell, conducted by the MGA in partnership with The Stanwich Club, honors the legacy of longtime Stanwich head professional Billy Farrell. Farrell was Stanwich’s first-ever head professional and set a high standard in all aspects of the profession. He held the role from 1964 until 2000 and passed away in 2020 at the age of 85.
Farrell believed that a tournament should be highly competitive, be conducted in a professional manner, contain an elite field, and provide lifelong memories. Year one provided plenty of memories among a strong field and the second playing has the stage set for another outstanding event.
The Men’s Mid-Amateur division features a strong contingent of the Met Area’s top competitors, including nine past MGA champions with multi-time MGA winners Mark Costanza of Balutsrol, Matthew Lowe of Bethpage, Trevor Randolph of Arcola, Pat Wilson of Hamilton Farm, and reigning Farrell champion and MGA Player of the Year Brad Tilley of Sleepy Hollow leading the way.
The Farrell will play a big factor in this year’s race for the MGA Jerry Courville Sr. Player of the Year Award, with Christian Cavaliere of Hudson National (No. 1, 780 pts), Costanza (2, 753.75), Lowe (4, 630) and Tilley (5, 520) all in the field.
Rick Dowling of Golf Performance Center is also in the field and made match play at Stanwich last year. At the end of August, Dowling won his third consecutive Connecticut State Golf Assocition Mid-Amateur title.
The Met Area’s top talent will have plenty to contend against in the division, from players that have captured their regional mid-am titles like Will Davenport of Whitemarsh Valley (Pa.), and Stewart Whitt of Canebrake (Ala.), to the 2017 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Matt Parziale of Thorny Lea (Mass.).
The Women’s Mid-Amateur division features a depth of talent headlined by six players that advanced to match play in this year’s U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship. Reigning champion Catherine McEvoy of Innis Arden stands among those players, having advanced to the Round of 16 while making her first appearance in the event. In the stroke play portion, she’ll play alongside two of this year’s semifinalists in Gretchen Johnson of Waverley (Ore.) and Jackie Rogowicz of Yardley (Pa.).
The Met Area’s very own 2019 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion Ina Kim-Schaad of Deepdale, four-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion (2006, ’07, ’10, ’12) Meghan Stasi of Tavistock (Fla.) and Jacqueline Setas of The Golf Club of Tennessee are all in the field as well after match play appearances in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur this year.
The division’s depth continues with Met Area players Pendelton Bogache of Deepdale, past MGW/WMGA Women’s Public Links champion Hana Ku now of Stanford University Golf Club, Megan Grehan of Hudson National, and Ellen Oswald of Westchester.
The Senior division also includes a number of MGA champions, highlighted by reigning Farrell champion Ed Gibstein of Glen Head and past MGA Senior Amateur winners Dennis Lynch of Baiting Hollow, Roddy McRae of Baltusrol, Ned Zachar of GlenArbor. Last year’s runner-up Patrick Pierson of New York Country Club, Jay Sessa of Cherry Valley, Mark Vassalotti of Sterling Farms, and 2022 MGA Senior Masters winner Tom Yellin of Stanwich all add to the lengthy list of local standouts in the division.
Stanwich hosted the U.S. Mid-Amateur in 2002 and is especially known for its fast, true greens. In the years since, the Club has welcomed the Palmer Cup and Wyndham Cup. It stands among 19 Met Area clubs that have hosted all three MGA majors—the Ike, Amateur and Open—hosting the Met Open in 1972 and 1996, the Ike in 1989 and the Met Amateur in 2004 and 2013.
The Farrell family has long been synonymous with golf in the Met Area. Billy was one of five children and grew up in in New Jersey; his father Johnny, the 1928 U.S. Open champion, was the Head Professional at Baltusrol Golf Club. While competing on tour, where he played in eight U.S. Opens and seven PGA Championships, Billy also worked as an assistant at Baltusrol. Billy and his wife Alvera had seven children; for 20 years, his son Bobby served as the Director of Golf at Tamarack Country Club in Greenwich, Conn. The Farrells were named Golf Family of the Year in 1966 by the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association.
Follow full coverage of The Farrell on mgagolf.org and the MGA’s social media platforms.