Stroke Play Pairings

ELMSFORD, N.Y. (August 1, 2011) – The stage is set for the 109th playing of the Met Amateur Championship at the Piping Rock Club in Locust Valley, N.Y., August 4-7. A field of 70 top local amateurs, many with an impressive list of golf accomplishments, will compete for the coveted silver trophy that has been hoisted by some of the very best to ever play golf in the Met Area. The Met Amateur is one of the game’s most demanding tournaments to win, with 36 holes of stroke play qualifying the first day that trims the field to 16 competitors, followed by four rounds of match play.

A star attraction of the Met Amateur is always the course, and this year, Piping Rock takes center stage. The club was founded in 1909 and its C.B. Macdonald-designed course features contrasting nines. The front side spreads out over relatively level terrain, while the back nine is more rugged and wooded. In true Macdonald fashion, the course features numerous holes that have become synonymous with the golden age of golf course architecture, including a Redan (#3), a Road (#8), an Eden (#11), and and Alps (#12).  Piping Rock has hosted the Met Amateur twice before. In 1990, John Baldwin's victory at the club came a record 23 years after his first Met Amateur title, and in 2002, future PGA Tour star Johnson Wagner won his final tournament as an amateur.

Leading the 2011 Met Amateur field is two-time MGA Jerry Courville Sr. Player of the Year Joe Saladino (left) of Huntington, who has two victories to his credit already this season: the Long Island Amateur and the Richardson Memorial. Saladino, 31, was the runner-up in this year’s Ike Championship presented by Canon Business Solutions, losing in a playoff to two-time Met Amateur winner Tommy McDonagh of Shorehaven.

McDonagh, who will be a fifth-year senior at Penn State, has proved to be one of the top match play competitors in the Met Area, adding the 2011 Connecticut State Amateur to his career victories. He will be gunning for his fourth MGA major title at Piping Rock, one of the premier courses in the Met Area. Piping Rock has hosted the Met Amateur twice: 1990, when John Baldwin was victorious, and 2002, when current PGA Tour player Johnson Wagner won his second consecutive Met Amateur.

Other leading names looking to contend at Piping Rock include 2010 Met Junior champion Mike Miller (below) of Knollwood, who was a quarterfinalist at the Met Amateur last year and recently finished tied for second at the WGA Open. A Met Amateur semifinalist from 2010, Alex Edfort of Neshanic Valley, made it to the Round of 16 at the 2011 U.S. Amateur Public Links at Bandon Dunes and finished tied for fourth at the New Jersey State Amateur in June. In the 2010 Met Amateur at Quaker Ridge, Edfort fell to eventual champion Evan Beirne of Bethpage, who has since turned professional. Two-time Met Junior winner and 2010 Carter Cup champion David Pastore of the Griff Harris Men’s Club is looking to win his third different MGA title and his first MGA major.

With so many young stars in the field, it would be easy to tab one of them as an eventual champion given the demanding amount of golf this championship requires. However, there are many experienced veterans in the field who are good bets to make a run. Included in this mix is 2011 MGA Senior Amateur and 2010 MGA Senior Open champion John Ervasti of Sleepy Hollow. Ervasti, 56, nearly won this event in 2009, losing in the finals to Cameron Wilson at Hackensack. Another player with plenty of tournament experience on his side is 2009 MGA Senior Amateur winner Allan Small of Fairmount. Small, 59, who was the only Met Area amateur to qualify and compete in the U.S. Senior Open at Inverness.

Hans Albertsson, 40, of Bethpage finished second at the 2010 MGA Mid-Amateur at GlenArbor and lost in the quarterfinals in this event last year to Edfort.

A number of past Met Amateur champions also figure to be among the players to watch. Besides McDonagh, Spring Lake’s Mike Stamberger, who won the 2003 Met Amateur at Somerset Hills, finished as the low amateur at the New Jersey State Open in July. Stamberger also finished tied for third at this year’s Ike Championship at Somerset Hills. Peter Van Ingen of the home club, Piping Rock, is another past winner (1981) who has a strong track record in this event.

The Met Amateur is the MGA’s oldest championship, and was first played in 1899 at Garden City Golf Club. Over the years it has been won by the likes of Walter Travis, Jerry Travers, Jess Sweetser, Willie Turnesa, Robert Gardner, Dick Siderowf, Frank Strafaci, George Zahringer III, Johnson Wagner, and Jerry Courville Sr. and Jr., all top names in the history of amateur golf. 

The Met Amateur is open to any amateur with a USGA Handicap Index of 5.0 or less and who holds membership at a golf club in the MGA district. An entry of 562 golfers was pared down by means of five qualifying rounds to a final field of 70, including 21 exempt players.  

For complete results from sectional qualifying and for live scoring and updates throughout the match play portion of the championship, visit the MGA web site at www.mgagolf.org.