Global Golf Post, the digital news magazine that offers a weekly roundup of golf around the world, is well worth allowing into your e-mail inbox every week. It’s free, so there’s that, but it really does what no golf publication has done since the lamentable demise of Golf World.
I don’t really have time to dig into the Global Golf Post that shows up in my inbox each Monday as much as I’d like to, but it always has my full attention when its All-Amateur teams show up in November.
My blog specializes on the amateur scene. Amateur golf rarely shows up on your TV screen and yet, in terms of quantity, it is such a sprawling worldwide thing that you can’t possibly keep up with all of it.
Sean Fairholm was tasked by Global Golf Post with putting together its All-Am teams and his introductory column to the package is well worth reading. Amateur golf is still the bedrock of the game, the well from which even the greats -- Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, all of them – have sprung. Amateur golf is important, Fairholm contends, and that makes recognizing the best amateur players from around the world in 2023 important as well.
Some years, the most important part of Global Golf Post’s All-Amateur presentation is the Male and Female Players of the Year. U.S. Amateur champion Nick Dunlap among the guys and NCAA champion Rose Zhang among the gals were obvious choices this year and yes, for you nit-pickers, Fairholm explains including players like Zhang and Ludvig Aberg, among others who were only amateurs for part of 2023 before turning pro, on his All-Am teams.
And, of course, I will always take note when a player from the Philadelphia area shows up on one of the All-Am teams. I first noticed Global Golf Post when it named Reading’s Chip Lutz, who has carved out a remarkable run as a senior golfer, as the best male amateur player in the world in 2016.
Yeah, Global Golf Post will go a little out of the box sometimes in naming its Players of the Year, but the story that accompanied Lutz’s selection made you understand that he was, indeed, worthy of such an honor.
My focus in this post will be on the Women’s Mid-Amateur division and the selection to the first team of Jackie Rogowicz, a scholastic standout at Pennsbury and a collegiate stalwart at Penn State who I got to watch up close when the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship was staged in September at the North Course at Stonewall, the younger of Tom Doak’s twin gems in the northwest corner of Chester County.
Regular readers of this blog are aware that I have been known to lug a bag or two round Stonewall after reviving my caddy career after the newspaper business spit me out in 2016.
Everybody at Stonewall was looking forward to seeing the best mid-am women in the world in September at the North, the “Udder Course” as it is often called, a reference to the property’s previous life as a dairy farm.
I was on the bag for Tara Joy-Connelly, a talented 50-year-old from Middleborough, Mass. and a veteran of many a women’s mid-am, at Stonewall. When Joy-Connelly survived a playoff among eight women for the final three spots in the match-play bracket, I was guaranteed a close look at Rogowicz’s game because Joy-Connelly drew Rogowicz, one of the three co-medalists in qualifying, in the opening round of match play.
As I mentioned in an advance on the Women’s Mid-Am in this blog, I’ve been following Rogowicz’s career ever since she was one of the top high school players in Pennsylvania and I was covering Brynn Walker, a back-to-back PIAA Class AAA champion at Radnor in 2014 and 2015, in my previous life with the Delaware County Daily Times.
When I decided to continue T Mac Tees Off, which I had started at the Daily Times, it made sense to follow those scholastic standouts I had seen on the Pennsylvania high school postseason trail as they embarked on their college careers. I did posts on most of Rogowicz’s starts during her four years as a standout at Penn State and when she went on to win a pair of Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur crowns, one at match play at Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Militia Hill Course in 2019 and another at stroke play at Lancaster Country Club in 2022.
Rogowicz, a product of the junior program at Yardley Country Club, was as tough as I knew she would be in rolling to a 5 and 4 decision over Joy-Connelly in that opening-round match at Stonewall.
Rogowicz had reached the round of 16 as a mid-am rookie at Fiddlesticks Country Club’s Long Mean Course in Fort Myers, Fla. a year ago and was one of only a couple of mid-ams to earn a spot in the match-play bracket in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles a month before the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am at Stonewall.
Rogowicz’s local connections had enabled her to get in a couple of scouting missions at the North Course earlier in the summer and Stonewall’s top looper, Pat Dougherty, reported that her game seemed to fit the “Udder Course” just fine.
Rogowicz is long and just very, very steady. The young players who had shared medalist honors with Rogowicz did not survive their opening-round matches, former Texas A&M standout Courtney Dow falling to 57-year-old Sarah LeBrun Ingram, the captain of the last two winning U.S. Curtis Cup teams, and former Virginia Tech standout Jessica Spicer getting upset by Johnstown’s own Katrin Wolfe, a field staff representative for the Mid-Atlantic region of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America.
Rogowicz, with Terry Sawyer, one of the top amateur players in Bucks County for forever who often referees matches in the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s major championships pushing her bag, did not fall into the match-play trap. Joy-Connelly didn’t play poorly, Rogowicz was just better.
With Joy-Connelly ousted, I traded in my caddy bib for a clipboard and followed the matches over the next three days.
Rogowicz had knocked off Lauren Greenlief, the 2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champion and a fellow selection to the Global Golf Post Women’s Mid-Am first team, in the quarterfinals and I watched all of Rogowicz’s loss in the semifinals, 2017 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champ Kelsey Chugg gutting out a 1-up decision that earned her a third trip to the final.
It was a loss Rogowicz correctly concluded that told her she could win one of these things. This may not be Rogowicz’s last appearance on the Global Golf Post Women’s Mid-Am first team.
The two players in the other semifinal that day Rogowicz lost to Chugg, Kimbely Dinh, a 31-year-old from Midland, Mich. and the eventual U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champion, and Gretchen Johnson, a 37-year-old from Portland, Ore., also appear on the Women’s Mid-Am first team.
Dinh, who played college golf at Wisconsin, found herself 3-down to Chugg with seven holes to play in the final, but when Chugg’s putter suddenly deserted her, the left-hander charged through the opening, claiming the title with a 1-up victory.
It was the second time Johnson had reached the semifinals of the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am and she fell, 3 and 2, to Dinh. There were a couple of first-team Stonewall loopers involved in that match, too, with Mark Dalton on the bag for Dinh and Matt Hildebrand carrying for Johnson. It was nice to see Dinh with a Stonewall caddy when she captured the title the next day.
Chugg headed a group of five players who appeared on the Global Golf Post Women’s Mid-Amateur second team.
In addition to Rogowicz, Dinh, Johnson and Greenlief, four other members of the Women’s Mid-Amateur first team made it into the match-play bracket at Stonewall’s North Course, including Celine Manche of Belgium, Alena Oppenheimer of Germany, Julia Potter-Bobb, a two-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion from Indianapolis, and Jessica Ross from Northern Ireland.
Rounding out the Women’s Mid-Am first team were Jennifer Saxton of Scotland and Dawn Woodard of Greer, S.C., the runnerup in the Canadian Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship at The Mad River Club in Creemore, Ontario.
Joining Chugg on the Women’s Mid-Amateur second team were Spicer, the co-medalist in qualifying for match play in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am at Stonewall from Virginia Beach, Va., Stephanie Gellini of Venezuela, Maria Jose Hurtado of Chile and Pauline Stein of France.
There were a whole bunch of senior players who made some noise in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am at Stonewall’s North Course, none more than Canada’s Judith Kyrinis, who, at age 59, reached the quarterfinals before falling to Gretchen Johnson, who earned a 4 and 2 decision.
Kyrinis heads the list of the Global Golf Post Women’s Senior Amateur first team.
In the round of 16 at Stonewall, I watched most of Kyrinis’ 1-up victory over Isabella DiLisio, who I had seen capture the PIAA Class AAA Championship as a junior at Mount St. Joseph a decade earlier at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York County.
DiLisio was a contemporary of Rogowicz and I followed DiLisio’s college career at Notre Dame. I was not surprised in the least when she made the semifinals of the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am as a mid-am rookie a year ago at Fiddlesticks.
The talented DiLisio was routinely bombing her drives 50, 60 yards by an opponent more than three decades her senior, but Kyrinis never blinked. Kyrinis took a 1-up lead on the fourth hole and never even so much as let DiLisio draw even.
The 2017 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur champion at Waverley Country Club in Portland, Ore., Kyrinis came to Stonewall on a roll, having won the Canadian Women’s Mid-Am crown at Mad River for the third time and having finished in a tie for sixth place in the U.S. Women’s Senior Open in familiar surroundings back at Waverley.
Kyrinis went on to reach the round of 16 in the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur at Troon Country Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. a few weeks after the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am at Stonewall.
Kyrinis fell on the 19th hole to Nadene Gole of Australia at Troon. Gole, who had won the Australian Senior Women’s Amateur at Lake Karrinyup Country Club in October, joined Kyrinis on the Global Golf Post Women’s Senior Amateur first team.
Gole finished in a tie for second place behind another Women’s Senior Am first-team selection in Jackie Foster of England in the Royal & Ancient’s Women’s Senior Amateur Championship at Woodhall Spa in England. Foster also reached the round of 16 at the U.S. Senior Women’s Am at Troon.
A couple of players who made the match-play bracket in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur at Stonewall also had nice runs a few weeks later in the U.S. Senior Women’s Am at Troon, landing Kim Keyer-Scott of Bonita Springs, Fla. and Kathy Hartwiger of Birmingham, Ala. spots on the Global Golf Post Women’s Senior Amateur first team.
Keyer-Scott reached the semifinals in the U.S. Senior Women’s Am before falling to eventual champion Sarah Gallagher of Canton, Ga. on the 19th hole. Hartwiger reached the round of 16 at Troon.
Kyrinis’ Canadian pal, Terrill Samuel, who fell to Kyrinis in the All-Canadian U.S. Senior Women’s Am final in 2017 at Waverley, also made the Women’s Senior Amateur first team. Like Kyrinis, Samuel thrived in her return to Waverley for the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, finishing in a tie for ninth place.
Samuel also won the title in the always competitive Florida Women’s Senior Amateur Championship at Eagle Creek Golf & Country Club in Naples in April.
Aussie Sue Wooster, three times a beaten finalist in the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, was in the group of eight players trying to grab one of the three remaining berths in the match-play bracket at Stonewall, but failed to survive the playoff.
Wooster reached the second round of match play in this year’s U.S. Senior Women’s Am at Troon and she also made the Global Golf Post Senior Women’s Amateur first team.
Rounding out the Senior Women’s first team were Giuliana Colavito of Italy, who made the match-play bracket in the U.S. Senior Women’s Am, Sylvia Van Molle of Belgium, who reached the round of 16 at Troon, and former Arizona women’s golf coach Shelly Hayward of Laguna Woods, Calif., who made it to the second round of match play in Scottsdale.
We didn’t know it at the time, but there was a player among the eight vying for one of those last three spots in match play at Stonewall who would soon be crowned a USGA champion.
Gallagher, the Georgian who made it to the second hole of that playoff before bowing out, was a senior “rookie” at Troon at age 50 and captured the title, which earned her a spot on the Global Golf Post Women’s Senior Amateur second team.
Gallagher edged Brenda Corrie Kuehn, 1-up, in the final in Scottsdale. Kuehn also made the match-play bracket in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am at Stonewall, which should probably rate her a spot on the second team as well, although she does not appear. I’ll give her a personal honorable mention from this blogger.
Another interesting name on the second team is that of Suzi Spotleson. Although Spotleson always lists Canton, Ohio has her home town, she competes in Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia events as a member of the RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve. Spotleson earned a spot in the match-play bracket at the U.S. Senior Women’s Am.
Rounding out the Senior Women’s Amateur second team were Macarena Campomanes of Spain, Shelly Stouffer of Canada, who made it to match play at Stonewall and reached the second round of the U.S. Senior Women’s Am at Troon, and Alison Taylor of Ireland, who earned a spot in the match-play bracket at Troon.
As I mentioned earlier, Rose Zhang of Irvine, Calif. was an obvious choice as the Global Golf Post Female Player of the Year even if her amateur career ended not long after she won a second straight NCAA individual crown at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
I once made a case that Leona Maguire had put together the greatest college career during her four years at Duke, but Zhang, in just two college seasons, surpassed Maguire and every other college player that has teed it up. Zhang heads the Global Golf Post Women’s Amateur first team.
Global Golf Post’s Scott Michaux runs down Zhang’s accomplishments in 2023 and throughout her spectacular amateur career in his Female Player of the Year story.
In addition to her individual victory at Grayhawk – Zhang became the first player to win back-to-back individual NCAA crowns with the win – Zhang also captured the individual title in the Augusta National Women’s Championship, which has quickly become the second most coveted title in women’s amateur golf behind only the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship.
Zhang wasted no time making an impact as a professional as she defeated another NCAA champion, former Wake Forest standout Jennifer Kupcho, in a playoff to capture the title in the Mizuno Americas Open against the backdrop of Liberty National Golf Course in her LPGA Tour debut after getting a well-deserved sponsor’s exemption.
I got a chance to watch Zhang a little when she played on the United States team in the Curtis Cup Match in June of 2022 at the historic East Course at Merion Golf Club in the Ardmore section of Haverford Township.
When you watch her in person, it is Zhang’s focus that impresses you. It is the kind of focus that all the great ones have. Zhang led the Stars & Stripes to a 15.5-4.5 victory over a talented Great Britain & Ireland team.
A little more than a year later, there was Zhang representing the United States in the Solheim Cup. Europe battled the U.S. to a 14-14 draw to retain the Solheim Cup at Finca Cortesin in Spain, but you can expect to see Zhang on the U.S. Solheim Cup team for years to come.
By the way, if you’re a frequent visitor to this blog in the Philadelphia area, you’ll be able to see Zhang and the best women players in the world at Lancaster Country Club when the U.S. Women’s Open returns to the William Flynn classic in Manheim Township after a wildly successful 2015 edition. The U.S. Women’s Open tees off May 30th.
The Global Golf Post Female Player of the Year a year ago, Ingrid Lindblad, a senior at LSU from Sweden, joined Zhang on this year’s Women’s Amateur first team.
Lindblad inherited the No. 1 spot in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) from Zhang and finished in a tie for fifth place behind Zhang in the NCAA Championship’s individual chase at Grayhawk. Lindblad made a run to the semifinals of the R&A Women’s Amateur Championship at Portmarnock in Ireland in June.
The finalists in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Bel-Air in August, Megan Schofill, the eventual champion from Monticello, Fla., and Lindblad’s LSU teammate, Latanna Stone of Riverview, Fla., also appear on the Women’s Amateur first team.
Schofill, a senior at LSU’s SEC rival Auburn, claimed a 4 and 3 victory over Stone in the scheduled 36-hole final at Bel-Air to put her name one of the iconic trophies in golf, the Robert Cox Trophy. Schofill is No. 12 in the Women’s WAGR.
Stone captured the individual title in the Palm Beach Regional in the spring to lead the Bayou Tigers to a spot in the team competition in the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk.
Jenny Bae, then a Georgia senior, caught Zhang in the final round of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur to force a playoff, but lost in the playoff. That showing earned Bae a spot on the Global Golf Post Women’s Amateur first team.
As I put this post together, Bae is battling for an LPGA Tour Card in the six-round LPGA Q-Series marathon being played at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Magnolia Grove in Mobile, Ala.
Another player in the mix in the LPGA Q-Series is Saki Baba of Japan, who stormed to the title in the 2022 U.S. Women’s Amateur as a 17-year-old at Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash.
Baba finished in a tie for second place in the Australian Women’s Amateur Championship and ended up in the top five in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur to land her a spot on the Women’s Amateur first team.
A couple more current collegiate standouts made the Women’s Amateur first team in Mississippi State junior Julia Lopez Ramirez of Spain and No. 5 in the Women’s WAGR and Florida State sophomore Lottie Woad of England and No. 8 in the Women’s WAGR.
Lopez Ramirez was the SEC individual champion in the spring and then captured the European Ladies’ Amateur Championship at the Tegelberga Golfklubb in Sweden. Woad helped the Seminoles earn a spot in the match-play bracket in the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk.
Rounding out the Women’s Amateur first team were the top two finishers in the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific Championship as Eila Galitsky, a teen from Thailand, captured the title on her home soil, and 17-year-old Minsol Kim of South Korea was the runnerup. Kim has risen to No. 4 in the Women’s WAGR.
A youngster I got to see playing for the winning U.S. side in the Curtis Cup at Merion, Amari Avery, a junior at Southern California from Riverside, Calif., headed a group of 10 players that comprised the Women’s Amateur second team.
Avery helped the Trojans reach the Final Match in the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk where they fell to Wake Forest.
Joining Avery on the second team was her Southern Cal teammate, Catherine Park, a sophomore from Irvine, Calif. who finished in a tie for second place behind Zhang in the NCAA Championship’s individual chase at Grayhawk.
Oklahoma State senior Maddison Hinson-Tolchard of Australia also landed on the second team as she captured the Big 12’s individual crown and finished in fourth place in the individual standings at Grayhawk.
Virginia junior Amanda Sambach of Pinehurst, N.C. earned a spot on the Women’s Amateur second team as she captured the Atlantic Coast Conference individual title and shared medalist honors with Mississippi State’s Lopez Ramirez in the NCAA’s Westfield Regional.
Rounding out the second-team selections were Texas teammates Lauren Kim, a freshman from Canada, and Cindy Hsu, a sophomore from Taiwan, Yuna Araki of Japan, Francesca Fiorellini of Italy, Jiyoo Lim of South Korea and Fiona Xu of New Zealand.
Dunlap, the Male Player of the Year, heads the list of Global Golf Post’s Men’s Amateur first team. Fairholm’s profile of Dunlap, a sophomore at Alabama and No. 3 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), explains that as much pure talent as Dunlap possesses, it is his work ethic that sets him apart.
Dunlap’s game seemed to translate well with the masters of golf course design. In addition to his U.S. Amateur victory at Cherry Hills Country Club, the William Flynn gem in Colorado, Dunlap also claimed Elite Amateur Series wins at a couple of Donald Ross classics, the Northeast Amateur at Wannamoisett Country Club in East Providence, R.I., and at the North and South Amateur at Pinehurst’s iconic No. 2 Course.
All of which landed Dunlap a spot on the U.S. team that took on Great Britain & Ireland in the Walker Cup Match at the classic of classics, the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland. Captain Mike McCoy assembled an extremely talented U.S. team, but the Stars & Stripes had to come from behind to pull out a 14.5-11.5 victory.
Five of Dunlap’s teammates on the U.S. squad at St. Andrews, Vanderbilt’s Gordon Sargent, a junior from Birmingham, Ala. and No. 2 in the WAGR, North Carolina’s David Ford, a junior from Peachtree Corners, Ga. and No. 5 in the WAGR, Virginia’s Ben James, a sophomore from Milford, Conn. and No. 7 in the WAGR, Preston Summerhays, a junior from Scottsdale, Ariz. and No. 9 in the WAGR, and Tennessee’s Caleb Surratt, a sophomore from Indian Trail, N.C. and No. 11 in the WAGR, joined Dunlap on the Global Golf Post Men’s Amateur first team.
Sargent played the role of leading man for the U.S. at St. Andrews, going 4-0 and was the low amateur at the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club.
Ford helped North Carolina earn the top seed in match play in the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk with the Tar Heels reaching the semifinals.
Dunlap, Sargent and Ford also got to hoist the Eisenhower Trophy as they teamed up to give the United States a victory in the World Amateur Team Championship at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club in October.
James was probably the best of a talented freshman class in college golf as he finished in sixth place in the individual chase in the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk.
Summerhays went 2-1-1 in the Walker Cup Match and helped Sun Devils earn a spot in the match-play bracket in the NCAA Championship not far from his Scottsdale home at Grayhawk.
Surratt had a pretty good freshman season in college as well with a runaway six-shot victory in the ultra-competitive SEC Championship at Sea Island Golf Club’s Seaside Course on St. Simons Island, Ga. Surratt went 3-1 wearing the Red, White & Blue at St. Andrews.
Nobody had a bigger week in the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk than Florida’s Fred Biondi of Brazil as he captured the individual championship and then proceeded to lead the SEC champion Gators to the team crown with a win over Georgia Tech in the Final Match. That week alone was enough to earn Biondi a spot on the Men’s Amateur first team.
Georgia Tech’s Christo Lamprechet, a senior from South Africa, helped the Yellow Jackets capture the ACC team crown and reach the Final Match in the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk before falling to North Carolina.
But that turned out to be just prelude to an even bigger summer for Lamprecht as he captured the Amateur Championship at Hillsdale Golf Club in England before earning low-amateur honors in the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool.
Perhaps the most talented amateur of all in 2023 was Aberg, the Texas Tech standout from Sweden. The Global Golf Post Men’s Amateur first team had just been released when Aberg earned his first PGA Tour victory, closing with back-to-back 61s on the weekend at Sea Island’s Seaside Course to capture the title in the RSM Classic.
Earlier in the fall, Luke Donald, the captain of Europe’s Ryder Cup team was smart enough to make the seemingly untested Aberg a captain’s pick and Aberg helped the Europeans dominate the U.S., 16.5-11.5, at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome.
Rounding out the Men’s Amateur first team was New Zealand’s Kazuma Kobori, whose spectacular 2023 included a win in the Australian Amateur Championship at New South Wales Golf Club, a victory in the Western Amateur at North Shore Country Club and individual medalist honors in the World Amateur Team Championship at Abu Dhabi.
Heading the Men’s Amateur second-team list were a couple of Ohio State teammates, graduate student Neal Shipley, a member of Pittsburgh Central Catholic’s 2018 PIAA Class AAA championship team and No. 68 in the WAGR, and Maxwell Moldovan, a senior from Uniontown, Ohio.
Don’t think Shipley’s gotten enough credit for battling his way to the final of the U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills before falling to Dunlap.
Shipley was very much in contention for the NCAA individual crown at Grayhawk through three rounds before falling back to finish in a tie for 29th place. Shipley drained a 40-footer for birdie in a playoff that enabled the Buckeyes to play the final day of the team competition at Grayhawk.
Maldovan earned co-medalist honors in the Auburn Regional to lead Ohio State to a fourth-place finish that punched its ticket to the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk.
Two other members of the winning U.S. team in the Walker Cup Match at St. Andrews, North Carolina’s Dylan Menante, a fifth-year player and No. 6 in the WAGR, and North Florida’s Nick Gabrelcik, a senior from Trinity, Fla. and No. 8 in the WAGR, also made the Men’s Amateur second team.
Rounding out the Men’s Amateur second team were Arizona State’s Jose Ballester, a junior from Spain and No. 18 in the WAGR, former Texas A&M standout Sam Bennett, winner of the 2022 U.S. Amateur at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J., Wake Forest’s Michael Brennan, a senior from Leesburg, Va. and No. 21 in the WAGR, Florida State’s Luke Clanton, a sophomore from Miami Lakes, Fla. and No. 19 in the WAGR, Stanford’s Michael Thorbjornsen, a senior from Wellesley, Mass. and No. 4 in the WAGR, and Vanderbilt’s Jackson Van Paris, a junior from Pinehurst, N.C. and No. 35 in the WAGR.
The U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship was played the same week as the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am, so I wasn’t able to follow it as closely as I normally would.
But I wasn’t surprised to see that Stewart Hagestad of Newport Beach, Calif. and No. 12 in the WAGR, won the U.S. Mid-Am for the third time at Sleepy Hollow Country Club, the classic layout in Scarborough, N.Y. which C.B. Macdonald, Seth Raynor and A.W. Tillinghast all had a hand in designing.
Hagestad heads the Global Golf Post Men’s Mid-Amateur first team.
I’ve been a Hagestad fan ever since watching him rally to defeat Scott Harvey on the 37th hole to win the U.S. Mid-Am for the first time at Stonewall in 2016 as a mid-am rookie. He won the Mid-Am crown for the second time in 2021 at Sankaty Head on Nantucket Island.
Hagestad outlasted fellow Men’s Mid-Am first-team selection Evan Beck of Virginia Beach, Va., 3 and 2, in the scheduled 36-hole final at Sleepy Hollow. There were all sorts of weather delays and the final was contested over two days, but Hagestad was not to be denied.
Hagestad tuned up for the U.S. Mid-Am by going 2-1 in helping the U.S. retain the Walker Cup at St. Andrews. It is the fourth time Hagestad has been on a winning U.S. Walker Cup team as he brings a voice of experience to the changing cast of youngsters, extremely talented youngsters, but often novices on the international stage.
A couple of weeks after winning the U.S. Mid-Am for a third time, Hagestad captured the title in the Crump Cup, the prestigious mid-amateur gathering held each year at Pine Valley Golf Club in the South Jersey pine barrens.
Matthew McClean of Northern Ireland made the Men’s Mid-Amateur first team as he was the only mid-am on the Great Britain & Ireland team in the Walker Cup at St. Andrews and went 1-1-2. McClean also reached the semifinals of the Western Amateur and the Crump Cup.
Ireland’s Hugh Foley, who lost to McClean in the final of the 2022 U.S. Mid-Am at Erin Hills in Wisconsin, also earned a spot on the Men’s Mid-Am first team.
Stephen Behr of Atlanta was a Men’s Mid-Am first-team pick on the strength of his runnerup finish to Hagestad in the Crump Cup and a run to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Mid-Am at Sleepy Hollow.
Sam Jones of New Zealand fell to Beck, the eventual runnerup, in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Mid-Am at Sleepy Hollow as he earned a spot on the Men’s Mid-Am first team.
Joe Deraney of Belden, Mass. captured the title in the Canadian Mid-Amateur Championship at the Algonquin Golf Course to land a spot on the Men’s Mid-Am first team.
Mark Costanza of Morristown, N.J. lost in the final to Hagestad in the U.S. Mid-Am at Sankaty Head in 2021 and has continued his strong play, finishing second in the Metropolitan Golf Association’s Open Championship at Arcola Country Club in Paramus, N.J., to earn a spot on the Men’s Mid-Am first team.
Rounding out the Global Golf Post Men’s Mid-Am first team were Caolin Rafferty of Ireland and Gregor Tait of Scotland.
Heading the Global Golf Post Men’s Mid-Am second team was Marc Dull, the 37-year-old from Lakeland, Fla. who captured titles in both the Florida Amateur Championship at the Turtle Creek Club in Jupiter, Fla. and the Florida Mid-Am Stroke Play Championship at Bradenton Country Club.
Rounding out the Men’s Mid-Am second team were Jonathan Bale of Wales, Hayes Brown of Charlotte, N.C., Jeronimo Esteve of Windermere, Fla., and Andres Schonbaum of Argentina.
Todd White, the unassuming high school history teacher from Spartanburg, was a senior rookie at age 55 this year and grabbed the big prize, capturing a U.S. Senior Amateur Championship crown in his first try at the Martis Camp Club in the mountain pass at Truckee, Calif.
That made White an easy choice to head the Global Golf Post Men’s Senior Amateur first team.
White was good from start to finish at Martis Camp as he was the medalist in qualifying.
White also reached the second round of match play in the U.S. Mid-Am at Sleepy Hollow and beat the kids in winning the South Carolina Amateur at Musgrove Mill Golf Club in Clinton, S.C.
The three players who joined White in the semifinals at Martis Camp also joined him on the Men’s Senior Am first team.
Ireland’s Jody Fanagan became the first international player to reach the U.S. Senior Amateur final before dropping a 4 and 3 decision to White.
Bob Royak of Alpharetta, Ga. came up just short of a trip to the U.S. Senior Am final as he fell on the 19th hole to Fanagan in the semifinals. Royak also captured titles in the Jones Cup Senior Invitational at Sea Island on St. Simons Island, Ga. and in the North and South Senior Amateur at Pinehurst.
Roger Newsome of Virginia Beach, Va. dropped a 2 and 1 decision to White in the semifinals at Martis Camp.
Matt Sughrue of Arlington, Va. landed on the Men’s Senior Am first team as he continued his comeback from a right elbow injury suffered in 2019. Sughrue fell to Royak, 1-up, in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Senior Amateur and then avenged that loss by beating Royal in the final of the Crump Cup Senior.
Steve Harwell of Mooresville, N.C. earned a spot on the Men’s Senior Am first team as he reached the round of 16 in the U.S. Senior Amateur before suffering a 1-up setback at the hands of Fanagan.
The top two finishers in the Senior Amateur Championship at Woodhall Spa in England, the champion Brent Paterson of New Zealand, and the runnerup, John Kemp of England, both made the Men’s Senior Amateur first team.
Paterson also reached the second round of match play in the U.S. Senior Amateur at Martis Camp, taking White, the eventual champion, to 21 holes before falling.
Kemp finished in a tie for 14th place in the Senior Open Championship at Royal Porthcawl and also reached the second round of match play in the U.S. Senior Am at Martis Camp.
Rounding out the Global Golf Post Men’s Senior Am first team were Jon Lindstrom of Denver, Colo., winner of the Trans-Mississippi Senior Amateur and the Colorado Senior Amateur, and the ageless Doug Hanzel of Savannah, Ga., who still put together a solid year as he approaches 67 years young.
The Men’s Senior Am second team includes Rick Cloninger of Rock Hill, S.C., Jack Hill of Savannah, Ga., Jack Larkin of Atlanta, Ga., Alan Mew of England and Rusty Strawn of McDonough, Ga.
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