Log Cabin Club #17 Bogey Club #14 Vol. 2 No. 5 ThMe etropolitan udly Presente Pro d B METROPOLITAN AMATEUR y UPCOMING EVENTS PAGE 1, 4-7 USGA E VENTS Exclusive Corporate Partner 25 Y EARS OF CHAMPIONS US S ENIOR WOMEN PAGE 8 SIEGFRIED WINS August 27 Bellerive CC GOLF TRIVIA AMATEUR TITLE ON PAGE 9 US S ENIOR AMATEUR FIFTH PLAYOFF HOLE September 2 METROPOLITAN JUNIOR Sunset CC HE BIRDIES TWO OF THE FIVE PAGE 14-15 PLAYOFF HOLES TO CAPTURE US M ID -A MATEUR THE JIM TOM BLAIR TROPHY METROPOLITAN OPEN September 8 PAGE 16-19 Aberdeen GC Jimmy Siegfried began the final US A MATEUR 4-B ALL round of the 25th Amateur LOST COURSES : Championship 8 shots back of the September 28 IVERVIEW R / leader Sam Migdal, knowing it Quincy CC NORTH SHORE GC would take a special round to get in PAGE 20 position for the title. He started his MAGA E VENTS round Saturday with a double bogey US B OYS & G IRLS 6. However, six birdies on the card, SENIOR AMATEUR JUNIOR RESULTS August 13-14 PAGE 21 Whitmoor CC AMATEUR SERIES #3 OUR ALL PAGE 22 MAGA F -B September 24 Legends CC US A MATEUR QUALIFYING PAGE 24-25 See pages 11 for full schedule POINT STANDINGS Siegfried’s approach to his final hole set up a birdie and a round of 69. PAGE 26-27 (Continued on page 4) Metropolitan Amateur Golf Association • 11777 Clayton Rd. • St. Louis, Missouri 63131 314.567.MAGA • Fax: 314.261.9250 • [email protected] The Metropolitan July 2015 STAFF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR CURT ’S COMMENTS Curt Rohe - [email protected] P.J. B OATWRIGHT INTERNS - 2015 Whoa! What a busy July… Michael Kegin & Nicholas Wojciechowski MAGA’s two “majors” take place [email protected] in July and it makes for a full, busy month. The Metropolitan METROPOLITAN CHAMPIONSHIPS Amateur Championship Open was as exciting as it could Match Play Championship get, with Adam Schenk sinking a Curt Rohe Open Championship birdie putt on the 54th hole to win Executive Director Women’s Amateur Championship the title and a $25,000 payday. It Junior Amateur Championship Senior Amateur Championship was a great week and we appreciate all of the efforts by the Metropolitan Cup Matches Country Club of St. Albans members in making the Four-Ball Championship experience for the players very special! Mid-America Junior Cup USGA QUALIFYING ROUNDS Then to cap off the month the 25th Metropolitan US Open Qualifying (Local and Sectional) Amateur Championship at Boone Valley was a special week, US Senior Open Qualifying at a special venue. We had a great evening after Round 1 US Amateur Qualifying celebrating the championship silver anniversary with past US Mid-Amateur Qualifying US Women’s Mid-Amateur champions and those influential in the 25 year anniversary of US Junior Amateur Qualifying the championship. Great job by Boone Valley and US Amateur Public Links Qualifying congratulations to Jimmy Siegfried on his victory. Read US Senior Amateur Qualifying more about each of these in this issue. US Women’s Open Qualifying US Amateur Four-Ball US Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Well, the Metropolitan Amateur is always the pinnacle of the season. Once again, the summer has flown by in a EXECUTIVE BOARD blink of an eye as we settle in for the fall part of our schedule Stanford S. Grossman – President Emeritus Thomas J. O’Toole Jr. – Vice-President and start looking at 2016! Just a couple events in August, our Thomas O. Sobbe Jr. – Vice-President 23rd Senior Amateur will be August 13-14 at Whitmoor CC M. Ray McCraine – Secretary and our monthly Amateur Series event visit Glen Echo CC. G. Scott Engelbrecht – Treasurer G.F. (Rick) Meyer Jr. – At-Large Member H. Mick Wellington – At-Large Member Thank you for the comments I have received from our readers regarding my travel in June to the US Open and US ADVISORY COMMITTEE Senior Open, really appreciate hearing your feedback. Please Scott Thomas, Chairman Dustin Ashby enjoy the July issue and, as always, if you have any questions Tom Barry do not hesitate to contact me personally at [email protected]. Skip Berkmeyer Jim Dunn Keep it in the fairway! As always, feel free to reach out David Rhoads to me at [email protected] . Curt Rohe Metropolitan Editor Curt Jim Healey 2 The Metropolitan July 2015 golfing ability, but we are also looking to test their mental and physical game. As Sandy Tatum, former RULES OF GOLF CORNER USGA president, once said about the US Open, “We are not trying to embarrass the best golfers in the world, This month I have taken on the task of writing the we are trying to identify them.” A similar mindset ap - article on the Rules of Golf…double dipping is not plies to the setup for our championships and quali - good for me, just ask our editor! I almost got a 2-shot fiers. Anyone can suggest that we should just set up penalty each month just for getting Curt’s Corner to the golf course at 7000 yards each day, but changing him in a timely fashion. the setup each round requires players to think their way around as well. That is the beauty of golf; we do Anyway, I digress…I thought I would take a minute not have the same dimensions, field or court every and talk about some of aspects of course setup and the time we are on the course. administration of conducting a MAGA championship or a USGA qualifying round. I receive a number of 3) When marking the golf course for competition, questions about what our thought process is when why not just mark all the hazards red? setting up a course and I’d like to share a few of these This is a common question, and yet it has such a and then provide an explanation. simple answer. When Pete Dye designed the 17th hole at the TPC at Sawgrass how did he envision 1) When choosing hole locations, do you use the 6 golfers getting their ball on the putting green? By easy, 6 medium, 6 hard approach? making a golf stroke. If the island green were I have never looked at hole locations in that vein. It marked red - a Lateral Water Hazard - players could really depends on the event, MAGA or a USGA hit it over the green and now be allowed to drop a Qualifying Round? For USGA Qualifiers we are try - ball on the putting green…negotiating the hazard ing to identify the best golfers as they attempt to play with a penalty stroke, not a golf stroke. That is cer - in a USGA championship. For 18 hole qualifying tainly not what Mr. Dye intended. This is the first round (US Senior Open, US Open Local, US Mid- question I ask when looking at how a golf course Amateur) the hole locations and setup will be more of should be marked pursuant to the Rules of Golf. a challenge than the US Amateur, which takes place Is it OK to mark it all red, sure it is; and in some over 36 holes. For a MAGA championship, such as instances, such as for regular member play or public the Amateur at Boone Valley this past week, the focus play for Pace of Play purposes, that poses no prob - is on the entire 54 holes that will be played over three lem. days. Setting three hole locations that vary in diffi - culty can also be achieved by moving tee locations on If you have any questions about course marking or a certain day. Taking into account the shot we are would like to have MAGA consult your golf course asking players to play to a particular hole location (i.e. and how it is marked, please do not hesitate to con - drivable par 4, shortened par 3 or par 4) can also tact Curt Rohe at [email protected] . This is one of the make a hole play different from day-to-day. As a many services we provide to our Member Clubs. whole, yes the setup will be more difficult for the final round than it was for round one. Thanks for reading! 2) When preparing your course setup, why do you utilize different teeing grounds on some holes? When conducting a USGA Qualifier or a MAGA championship, we are not only testing the players 3 METROPOLITAN AMATEUR (Continued from page 1) SIEGFRIED SHOOTS LOW ROUND OF FINAL DAY AT BOONE VALLEY TO FORCE A PLAYOFF ; BIRDIES TWO OF THE FIVE PLAYOFF HOLES TO TAKE THE 25 TH ANNIVERSARY TITLE . including 3 of the final 4 holes posted a 3-over total. A final fist-pump on the 18th, after making birdie when his approach from out of the bunker landed just four-feet from the hole, left him at 3-over for the championship. Next was the hard part; waiting for the final groups to finish to see if he would make it into a playoff. The final group of Sam Migdal and Skip Berkmeyer knew exactly where they stood coming off the 17th green; Migdal was one over par with Berkmeyer a shot higher. Migdal found the right fairway bunker, the same one where Siegfried had made birdie from a few minutes earlier, with Berkmeyer in the left rough. Catching more sand than he wanted, his approach landed in the water, eventually leading to a triple bogey seven. Meanwhile, Berkmeyer’s approach found the back fringe, where he pitched Jimmy Siegfried to 4 feet below the pin.