2019 MASSACHUSETTS OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP June 10-12, 2019 Vesper Country Club Tyngsborough, MA MEDIA GUIDE SOCIAL MEDIA AND ONLINE COVERAGE Media and parking credentials are not needed. However, here are a few notes to help make your experience more enjoyable. • There will be a media/tournament area set up throughout the three-day event (June 10-12) in the club house. • Complimentary lunch and beverages will be available for all media members. • Wireless Internet will be available in the media room. • Although media members are not allowed to drive carts on the course, the Mass Golf Staff will arrange for transportation on the golf course for writers and photographers. • Mass Golf will have a professional photographer – David Colt – on site on June 10 & 12. All photos will be posted online and made available for complimentary download. • Daily summaries – as well as final scores – will be posted and distributed via email to all media members upon the completion of play each day. To keep up to speed on all of the action during the day, please follow us via: • Twitter – @PlayMassGolf; #MassOpen • Facebook – @PlayMassGolf; #MassOpen • Instagram – @PlayMassGolf; #MassOpen Media Contacts: Catherine Carmignani Director of Communications and Marketing, Mass Golf 300 Arnold Palmer Blvd. | Norton, MA 02766 (774) 430-9104 | [email protected] Mark Daly Manager of Communications, Mass Golf 300 Arnold Palmer Blvd. | Norton, MA 02766 (774) 430-9073 | [email protected] CONDITIONS & REGULATIONS Entries Exemptions from Local Qualifying Entries are open to professional golfers and am- ateur golfers with an active USGA GHIN Handi- • Twenty (20) lowest scorers and ties in the 2018 cap Index not exceeding 2.4 (as determined by Massachusetts Open Championship the April 15, 2019 Handicap Revision), or who have completed their handicap certification. • Past Massachusetts Open Champions (Effective in 1993, Champions earn a 10-year exemption; pre- Starting Field 1993 Champions are exempt for life) The Championship Proper field is limited to 150 players • NEPGA Section Champions 2014 to 2017, and the top five (5) finishers and ties in the 2018 NEPGA Championship Local Qualifying Sites/Schedule 5/06 - Salem CC • 2018 NEPGA Championship (Top 5 & ties) 5/07 - Granite Links GC 5/08 - CC of Pittsfield • Top twenty (20) finishers and ties in the 2018 Skip 5/21 - GC at Turner Hill Wogan point standings 5/22 - Eastward Ho! 5/28 - Pleasant Valley CC • 2018 NEPGA Assistants Champion Format of Play • 2018 Berkshire Chapter Champion of the NENY Competition will be in two stages at Stroke Play: PGA • Sectional Qualifying - May 06 - May 28 (for all except exempt entrants) • 2018 State Open Champions from the New • Championship Proper - 54 holes England States Round 1 - June 10 (18 Holes) Round 2 - June 11 (18 Holes) • 2018 Cape Cod Open Champion The low 50 scorers and ties or anyone within 7 strokes of the leader after 36 holes will • Massachusetts State Amateur Champions of the continue play on June 12 last five (5) years Round 3 - June 12 (18 Holes) • 2018 Massachusetts State Amateur Semifinalists Playoff Any tie for first place will be decided immedi- • 2018 Massachusetts Junior Amateur, Senior ately by a three-hole aggregate play-off. In the Amateur, Mid-Amateur, and Amateur Public Links event there is still a tie after three holes, a hole- Champions by-hole play-off will determine the champion. There will be no play-off for low amateur honors. • Top ten (10) finishers and ties in the 2018 Massachusetts Player of the Year standings Prizes The Clarence G. Cochrane Memorial Trophy and • 2018 Massachusetts Player of the Year, Junior a gold medal will be presented to the Champion Player of the Year and Senior Player of the Year and The Commonwealth Cup will be presented to the Low Amateur Champion. A professional • 2018 Massachusetts Open Qualifying Host purse of $75,000 will be distributed to the low Professionals (one per site) fifty (50) finishers and ties. Merchandise certifi- cates will also be awarded and are only redeem- able at the host site. A LOOK BACK AT THE 2018 OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP NOTEWORTHY Vesper Country Club played host to the very first Mass Open in 1905 whenDonald Ross captured the first honors as Mass Open Champion. Byron Nelson and Harold ‘Jug’ McSpaden finished 1-2 in professional events so frequently that they were nicknamed ‘The Gold Dust Twins.’ McSpaden won the Open in 1936, 1937 and 1938. Byron Nelson put an end to this streak by winning the 1939 Open. Wiffy Cox, the 1931 Champion, played on the 1931 Ryder Cup team, winning both his matches. He also tied for the championship at the Florida Open that year with Joe Turnesa, who won the Open the year prior. 1940 champion Horton Smith was the champion of the inaugural Masters (1934). Bob Crowley, four-time Open Champion and longtime Pine Brook CC head pro, was paired with Arnold Palmer at the 1956 Insurance City Open (now known as the Travelers Championship) in Hartford. Crowley was inducted in the Massachusetts Golf Hall of Fame in 2016. Dana Quigley, who won three Open Championships in a row, now plays on the Champi- ons Tour, where he has 11 career wins for an earnings total of nearly $15 million. 1984 Open at Wollaston GC: Officials Bill Foley & Harry 1951 Open at Salem CC: Salem Head Pro Bill Barclay with two McCracken present winners check to Dana Quigley Salem CC members The 1980s were a good decade for Kevin Johnson. He won the 1986 Open (as an ama- teur), followed by the 1987 & 1988 Amateur Championship. Prior to that, he won the 1984 Junior Amateur. He also won the 1987 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship, and was a member of the 1989 Walker Cup Team. He was crowned Mass Golf Player of the Year from 1985-1988. He competed on the Web.com Tour, where he had six wins and career earn- ings of $1.4 million. He currently competes in Champions Tour events. The most number of consecutive championships is five, achieved byAlex Ross from 1906 - 1910. Alex Ross was the brother of Donald Ross. Gene Sarazen won the Open in 1935, the same year his ‘shot heard round the world’ clinched The Masters for him. 1979 Open at Brae Burn CC: eventual champion Jay Dolan on 1980 Open at Essex County Club: Mass Golf President Dixon the first fairway Sykes with low amateur Joe Henley & champion Paul Moran Fred Wright was the most decorated amateur golfer of his generation in MA, but was nev- er able to win the Open. He finished as a runner-up twice. Wright was inducted into the Massachusetts Golf Hall of Fame in 2014. In the history of the Open, champions have won in consecutive years only six times: Alex Ross, Paul Harney, Charley Volpone, Dick Hanscom, Dana Quigley, and Geoff Sisk. Paul Harney, one of the best professional golfers that Massachusetts has ever produced, won the Open five times, including four in a row in the late 1960’s. He won every Open he entered. He stopped playing full-time on the PGA Tour once his first child was born, which was a promise that he had made to his wife. Paul Harney - shown in his 1952 senior year at College of 1989 Open at Oak Hill CC: champion Andy Morse Holy Cross - won the Open five times Geoff Sisk holds the record (tied with Alex Ross) with six Open titles. During his time as a professional, he has advanced through local and sectional qualifying to play in the U.S. Open seven times. Bill Ezinicki, two-time Open Champion, played professional hockey, winning three Stanley Cups with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He got into golf after he retired, and served as the head professional at The International. In 1960, he won Open Cham- pionships in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Rhode Island. He also won two NEPGA Championships, his first the year after he retired from the NHL. Only seven players have won both the Open and Amateur: Francis Ouimet, Jesse Guilford, Kevin Johnson, Jim Hallet, Rob Oppenheim, Fran Quinn, Jr, and Charley Volpone. Ellsworth Vines, 1946 Open Champion, was a world champion tennis player - he held the number 1 world ranking for four years in the 1930s, and won Wimbledon twice. 1946 champion Ellsworth Vines featured 1960 & 1964 champion Bill Ezinicki on the ice... and on the course (Boston Globe & in a 1932 Time Magazine Boston Bruins photo) 1985 Open Champion Jim Hallet was the low amateur in the1983 Masters. In 2013, champion Evan Harmeling donated his entire winner’s check to The One Fund to benefit victims of the Boston Marathon bombings. It was his first professional win, but not his first Mass Golf win - he was the 2005 Junior Amateur Champion and the 2007 Four-Ball Champion. The most recent Champions to go through local qualifying (non-exempt players) were Joe Harney (2015), Evan Harmeling (2013) and Rob Oppenheim (2009). Harney quali- fied at Marshfield CC, while Harmeling and Oppenheim advanced at Indian Ridge CC. 2013 Open at Woodland GC: champion Evan 2007 Open at Kernwood CC: Mass Golf President Dick Osborn Harmeling after his playoff win presents winner’s check to Geoff Sisk Six Open past champions have been inducted into the Massachusetts Golf Hall of Fame: Francis Ouimet, Donald Ross, Paul Harney, Bob Toski, Bob Crowley and Bill Flynn. Ouimet and Ross are also members of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Six players have won both the Open and the U.S. Open: Alex Ross, Francis Ouimet, Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, Byron Nelson and Julius Boros. Two players have won both the Open and the U.S.
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