Highlights Of The 2010 Championships Schedule

It may be January and it may be frigid, but it’s not too early to turn our thoughts to golf – especially when the NJSGA is offering a great line-up of courses for its 2010 Championships. First, the majors. The season kicks off with the Mid-Amateur Championship at Galloway National Golf Club in early May. The Mid-Am returns to Galloway for the third time, a hospitable Jersey Shore location for early season golf. Multiple Mid-Am champions Allan Small and Tom Gramigna have won at Galloway, and Anthony Scelba is the defending champion this year.

The Amateur Championship moves north to Montclair Golf Club in June. This venerable championship is the NJSGA’s oldest and will be conducted for the 109th time this year. The setting will be Montclair’s Third and Fourth Nines, a mix of Donald Ross and Charles Banks designs that could be tough to figure out under firm and fast conditions. Current member Gregg Angelillo and former member and defending champion Michael Deo are salivating at the chance to win the State Amateur on familiar turf.

The Open Championship, the NJSGA’s premier event, will be played at Spring Brook Country Club in Morristown in mid-July. No stranger to NJSGA competitions, Spring Brook is always well conditioned and perhaps best known for "The Gauntlet," its string of three consecutive par-3 holes.

The fourth and final major, the Four Ball Championship, will be played at Somerset Hills Country Club in August. This event is the NJSGA’s preeminent team match-play championship featuring two-man teams from the same NJ member club. Somerset Hills has been investing in its classic Tillinghast layout and the course has never played better. The senior version of the Four Ball moves to another Shore course, Hidden Creek Golf Club, in late September.

In other men’s events, the great course line-up continues. The Senior Amateur Championship will be played at Trump National – Colts Neck in early August and the Senior Open Championship, hosted jointly with the NJPGA, will be played at Alpine Country Club in mid-September. Alpine was the scene of the 2008 State Open. The Father & Son Championship, another mainstay in the NJSGA line-up in its 87th year, will be contested at the challenging Royce Brook Golf Club on July 7th. Late in the season, the Best Ball of Four Championship field tees it up at Fiddler’s Elbow Country Club.

In the women’s division, the Women’s Amateur Championship headlines the season at North Jersey Country Club in early August, and the senior version will be contested at Canoe Brook Country Club in late September.
The full 2010 schedule is posted on the web site and registration for most events begins on February 1st. Visit the Championships section for more information on each event.