Billy Hanes loses NYS Mid-Am in four-man Playoff

Billy Hanes of Crag Burn shot rounds of 72 and 73 (+5) to finish in a four-way tie at the NYS Mid Am Championship held at Dutchess Golf and Country Club in Poughkeepsie, NY.  Billy lost on the first playoff hole, to finish T2.  Andy Bernatovicz of River Oaks finished T5 with rounds of 74 and 73 (+7).  See all results as well as the NYSGA article recapping the final round of the tournament.

Hejna wins Niagara Frontier Scratch Invitational

Tony Hejna of Crag Burn won the Niagara Frontier Scratch Invitational Sunday (8/21/11) with a score of 73 (+1).  Finishing 2nd behind Hejna was Chris Covelli of Crag Burn with a 74 (+2), and T3 was Billy Hanes of Crag Burn and Raman Luthra of Crag Burn with scores of 76 (+4).

Hanes and Pelet win Classic

Billy Hanes and John Pelet won the 2011 Crag Burn - Brookfield Classic on Saturday with rounds of 67 - 69 (136), to win in a playoff over the team of Greg Cecchini and Matt Stasiak who had rounds 68 - 68 (136).  Finishing 3rd was the team of Patrick Sheedy and James Blackwell witn a 137 total.

Katz wins Buffalo District Championship

Jake Katz won his second straight Buffalo District Championship (and 4th straight BDGA event, which included the 2010 Match Play, 2010 Individual Championship, 2011 Match Play and 2011 Individual Championship) on Saturday posting a (-2) 70, for a three round total of 206 (-10) at Brookfield CC.  Matt Stasiak and Chris Covelli finished tied for 2nd with three day totals of 214 (-2).  See Buffalo News article: Katz Says Good-Bye With Another BDGA Win

Katz Qualifies for US Amateur

Jake Katz of Westwood qualifed for the US Amateur by finishing in 2nd place at the Rochester qualifier yesterday (Monday, August 1).  The 36 hole qualifier was held at Webster CC, and was 53 guys for 3 spots.  Jake shot rounds of 71 and 73, to finish two strokes behind the medalist, Garrett Rank of Canada.  The 3rd qualifier was also from Canada.  Good luck to Jake as he represents Western NY in our (amateur) National Championship.

Niagara Frontier Scratch Invitational

The Niagara Frontier Scratch Invitational application is available and posted on the top left of the blog (under "Upcoming Tournaments").  The tournament is scheduled for Sunday, August 21.  Dan Antonucci, head professional, does a great job running the tournament, and it always has a strong field.  There will also be a Senior Division this year for those players 50 and older.  Hope to see many of you there.

Stasiak claims victory at Lonnie Nielson Invitational

Matt Stasiak of Fox Valley continued his awesome play this summer with a victory at the Lonnie Nielson Invitational on Monday.  The tournament was a 36-hole, modified stableford format, with eagles worth +5, birdies +2, pars 0, bogeys -1, and double bogeys (or more) -3.  Matt finished with two rounds of +6 for a total of +12 for the day, to cap a 2 point victory.  Finishing runner-up was Chris Covelli (Crag Burn) with +10, and in third was Jake Katz (Westwood) at +9.

All three players will be competing in the Porter Cup this week, and appear to be playing well and peaking at the right time.  Good luck to all three players this week!

Katz finishes 2nd, Stasiak finishes 5th at NY State Am

Jake Katz finished runner-up winning the silver medal for the second year in a row at the NY State Am held at Oak Hill West on Thursday after a 36 hole finale in 100 degree temperatures.  Matt Stasiak also had a great tournament finishing 5th.  See details at the NYSGA website as well as final scores for all particpants.

Katz leads by 2 at NY State Am

Jake Katz shot back to back rounds of 69 to lead by 2 strokes at the NY State Am being held at Oak Hill Country Club's West Course this week.  They will play 36 holes today to decide the championship.  Read more details at the following link: "Katz Enters Finale With 2 Stroke Edge".

See scores of all particpants and also follow live scoring available at the following link: "Scores".  The State does a great job of keeping scores up to date on the website, posting scores every 3 holes, as well as maintaining a live blog of the action on their website as well: "Live Blog".

Katz Wins Buffalo District Match Play Championship

Jake Katz won his 3rd Buffalo District Match Play Championship at Niagara Frontier CC on July 7-8 with a 1-up victory of Matt Stasiak.  See articles at the Buffalo News and the Niagara Gazette for more details on the event.

Application Available - Lonnie Nielsen Scratch Invitational

The application is now available for the Lonnie Nielsen Scratch Invitational at Crag Burn Golf Club scheduled for Monday, July 25th.  The format is a 36 hole stableford format, which makes for a fun, exciting way to play the difficult Crag Burn Course.  See tournament application under "Upcoming Tournaments" for more details.

Covelli Qualifies for Porter Cup

Chris Covelli (of Crag Burn) was the only local player to qualify for the Porter Cup at Niagara Falls Country Club on Monday, June 27.  Chris shot a 68 (-2) to finish 3rd overall (with the top 8 of 96 qualifying).  Chris started the day with 4 straight bogeys and played the last 14 holes in 6-under.  See related news articles at the following links: Buffalo News; Niagara Gazette

No other locals were able to qualify, with Mike Carrig shooting the next best local score with a 72.  See all scores at the following link: Porter Cup Qualifying Scores

DiGiulio and Luthra win Clete Fox in 3 Team Playoff

Tim DiGiulio (Transit Valley) and Raman Luthra (Crag Burn) teamed up to win the 54 hole, scratch better ball Clete Fox tournament at Transit Valley Country Club Friday and Saturday.  The DiGiulio / Luthra team eliminated the teams of Joe Rosen (Transit Valley) / Billy Hanes (Crag Burn) and Nick Amigone III (Transit Valley) / Nick Morreale (Niagara Falls Country Club) on the 4th playoff hole with a par on the 18th hole after a great up and down from Luthra (almost holing out a difficult chip from up against the left collar of the green).  Both Digiulio and Luthra have won the Clete Fox before, but never together as teammates.  Ironically, both players were in the final group of last year's event, but playing against each other (Luthra's team prevailing).  As both players prior year partners were not available for this year's event, they teamed up together, and the combination was a success.

All three teams finished with three round totals of 207 (-6).  The final 18 holes were very exciting as the Digiulio / Luthra team entered the final round at -6, Rosen / Hanes at -4, and Amigone and Morreale at -2.  Right away, the Rosen / Hanes team birdied four of the first five holes to take a 2 shot lead at -8, and ended the front nine up one over Digiulio / Luthra (-7 vs -6).  Amigone and Morreale shot +1 on the front nine making the turn at -1 overall.  While the two leading teams (playing together in the final group) battled it out on the back nine, Amigone / Morreale, playing in the second to last group, began to mount their comback.  Amigone / Morreale birdied 10, 13, 14, 15, & 16 to shoot 30 (-5) on the back nine, and finish the tourney at -6, tying the other two teams and resulting in the aforementioned three-team playoff.

Each of the three playoff teams had a low round of the day, respectively, with Digiulio / Luthra shooting 65 (-6) on the Friday morning round, Rosen / Hanes shooting 68 (-3) on the Friday afternoon round, and Amigone / Morreale shooting 67 (-4) on the Saturday round.

2011 BDGA Points Listing

The 2011 BDGA points listing has been updated, and a link has been included on the left hand of the page (under "BDGA Points Listings").  Additionally, I have included the BDGA Points Guidelines as discussed, and finalized by the BDGA Points Committee.  Myself, working hand in hand with the BDGA, will do our best to keep this current, and up to date this year.

Gigliotti Wins BDGA Senior Championship

Fred Gigliotti of River Oaks defeated Bob Goss (Associate Member) with a par on the first playoff hole to win his 3rd BDGA Senior Men's Gross Championship.  Both gentlemen shot scores of 71 (+1) at Glen Oak Golf Course on Tuesday.  Bob Rosen finished in 3rd place with a score of 72 (+2).

Don Schwass won the Senior flight with a score of 73 (+3), Mike Yurko of Diamond Hawk won the Super Senior flight also with a score of 73 (+3), Bill Weber won the Master's flight with a score of 78 (+8) and Bernard Tasselmyer won the Legend's flight with a score of 79 (+9).

See all scores from the tournament at the following link: BDGA Senior Scores

Jonathan Clark wins Elkdale Open

Jonathan Clark of Crag Burn Golf Club won the 2011 Elkdale open with a winning score of 67 (-5).  Clark edged out Billy Hanes, also of Crag Burn, who finished 2nd with a score of 69 (-3), and Justin Pfalzer (Defending Champ) of Byrncliff and Dan Smith of Elkdale who tied for 3rd with scores of 70 (-2).  A complete list of finishers can be found at the following link.

16 Qualify to play in NYS Amateur at Oak Hill (West)

(Recap written by Andrew Hickey of the NYSGA)

Results from the first sectional qualifier (Buffalo region) for the 2011 NYS Amateur Championship are now available (please click here). Niagara Frontier Country Club hosted 101 players who were competing for 15 qualifying spots (all ties for the 15th spot qualify as well). The cut for this qualifying round fell at 76, allowing 16 players to advance to the Amateur Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in July.

The heavy rains and lightning forced us to delay the round and ultimately shuffle the starting format from tee times to an afternoon shotgun, a daunting task given the short time frame. With the help of the Niagara Frontier staff and numerous NYSGA committee members we were able complete the round just before dark.

Eighteen-year-old Daniel Yustin, playing out of Transit Valley CC, was the medalist of Saturday's qualifying round posting a one-under round of 70. Niagara Falls CC's Nicholas Morreale, the recent BDGA Mid-Amateur Champion, finished as the second qualifier with a solid round of 71.

Double Eagle - Kyle Jeziorski had a rare double-eagle on the par-5 eighth hole (476 yards from the blue tees). He qualified with a 75.

NYSGA Men's Am Qualifier

The tee times and pairings are set for Saturday's (6/4) New York State Men's Championship qualifier at Niagara Frontier C.C., as linked in the upper left corner of the page.  As per the NYSGA website, the top 15 and ties will qualify for this event.  Good luck to everyone.

Nick Morreale wins BDGA Mid-Am Championship

Nick Morreale won the Buffalo District Mid-Am Championship by defeating Justin Pfalzer on the 2nd playoff hole at Orchard Park Country Club today (May 31, 2011).  The winning score was even par 72 under difficult, wet conditions.  Billy Hanes finished 3rd with at 73, and Dan Irwin finished 4th with a 75.  See 2011 Tournament Results on the top right for a list of the top 20 finishers, or a full list at the BDGA website.

Buffalo District Match Play - Postponed

The BDGA match play was postponed today due to inclement weather.  The tournament has been rescheduled for July 7 & 8.  See BDGA website for further details. 

Buffalo News Article - Jake Katz

There was a great article in the Buffalo News 2011 golf preview on April 7, 2011.  Attached below is the link:

2011 Buffalo News - Golf Preview

2010 BDGA Points Listing

The 2010 Buffalo District Points listing has been finalized and posted in the top left corner of the blog.  As we go forward in 2011, I am going to do my best to get the points information simultaneously with the district so that I can keep an up to date listing on the blog.

I have started posting the 2011 schedule, with the known tournaments for this year.  Please let me know if there are any tournaments in which the dates are set, but are not yet listed on the Blog (so that I can update).