Sunnehanna tournament begins Elite Amateur Golf Series on Wednesday | Sports

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Over the previous 68 occasions the Sunnehanna Newbie Tournament for Champions has occurred, its popularity throughout the golf globe has only grown.

This coming Wednesday commences a new chapter at one of the best beginner golf tournaments in the nation.

A 7-occasion gauntlet named the Elite Beginner Golfing Sequence kicks off at Sunnehanna Place Club.

“It’s excellent for the club,” Sunnehanna Novice Co-Chairman John Yerger explained. “This staying the very first match in the Elite Newbie Golf Series, which is seriously likely to be a large deal inside amateur golf, and surely going to be adopted not across the region, but in a large amount of factors, across the entire world. It is a huge, large deal.”

The Elite Novice Golfing Collection will aspect a summer-very long competitors – the Elite Amateur Cup. Using the seven sequence event effects from the Entire world Newbie Golfing Ranking (WAGR) as the Elite Beginner Cup stage system, top rated finishers in the closing standings will earn exemptions into the PGA Tour, the Korn Ferry Tour, USGA Championships and other specialist taking part in alternatives.

The initial PGA Tour party to help the EAGS and offer you an exemption to the Elite Amateur Cup winner is the Butterfield Bermuda Championship for their celebration in Oct.

The six other tournaments in the Elite Beginner Golfing Collection contain the Northeast Amateur (June 22-25 Wannamoisett Nation Club Rumford, Rhode Island) North and South Novice (June 26-July 2 Pinehurst Resort & State Club, Pinehurst, North Carolina) Trans-Mississippi Amateur (July 6-9 Denver Place Club, Denver, Colorado) Southern Amateur (July 13-16 Sea Island Golf Club, St. Simons Island, Georgia) Pacific Coast Amateur (July 19-22 Columbia Edgewater Region Club, Portland, Oregon) and Western Newbie (Aug. 1-6 Exmoor Country Club, Highland Park, Illinois).

In excess of Sunnehanna’s vast record, 44 contestants have received 96 majors with 38 of these championships coming due to the fact 2000. Phil Mickelson, Collin Morikawa, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods are a handful of gamers that have performed at Sunnehanna more than the earlier nine a long time, heading back again to the invitational that begun in 1936.

This year’s industry for the four-working day function is numbered at 101. A crop of familiar names along with some clean faces should give the tournament a good mix of new and aged.

“Palmer Jackson, who finished fourth final calendar year, he’s from Murrysville,” Yerger described the subject.

“He gained the (2022) Jones Cup. Preston Summerhays is certainly the outstanding title that’s returning. He received the tournament in 2020.

“He’s an exceptional youthful player. He was Pac-12 Freshman of the 12 months (at Arizona Condition).

“His family’s reputation within gold speaks for alone. They are golfing royalty. We’re enthusiastic to have him back again.

“Overall, it’s kind of a new subject in many respects. We shed Travis Vick, who finished runner-up and 3rd the previous two a long time, to the U.S. Open up. We have a ton of new faces. We’re psyched to see one more winner.”

Summerhays’ father, Boyd Summerhays, performed in the 1997 Sunnehanna Beginner. Boyd Summerhays was a 3-time Junior Entire world Champion and a 4-time AJGA All-American who played at Oklahoma State and was on the PGA Tour. He now is a coach.

Nick Gabrelcik, a 2021 semifinalist at the U.S. Amateur at Oakmont State Club, and Nathan Smith, captain of the 2025 U.S. Walker Cup team, are slated to engage in at Sunnehanna as properly.

There will be 105 players from 21 distinctive states competing for six spots in Sunday’s qualifier. Distinguished names in the subject include things like area products Derek Hayes, a four-time Metropolis Golfing Championship winner, and Paul Pentz. Sean Karl Dobson, a soaring freshman at Stanford, 2020 Sunnehanna competitor Gregor Meyer and 2021 Pennsylvania Newbie champion John Peters are major names to comply with as effectively.

Although several traditions have stayed the exact same at Sunnehanna, a new scoreboard will be mounted on the system to continue to be up to day in the continual arms race.

“You’re going to see an LED (gentle-emitting diode), digital scoreboard driving the 16th gap, which I imagine is heading to be an intriguing addition that you commonly see at specialist events,” Yerger reported.

Yerger was brief to level out the celebration would not be possible with no the aid of all-around 130 volunteers.

“We’re the only event in just the Elite Novice Golf Series that is operate solely by volunteers,” Yerger said. “I assume the one point we all want to truly emphasize is the tournament would not be continued without the guidance of Johnstown. Ninety-5 per cent of our volunteers appear from outdoors of this club. 30-five p.c of our housing comes from exterior of this club. The base line is for the reason that of the generosity of the men and women that are living here, we’re in a position to continue a wonderful golfing custom that absolutely everyone takes delight in.”

Beginning Wednesday, the event is totally free and open to the general public.

The club’s hospitality retains golfers seeking to come again.

“The gamers and their families rave about the experience,” Yerger said. “The friendliness, about how points are done, about how folks are taken care of. It sets us aside from every person else.”

Jake Oswalt is a copy editor for The Tribune-Democrat. Observe him on Twitter @TheWizOfOz11.