- Our Miami Valley Golf Community had a great year and one that will go down as one of our most active and visible!

First, let us thank all our Volunteers who helped with not just our Association Events, but at our many golf facilities.  Volunteers are simply the life blood of our sport, and we could not thrive without them. 

As we turned the corner into 2022, four of our Golf Facilities had their 100 Anniversary.   Eaton CC, Troy CC, Urbana CC, and Wildwood GC all celebrated with many club activities throughout the season.  In 2023, Northmoor GC, which is on the North Shore of Grand Lake, in St Mary’s, reaches the century mark, and in 2024, Meadowbrook at Clayton turns 100 before we have a gap of six years.  Five, if our Golf Next project can reopen Madden by then.   

Moving into the early Spring, who could forget, arguably our strongest young golfer to ever come out of our area, and now three-time MVGA Player of the Year, Austin Greaser, who qualified and played in the Masters due to his runner-up finish in the 2021 US Amateur Championship.  While he did not make the cut in his first Masters, he played almost well enough to, as he was only 3 back of the cut number which fell at 148.

Our weather was pretty kind to our area this past season, with a few notable exceptions.  A snow on Monday, April 18th that cancelled the 2nd and 3rd round of the Wright State Invitational and slowed down our start to the season.  Staying with Wright State, they had another great season winning the Horizon League Championship at thirteen under par.  Winning by ten shots over the second place Youngstown State in their three-round championship at Mission Inn in FLA.  This win got them into the NCAA Regional at OSU Golf Club where they did not play strong enough to advance.  Playing out of the NCAA Yale Regional, Vandalia’s Austin Greaser topped the field with rounds of 68-63-69 and both he and his team (North Carolina) advanced to the National Championship whereas as a team, they made it to Match Play, but lost in the first round to Pepperdine.

Each Spring the DDWGA starts the Season with the Spring Shamble, and of late, they have also awarded their Collegiate Scholarships to deserving young female golfers.  This year at Dayton CC they awarded four scholarships to Makenna Borchers, Sarah Ochs, Katherine Trudo and Jennifer Wolf.

Keeping with the Junior Theme the following week our kids from our Golf My Future My Game Program, where hosted by the Dayton Dragons and got to spend quality time with local NFL legend Keith Byars.

As we moved into June, Springfield CC once again held the eyes of the Golf World as they hosted the US Open Final Stage Qualifier, and once again, Brian Stuard, for the 7th time, successfully qualified for the US Open.   Nick Hardy our 1st Alternate, got into the US Open Field and finished in a Tie for 14, our second-best qualifier finish in the fourteen qualifiers we have hosted.  The best was John Peterson who tied for 4th ten years ago, when the Open was held at the Olympic Club in 2012.

Just two days later, Wednesday, June 7, our host from just two days prior, Springfield CC was hit by a EF-1 Tornado that brought down 124 trees and left significant debris over the entire golf course, but thanks to the Members, Staff and greater Springfield Community they were able to get the course open by the following weekend, no small task, and a testament to the value of community support.

Getting back to the US Open, Austin Greaser who did not need to qualify by virtue of his runner up finish in the US Am, made the cut and finished in a tie for 61st with Harrison English.

Toward the end of June, a historic agreement was signed between Wilberforce University and Ohio State to provide accredited classes for Wilberforce Students in Turfgrass Science as well as Golf Course Management, this agreement will lead to greater diversity in our workforce.

Back on the tournament front, it had been 44 years since an Amateur had won the Ohio Open.  In a show of talent from our area, area golfers, had a one, two finish.  Jordan Gilkison from Springboro, who is a Sophomore on the Kent State Golf Team, captured the Ohio Open by one over Wright State Senior, Mikkel Mathieson.  Jordan, the 2020 Ohio High School D1 individual champion is only the 6th Amateur to win this championship in its one-hundred-year history.  Jordan joins Bob Lewis (1978), Bob Shave (1958), Jack Nicklaus (1956), Frank Stranahan (1948) and Maurice McCarthy (1944) in Amateurs to have won the Ohio Open.

Later that month and continuing his good play, Mikkel Mathieson captured our 100th Metropolitan Championship at the Country Club of the North when he fired rounds of 70-68-66-69=273 (-15) to capture the title by three over Justin Horn.

As we rolled into August the Ladies from our area continued their good form in the Annual Tri City Matches when they captured their fourth victory in the last five matches, this time over the Donald Ross designed Hamilton Elks when they defeated the teams from Cincinnati and Columbus by a record margin.

Have we said that Austin Greaser had a great year already?  Well if not, the 21-year-old fought back from an early 2-down deficit in the final Match, defeating Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira, of Beccar, Argentina, 1 up to win the 120th Western Amateur Championship. The victory capped an improbable run that started when Greaser survived a seven-for-two playoff on Thursday to take the 15th of 16 match play spots.

Later in August the Eyes of the Golf World where again focused in our area when Jill McGill from Dallas, Tx, won the , by one over Leta Lindley from Palm Beach Gardens, FL and two over Catriona Matthew from Scotland and Helen Alfredsson from Sweden. 

On the heels of the final putt dropping at the USSWO, the DDWGA Fall Classic was held at Walnut Grove.  This one low net and one low gross combined score, is used to determine the team score and it was won by the team from CCN.  August certainly was a month for Women’s Golf in the Miami Valley! 

Our final stroke play championships of the season saw Pete Betzold win the Senior Metropolitan Championship, and Jeff Scohy, win the Mid-Am.  Pete and Jeff now have won their respective championship three times.

The 28th Miami Valley Team Invitational was held on Thursday, September 15th at Troy Country Club and for the first time in MVTI history the team from Sugar Valley GC prevailed in this 27-hole format by three shots over NCR and 4 shots over Walnut Grove.

As we headed into the High School State Championships, we saw the Boys from Alter take home the State Boys D2 Title, after finishing runner up each of the last three years.  This was the Knights 5th State Championship with their last one coming in 1999. 

The following weekend saw the Girls team from Centerville HS finally break through in their eighth straight appearance winning the Girls D1 title, finally breaking the twelve year run that schools from the Greater Columbus area, had over the championship.

This past month we saw this summer’s PJ Boatwright Intern, Patrick Rukundo, featured in Golf.com and USGA’s Golf Journal and Golf My Future My Game Participant, Demirion “Mister” Foster earn High Honor Roll distinction, from Edwin Joel Brown Middle School, no small achievement and perhaps the highlight of this writers 2022.

Thank you for your Support of our Great Game in 2022, and we look forward to what 2023 has in store for our Miami Valley Golf Community!