Interested in competing the national championships of the USGA? You need to make it through the local qualifiers to get there:

2008 USGA CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFYING
 
U.S. Open Local Qualifying
Tuesday, May 13 - Red Tail GC
Entry Deadline: April 23

U.S. Public Links Qualifying
Monday, June 16 - Windmill Lakes GC
Entry Deadline: May 28

U.S. Amateur Qualifying
Thursday, July 31 - Legend Lake / Fowler’s Mill
Entry Deadline: TBD

U.S. Mid-Amateur Qualifying
Monday, August 11 - Lake Forest CC
Entry Deadline: TBD

U.S. Senior Amateur Qualifying
Monday, August 25 - Acacia CC
Entry Deadline: TBD

Entry information for these qualifiers can be found at the USGA entry forms website.

– Allen Freeman

The Northern Ohio Golf Association has posted the dates for their Northeast Ohio Amateur Invitational, one of the longest running amateur stroke play events in the area.

The 2008 Northeast Ohio Am is scheduled as:
Monday, June 23 - Oakwood CC
Wednesday, June 25 - Good Park GC
Monday, June 30 - Fox Meadow CC (36 holes)

The tournament is an invitational, meaning that NOGA must send you an application to play. The field is filled first with low-handicap members of NOGA clubs, but they do extend invitations to unaffiliated competitive amateurs if there are additional spaces in the field. If you would like to request consideration for an entry, email NOGA at tournaments@noga.org.

Additional NOGA events can be found at the NOGA website.

– Allen Freeman

Bet you’re saying to yourself, “Gee, it sure is swell that Al has put together a website listing all of the different competitive golf events around Northeast Ohio.” 

“But it sure would be nifty to have a single schedule that listed every area tournament by date, so that I can see what’s coming up next on the calendar.”

“And it definitely would be cool if that calendar listed the golf course on which the event is being played, and how I can enter.”

“And it would be the cat’s meow if that calendar rolled along throughout the year, removing the events from the list that had already been played so I didn’t have to sort through all of the old stuff.”

Well, NEOHgolf.com user, your internal dialogue is my command.

Check out the new Northeast Ohio Golf Tournament Calendar. The link to it is posted permanently at the top of the left-hand column for easy access. Go ahead, click it. A lot of events are posted already, and I’ll be adding more in the coming weeks.

Pretty cool, huh?

– Allen Freeman

The Stark County Amateur Golf Association has released its 2008 schedule, and it’s a great mix of team and individual events at some of the best public and private courses in “south” Northeast Ohio:

Complete details and entry information can be found on the SCAGA website at http://www.scaga.com/.

Also, Dave Oates, one of the Board Members of SCAGA, has agreed to provide NEOHgolf.com readers with complete results and stories for each of the SCAGA events in 2008. Dave is one of the best players in Northeast Ohio — see his name on the trophies from last year’s Summit County Am, Stark County Am and Chippewa Club Championship if you have any questions. We look forward to Mr. Oates’ postings to the Northeast Ohio Golf website! Thanks, Dave…

–Allen Freeman

I apologize if this post ’scoops’ Tim Davis, especially if the dates aren’t yet official. But the new Akron District Golf Association website is partially active now, and most interesting is the 2008 ADGA Tournament Schedule that’s posted there. From top to bottom, the schedule looks fantastic:

Parke H. Thornton Two Man Better Ball - May 3  Turkeyfoot Lake Golf Links

Four Man Scramble - May 17  Fairways of North Canton

54-Hole Medal Play, Round 1 - May 31  Seven Hills CC
54-Hole Medal Play, Round 2 (Cut to 32) - June 1  Brookledge Golf Course
54-Hole Medal Play, Final Round - June 2  Portage CC 

Match Play Qualifier - June 21  Good Park Golf Course
Match Play Rd. of 32 and Rd. of 16 -June 22  Good Park Golf Course
Match Play Quarterfinals and Semifinals - June 28  Good Park Golf Course 
Match Play Final (36 Holes) - June 29  Sharon Golf Club 

Lazor Memorial Qualifier - July 12  Chippewa Golf Club 
Lazor Memorial Rd. of 16 and Quarterfinals - July 13  Chippewa Golf Club 
Lazor Memorial Semifinals - July 19  Chippewa Golf Club 
Lazor Finals (36 Holes) - July 20  Rawiga CC

Three Man Scramble - July 26  Barberton Brookside CC 

ADGA Open - Sept 7  Raintree CC 

Golfer of the Year, Round 1 - Sept 28  Rosemont CC 
Golfer of the Year, Final Round - Sept 29  Rosemont CC

Congratulations on a job well done, Tim! 

–Allen Freeman

It’s a bit further south than “Northeast Ohio”, but early in the season that can be a good thing…

Eaglesticks Golf Club and Longaberger Golf Club are hosting their two-day 2-man better ball, April 5-6, 2008. These are two very good golf courses, which makes it worth the drive.

There is both a scratch division and a handicap division (requires official USGA handicap). Entry fee is $150/player for both days, and prizes are in gift certificates ($10K based on 100 players).

Entry deadline is April 2nd. To enter, call 740.763.1100 or complete the online entry form.

–Allen Freeman

The Ohio Golf Association, the group that runs all of the state Amateur Championships, has released its 2008 schedule.

The local qualifier for the Ohio Am will be held at the Elyria Country Club on Tuesday, May 27th (a fun little golf course that’s always in great condition — and my old caddie yard!). Get through the qualifier and you will head to The Ohio Amateur Championship at Findlay Country Club on July 14 - 18, 2008.

Also on the OGA Schedule for 2008, for those who don’t mind doing a little driving:

Ohio Mid Amateur Championship:
June 9 - 11, 2008 at the Worthington Hills Country Club  

Ohio Junior Championship:
June 16 - 18, 2008 at the Wildwood Golf Club  

Ohio Senior Amateur Championship:
August 11 - 13, 2008 at the Miami Valley Golf Club 

Entry blanks for all of these events are posted to the Ohio Golf Association website.

–Allen Freeman

Jeff Jenkins and the Championship Golf Association will be staked out at this weekend’s Cleveland Golf Show at the IX Center (Feb 15-17). Jeff will have a CGA presence courtesy of the guys at Chippewa GC, who always have a pretty large booth at the show. Stop by, pick up a schedule, pay your 2008 membership fee, and buy some stuff from the Chippewa guys.

Details about the Championship Golf Association can be found at ChampionshipGolf.org.

–Allen Freeman

The Cleveland MetroParks Golf Division has released their 2008 Spring and Fall Tours schedule, along with details of the other golf events they conduct throughout the year:

May 3 - Spring Tour 4 Player Scramble
May 10 - Spring Tour 2 Player Scramble
May 17 - Spring Tour 2 Player Scramble/Better Ball
June 14 - Brothers Championship
July 18/19 - Senior Greater Cleveland Amateur Championship
July 18/19 - Women’s Greater Cleveland Amateur Championship
July 26/27 - Course Championships/Cleveland Am Qualifiers
September 6 - Fall Tour 2 Player Scramble
September 20 - Fall Tour 2-M Scramble/Better Ball
October 11 - Fall Tour Barbour Cup
October 18 - Fall Tour 3 Player Scramble

CLICK HERE FOR ENTRY BLANKS TO THESE EVENTS

The Golf Division and the pros at each of the MetroParks golf courses (John Fiander at Sleepy Hollow; Mike Raby at Big Met; Tom Kochensparger at Manakiki; Jeff Staker at Shawnee Hills) do a great job on all of their events; always affordable, well-run and fun to play.

ADDITIONAL NOTE – the Golf Division has created a page showing of all of the final results of their Tour events since 2005; it is posted to their website HERE. 

–Allen Freeman

Tim Davis, director of the Akron District Golf Association, has some big improvements coming after his inaugural year at the helm.

Plans for 2008 include a newly revised and upgraded website launching late February [adgagolf.com], some new ways to register for the events (website and voicemail), and an entry deadline for each registration.  

The new schedule — soon to be released – includes a couple of visits to private clubs, some tweaks to the Match Play, Lazor 2-Man and Golfer of the Year formats, and the creation of a 3-Man scramble tournament.

Tim runs great events; always has. If he implements these administrative changes well and then gets the web site to where it needs to be for pre- and post-event information, the ADGA clearly will be headed back in the right direction…

–Allen Freeman