The Met Golfer - August/September 2010

The 93rd Met Junior Championship
sponsored by
Ardsley Country Club, Ardsley-on-Hudson, N.Y. • July 20–22, 2010

Miller’s Time

Michael Miller is finishing his junior golf career on top. Before the Brewster, N. Y., native heads off to Penn State in the fall, Miller completed a dominant performance in the Met Junior, the oldest junior championship in the country and one of the toughest MGA events to win. Miller left his mark with outstanding play in all of his matches. He advanced through the match-play brackets with relative ease; until the final, none of Miller’s matches extended past the

15th hole at Ardsley Country Club, which proved to be an outstanding venue for the event.

The Met Junior, which consists of six rounds of match play in just three days for the winner and runner-up, demands physical and mental strength from all of the contestants. This year was even more pressure-packed than normal, as temperatures hovered at or above 90 degrees for the duration of the tournament and a number of leading contenders were playing in their final year of junior golf eligibility.

None of this posed a problem for Miller, and neither did his wide margins of victory in the previous rounds erode his competitive edge for the final. He defeated Schuyler Stitzer of Greenwich, Conn., who himself is off to Bucknell University this fall, 2 & 1, to claim the victory. Having his name engraved on the Mandeville Trophy is the crowning junior achievement for Miller, who now has his place in MGA golf lore.

In his last year of junior golf, Miller was able to achieve his goal of winning the nation’s oldest junior title.

Met Junior Championship – Quick Facts

Field & Format: 64 players; match play

Semifinalists: Michael Miller, Brewster, N. Y.; Schuyler Stitzer, Greenwich, Conn.; Jonathan Renza, Cortlandt Manor, N. Y.; Sean Kelly, Staten Island, N. Y.

Finalists: Miller and Stitzer

Winning performance: Miller dominated his opponents all week long, playing only 67 out of the potential 90-plus holes in his first five matches before reaching the final.

Turning point: Stitzer hit his drive into the trees on the left side of the par-four 14th hole, which led to a bogey. Miller drove his ball in the fairway and hit a 9-iron approach to the middle of the green, allowing him to two-putt for par and take the lead for good.

It was over when: Following Stitzer’s clutch birdie putt to win the 16th hole, Miller matched Stitzer’s approach shot to the green on the par-three 17th hole, allowing him to seal his victory with a two-putt.

In the champion’s words: “The key for me this week was around the greens. I made just about everything from six to eight feet. My putting definitely put me over the top.”