VOORHEESVILLE — In what Tom McGinn called “the biggest win in my career, for sure,” the area’s amateur golf scene may have taken even a bigger step toward stability.
McGinn, a member at Mohawk, defeated Aaron Simone of Pinehaven 5 and 3 Sunday afternoon at the Colonie Golf and Country Club to win his first Tri-County Golf Association Match Play title.
The victory entitled McGinn an exemption into the New York State Amateur field and World Amateur Golf Ranking points, both perks provided by a new collaboration with the New York State Golf Association.
“With NYSGA getting involved and offering the State Am exemption and more organization around the local events, it was motivating,” McGinn said. “I love where the State Am is, at Wykagyl. It’s my favorite course, so that was a huge motivating factor.”
Wykagyl, located in New Rochelle, will play host to the 100th State Amateur on Aug. 7-9. The Albany area qualifier is July 10 at Colonie, but McGinn can now bypass that.
“The State Am qualifier here is one of the hardest days for guys like me who hold the State Am highly and enjoy those NYSGA events,” he said. “It’s a grueling day to come out here and try to qualify. To have more opportunities, whether it’s through winning a tournament like this or a points list, it’s going to motivate everyone to play.”
The Tri-County, played for the 42nd time, drew 44 entries, up from the past few years. The NYSGA is offering organizational and administrative support to area tournaments that want it, offering online registration, live scoring and rules officials, among other benefits.
By doing so, the NYSGA hopes to grow golf in the Capital Region. McGinn, for one, finds the association’s involvement to be a positive step and one that could lead to ending the area’s State Am drought. No Capital Region player has…
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