The 2024 RDGA Match Play, RDGA Senior Match Play, and the inaugural RDGA Super Senior Match Play Championships concluded Sunday, May 26, at Clifton Springs Country Club with six semi final matches and three championship matches in the final day of action.
This year’s RDGA Match Play Championships – which included a first-ever Super Senior Bracket for players ages 65 and up – produced one repeat champion, Yarik Merkulov, in the Men’s 32-player bracket, and two first time Match Play titlists – Wade Sarkis (in the Seniors) and Jim Johnson (in the Super Seniors) – for the two 16-player Senior brackets.
After an opening day in which there were very few upsets – and a weather-delayed second day in which there were several notable upsets – the final day of the 2024 RDGA Match Play Championships featured hotly contested matchups of familiar RDGA competitors.
In the Men’s Championship Semi Finals, which took place Sunday morning, Aiden Spampinato – fresh from helping his Methodist University teammates claim victory in the NCAA Div. III Men’s Golf Championships in Las Vegas – outlasted 2017 RDGA Mid Am champion Tim Saur of Oak Hill in a hard-fought 1-up decision.
In the other Men’s Semi Final, defending Men’s Match Play champion Merkulov outlasted 2023 RDGA Mid Am champion Kevin Lewis of Brook-Lea in a 6-and-5 contest.
The Men’s Championship final saw Spampinato – a senior on the Methodist University men’s golf team – go head-to-head with one of the RDGA’s most consistent competitors in Merkulov, who entered this year’s Championship with not only three Match Play titles in the past four years but also two RDGA District Championship titles (2019 and 2021) over the same time span.
The two Men’s Championship finalists battled back-and-forth early in their match – but eventually Spampinato took a 1-up advantage late into their round. By the time the match got to the 18th hole, the two competitors were all square – although Merkulov later admitted that he had lost count of the match status and thought that he needed to win the 18th hole in order to get to extra holes.
Facing a mid-length putt for birdie on 18, Merkulov drained his putt – and celebrated with a Tiger Woods-like fist pump, thinking that he was going to a playoff…until he was informed that the putt was for the Championship.
With the victory, Merkulov now has Match play titles in four of the last five years – winning the Championship in four consecutive years that he has played in (he did not enter the 2022 Match paly Championship).
“This is crazy,” he said afterwards, “I have a 20 match unbeaten streak in this event – I feel like Floyd Mayweather.”
Meanwhile, the Senior Match Play bracket was stocked with veteran champions. The two Semi Final matches saw two-time Match play champion Jim Mason go up against 2021 RDGA Senior Championship titleist Ken Ogden, and 2022 RDGA Super Senior Champion Wade Sarkis go up against Doug Slattery of Brook-Lea. Ogden got past Mason, 2-and-1, in their match, while Sarkis defeated Slattery, 4-and-3 in their match to advance to the Senior Finals.
In the championship, Ogden kept close to Sarkis, although never really got on track, as Sarkis pulled away for a 4-and-3 decision to win his first RDGA Match Play title of any kind.
The inaugural Super Senior Match Play Championship turned out to be a battle between Canandaigua Country Club members Jim Burns and Jim Johnson. In the bracket’s Semi Final matches, Burns – a past Men’s Super Senior Champion and Senior Match Play Champion – faced Kevin Webb, the 2019 RDGA Senior Champion, coming away with a hard-fought 1-up victory in 20 holes. Johnson faced past RDGA Senior and RDGA Senior Match Play champion Mark Battle in his Semi Final, coming out on top in another close, 2-and-1 contest.
In the Super Senior Match Play Championship, Johnson bested his Canandaigua club mate Burns, 3-and-2 to win his first District Match play title.
RDGA President David Uhazie praised the staff and members of Clifton Springs following play and presented each Division winner with their trophies. All 12 RDGA Match Play Semi Finalists in Sunday’s matches also earned exemptions into the the 2024 RDGA District Championship John H. Ryan Jr. Memorial, scheduled for July 18 through 20 at Irondequoit Country Club.
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