Past RDGA Match Play Champions

In 2023, Yarik Merkulov captured his third RDGA Men’s Match Play Championship in four years, winning the championship final match vs. Jiarong “Tom” Liu by a 5-and-3 margin.

Now in its 28th year as one of the Rochester District Golf Association’s top annual championships, the RDGA Match Play Championship returns to Clifton Springs Country Club in 2024 for just the second time in the event’s history.

Each year, the starting field for the RDGA Match Play Championship is filled by invitees based on the top point leaders from the RDGA’s Player of the Year Award points list from the previous season – a list that incorporates points earned based on performance by players in certain local, state and national events.

In recent years, three of the RDGA’s top younger players – Gavin Hall, the three-time District Championship winner from Mendon Golf Club; Oak Hill Country Club’s Trevor Sluman, winner of the 2014, 2015 and 2016 District Championship; and former Locust Hill Country Club member Dominic Bozzelli (now a touring professional on the PGA Tour) – have each won the District Match Play title.

The RDGA Match Play Championship also has a unique connection to the RDGA District Championship, dating back to the earliest days of the RDGA in 1930. For the first 38 years of the RDGA District Championship, the event was conducted as a match play competition – until 1969, when a 72-hole stroke play format was adopted, which has continued to be used to this day. When the RDGA Match Play Championship was added to the District schedule in 1997, it restored the tradition of top match play competition that had been absent from the RDGA for nearly 30 years.

Between 1997 and 2015, the RDGA Match Play Championship featured a starting field of 32 players, with the top 31 RDGA Player of the Year point winners from the previous season joining the defending champion to form the starting field. Beginning in 2016, the size of the starting field was reduced to the top-24 point winners (including the defending champion), due to the growing popularity of the RDGA Senior Match Play Championship and the need to accommodate a larger number of players competing for the two Championships on the same host course. By 2020, however, the starting field for both Match Play Championships was increased to 32 – and continues at that level to this day, with players in both Championships being invited to enter based on the top-32 points list leaders from the previous season.

The 2023 RDGA Men’s Match Play Championship finals saw Jiarong “Tom” Liu – a senior on the University of Rochester men’s golf team – go head-to-head at Ontario Golf Club with one of the RDGA’s most consistent competitors in Yarik Merkulov, who entered last year’s Championship with not just two Match Play titles (2020 and 2021) but also two RDGA District Championship titles (2019 and 2021) in the last four years.

The two finalists battled back-and-forth early on Ontario’s front nine – but Merkulov made the turn with a 3-up advantage. That status remained the same until Merkulov won the 14th hole to take Liu to dormie-4. Then on the next hole, Merkulov won again – coming away with the match and the championship title in a 5-and-3 decision.

The RDGA Senior Match Play Championship

Long-time Ontario Golf Club member Ken Seibold used home-course knowledge to defeat Steve Theophilus, 7-and-6, in the RDGA Senior Match Play Championship final in 2023.

In 2015, the RDGA Match Play Championship format was opened up to include a new competition: the RDGA Senior Match Play Championship – open to all eligible amateur male golfers ages 55 and older who are RDGA members in good standing.

In the inaugural Senior Match Play Championship finals in 2015, past RDGA Senior Championship winner Mark Battle became the first player to claim the “Senior Slam” – having won both the RDGA Senior Championship title as well as the District Senior Match Play title.

In 2016, Bob Chalanick of Ravenwood Golf Club became the second “Senior Slam” winner in as many years, following up his 2015 RDGA Senior Championship title with the Senior Match Play title.

In the 2023 RDGA Senior Match Play Championship Final at Ontario Golf Club, long-time club member Ken Seibold met Ravenwood Golf Club’s Steve Theophilus – meaning that the 2023 Senior Match Play finals would produce a first-time champion in that bracket.

On the front side, Seibold racked-up wins on holes 5, 6 and 7 to make the turn with a commanding 5-up lead. Going to the back nine, Seibold kept his foot on the gas, closing out the match and winning the Senior title in a decisive 7-and-6 decision.

In capturing the 2023 RDGA Senior Match Play Championship, Seibold returned to the RDGA winner’s circle for the first time since 2009, when he won the District Mid Amateur Championship. Interestingly, that title also came at his home course – although at that time, Ontario was known as The Brookwoods.