Past RDGA Match Play Champions

Yaroslav Merkulov accepts the 2024 RDGA Match Play Championship trophy from RDGA President David Uhazie at Clifton Springs Country Club. Merkulov has now won the District Match Play title in four of the past five years.

Now in its 29th year as one of the Rochester District Golf Association’s top annual championships, the RDGA Match Play Championship returns in 2025 as one of the RDGA’s top major championships.

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.

Through the years, the RDGA Match Play Championship has produced many memorable champions. Jim Scorse – the four-time RDGA District Championship John H. Ryan Memorial winner from Stafford Country Club – leads all past Match Play champions, having won the title nine times since 1998 and finishing as runner-up in 2008. Monroe Golf Club’s John Kircher – another four-time RDGA District Championship winner – has won the Match Play Championship title twice.

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, with players in the Men’s Match Play Championship being invited to enter based on the top-32 points list leaders from the previous season.

In 2024, the RDGA Men’s Match Play Championship finals witnessed Aiden 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 Yaroslav 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 4 of the last 5 years – winning the Championship in four consecutive years that he has played in it (he did not enter the 2022 Match Play Championship).

The RDGA Senior Match Play Championship

Wade Sarkis accepts the 2024 RDGA Senior Match Play Championship trophy from RDGA President David Uhazie, after winning the title at Clifton Springs Country Club.

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.

Throughout the first nine years of the RDGA Senior Match Play Championship, the format was conducted exactly as the Men’s Match Play Championship – with a starting bracket of 32 players, based on the results of the RDGA Men’s Senior Points List of the season before. Beginning in 2024, however, the starting bracket was halved to the Top 16 point winners from the year before in order to make room in the event for the new RDGA Super Senior Match Play Championship.

In 2024, the RDGA Senior Match Play Championship 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 RDGA Super Senior Match Play Championship

Jim Johnson accepts the 2024 RDGA Super Senior Match Play Championship trophy from RDGA President David Uhazie, becoming the first Super Senior champion in the history of the RDGA Match Play Championships.

In 2024, the RDGA Match Play Championship format was opened up once again to include a new competition: the RDGA Super Senior Match Play Championship – open to all eligible amateur male golfers ages 65 and older who are RDGA members in good standing.

As with the Men’s Match Play and the Senior Match Play Championships, the starting bracket for the RDGA Super Senior Championship was comprised of the top-16 point winners from the previous season’s Men’s Super Senior Points Standings.

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, meanwhile, 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 final, Johnson bested his Canandaigua club mate Burns, 3-and-2 to win his first District Match play title.