2021 Boys’ Junior Player of the Year

The 2021 RDGA Boys’ Junior Players of the Year: Jack Berl & Matt Carpentier

             Matt Carpentier, left, and Jack Berl, right.

The Rochester District Golf Association began its Junior Player of the Year Award in 2006 as a way to honor the year’s top junior players – Boys AND Girls ages 12 through 18 – based on points earned from local, regional and national junior tournaments throughout the season.

Now in its 15th season, the RDGA Junior Player of the Year Award has been presented to several outstanding Junior players who have since gone on to become top amateurs at the national level – such as Yarik Merkulov – as well as professional tour golfers, including Dominic Bozzelli and Gavin Hall.

In 2018, a separate category was created for an annual RDGA Girls’ Player of the Year Award, thus making the previous Junior Player of the Year the annual RDGA Boys’ Junior Player of the Year Award. Any junior girls who had previously won the Junior Player of the Year still appear on the past winners list.

The race for the 2021 RDGA Boys’ Junior Player of the Year Award could not have been any closer – and, in fact, there was a tie for the lead in points for the first time in the history of the award, resulting in two co-Players of the Year in the Boys category: Jack Berl and Matt Carpentier.

Berl and Carpentier were at or near the top of the leaderboards in most RDGA and local junior tournaments in 2021. In early June, Berl won the Boys title in the RDGA New York High School Invitational at Deerfield Golf & CC, while Carpentier finished in fourth place. In the RDGA Boys Junior Championship at Webster Golf Club in July, Carpentier finished in a tie for third place – and at the RDGA Junior Invitational in September, Berl finished in a tie for second, while Carpentier finished in solo 6th place. At the New York State Boys Junior Golf Championship at Hamilton in July, Berl finished in 10th place overall.

With their consistency throughout the season, Jack Berl and Matt Carpentier have earned co-Player of the Year honors for 2021.

Following a year’s hiatus due to COVID, season-long point standings to determine the RDGA Boys’ Junior Player of the Year award were re-introduced in 2021.

To see the final 2021 RDGA Boys’ Junior Player of the Year Points standings, CLICK HERE.