2023 Men’s Player of the Year

The Rochester District Golf Association began its Player of the Year Award in 1997 as an extension of the RDGA Match Play Championship – as a way of determining a seeding order, as well as a qualifying process, for the Championship.

A schedule of point values were determined for a number of competitive championships, whereby players would accumulate point totals for the entire season. Today, the RDGA Player of the Year Points Schedule consists of more than 20 events – from RDGA tournaments to State, local and USGA® Championships – at which RDGA players can earn points towards the Player of the Year Award. To be considered for the Men’s RDGA Player of the Year award, golfers must play a minimum of 5 events on the published Points schedule with an additional requirement that 3 of those events must be RDGA events.

Throughout it’s first 20 years, the Men’s RDGA Player of the Year was dominated by Stafford Country Club’s Jim Scorse. Scorse – one of the most consistent competitors in RDGA tournament history – earned RDGA Player of the Year honors 15 times between 1997 and 2018 – including eight years in a row between 2007 and 2014.

In 2023, it was Kyle Downey of Locust Hill Country Club who earned RDGA Men’s Player of the Year honors for the first time in a hotly-contested race, finishing a mere 115 points ahead of Yarik Merkulov of Ridgemont. Merkulov came close to winning his second Player of the Year award in 2023 by winning the RDGA Match Play Championship in May and qualifying for the U.S. Amateur Championship in July.

Early in the season, Downey advanced all the way to the semi-final round of the Country Club of Rochester Invitation – picking up 150 Player of the Year points. Then, in the 2023 RDGA District Championship John H. Ryan Jr. Memorial at Ravenwood Golf Club in July, he posted a 54-hole total of 9-under-par to finish runner-up to Jason Lohwater, picking up another 400 points. He would also go on to post two other top-10 finishes in RDGA events through the end of the season.

By the end of the 2023 season, Downey – who was runner-up in the 2022 RDGA Men’s Player of the Year race – had captured his first RDGA Player of the Year honors.

The race for the RDGA Men’s Player of the Year begins each May, with the opening of the RDGA Tournament Schedule. In addition to Player of the Year, the top-32 point winners for the 2023 season also earn invitations to the 2024 RDGA Men’s Match Play Championship and the top-40 point winners (and ties) earn exemptions into the 2024 RDGA District Championship John H. Ryan Jr. Memorial.

To see the final 2024 Men’s RDGA Player of the Year Points standings, CLICK HERE.