RDGA Volunteers, Delegates Enjoy End of Season Fall Event Hosted by Locust Hill

Reflecting on a busy season – one that included a schedule of 24 tournaments between May and October – the annual RDGA Fall Event offered District officials the opportunity to present a “state of the RDGA”–type address, followed by the presentation of the District’s Players of the Year Awards for Men, Women and Juniors.

“Thanks to everyone – from our Board Members, to our Rules Officials, Delegates and volunteers – for an outstanding season. It’s been a great year and I look forward to laying the groundwork for a successful 2018 as we move into fall,” said Mark Battle, who completed his first year in office as RDGA President in 2017.

RDGA Tournament Director Michael Sorce next announced the District’s top honors for Players of the Year – including Adam Condello of Locust Hill Country Club, who won the RDGA Men’s Player of the Year Award for the second time in three years in 2017.   In one of the closest competitions for RDGA Player of the Year honors in recent memory, Condello earned 1100 player points throughout the 2017 season, including a runner-up finish to Jim Scorse in the RDGA Match Play Championship in May and a fifth-place finish in the RDGA District Championship at his home course, Locust Hill, in July, before capping off his season with the biggest victory of his amateur career at the New York State Men’s Amateur Championship in August.   Scorse, the defending RDGA Player of the Year who won his fifth RDGA District Championship title at Locust Hill in July as well as the RDGA Match Play title in May, finished runner-up to Condello in this year’s Player of the Year points race.   In fact, the season-long points race was so close – only 100 points separated Condello from Scorse – that the difference came down to one event, the 2017 U.S. Open Local Qualifier at Oak Hill Country Club, where Condello qualified to advance to the U.S. Open Regional Qualifier, earning 100 Player of the Year points.

Adam Condello 2017 RDGA Men’s Player of the Year

RDGA Treasurer Debbie Harper, left, and RDGA Women’s Player of the Year Deb Wood, right.

Presenting the 2017 RDGA Women’s Player of the Year Award was RDGA Treasurer and Women’s Golf Chair Debbie Harper, who announced that Deb Wood from the Hickory Ridge Golf Resort was the winner of this year’s honor, earning 320 points throughout the year, including winning the Women’s title at the RDGA Play Day at Brook-Lea Country Club and finishing third in the RDGA Women’s Open. Finishing runner-up in the points race was Wendy Bolton, who won the Low Gross Score title at the RDGA Women’s Open.   And, winning the 2017 RDGA Junior Player of the Year Award, was Danny Gianniny of the Country Club of Rochester. Gianniny, a senior on the Pittsford Sutherland High School Boys Golf Team this year, won 205 player points during a season in which he won individual titles in the  Section V Boys Golf Championship as well as the International Junior Masters. He also qualified for the New York State HighSchool Championship and was named a first-team All-Star for Monroe County before moving on to attend St. Bonnaventure in the fall.

Following the year-end player awards, RDGA Executive Director Tim Vangellow announced that the slate of District officers that will serve for the upcoming season had been approved in online voting by RDGA Club Delegates. In 2018, the RDGA Board of Directors will include returning members: