Ben Warnquist – MSGA Player of the Year
A strong showing in a national championship served as the catapult, as Ben Warnquist, from Manor Country Club in Rockville, earned the 2016 Player-of-the-Year honor from the Maryland State Golf Association.
Warnquist and partner Brandon Cigna went all the way to the final of the U.S. Four-Ball championship in May at Winged Foot Golf Club before losing, 3 and 2, after being all square through 11 holes of the scheduled 18-hole match. This, plus the qualifying points, gave him 280 of his final 575 points, the lowest winning total in the program’s 10-year history.
“The past two years have been very special for me,” Warnquist, 23, said during a recent conversation. “Winning the 2015 Maryland State Amateur at Manor gave me the confidence to play well this year.
“The highlight was the U.S. Four-Ball. It was ironic how Brandon Cigna and I came to be partners. I initially thought I was going to partner a former University of Maryland teammate. However, he had double-committed and let me know a week or two before the deadline that he was going with someone else.
“So I started asking around and learned Brandon, also a Manor member, was looking for a partner, too. We played great in the qualifying round at Worthington Manor [63] and realized we went together well.
“The national event was as much fun as it gets. Winged Foot was spectacular and set up great for our games. We barely qualified for match play, then started to hit our stride. After a few good rounds that included several 18th-hole decisions, we had a chance at the title. Unfortunately, we didn’t get it done, but it was great nonetheless.
“My other notable events for the year were the U.S. Open, U.S. Amateur, and the U.S. State Team. I didn’t play as well in these events, but they were still great experiences — the State Team especially. Mark Cusic and Dan Falls were the best teammates and I was proud to tee it up with them. We had a great time in Alabama and tried our hardest to represent Maryland well. We fell shy of our goals, but it was an honor and a pleasure to be part of the event.
Still, the Maryland State Amateur is a tournament in which I place great value. I’ve noticed the competition gets stronger every year so winning becomes that much harder. Winning this event last year is the biggest thing I’ve done in my golf career. Everything clicked that week: My game was very sharp and I had great support from fellow Manor members. I hope I have the opportunity for more in the future.
Warnquist was followed by Tyler Herriott, the reigning Maryland State Amateur champion, 525 points; Connor Flach, Amateur runner-up, 490 points; Mark Cusic, 470 points, and Dan Falls, 465 points.
Recently, Warnquist began working in the Bogart and Brownell Insurance Agency. The two are icons in Maryland’s rich golfing history: Ralph Bogart won 10 MSGA Amateurs (1948-1967); Bobby Brownell won 10 consecutive D.C. Amateurs (1946-1955) and between them they won nine Middle Atlantic Amateurs (1941-1964), along with a host of other events.
“I ended up at the agency after speaking with John Seguin, the Agency’s owner and Ralph’s nephew, who plays golf at Manor with me. We played a few rounds together and started to entertain the idea of working together. My work before that did not have much flexibility and I missed some tournaments.
“Now, I’m able to play the tournaments I want and at the same time grow my business. Insurance is not an easy field in which to get started, but I have all the right people around me to now do well. Our agency was built around golf and there is great balance between these two worlds. Golf is a great way to meet new people and grow a network, but you certainly have to fit the golf into the business, not the other way around.
“I really enjoy my career and am honored to be at an agency with so much history. The founders were legends in the area and I am reminded of that every time I look at the past winners of a tournament. I’m very fortunate to know so many great people through golf and hope I can live up to the legacy of Mr. Bogart and Mr. Brownell on the golf course and in the insurance business.
Matt Sughrue – MSGA Senior Player of the Year
The 2016 golf season for Matt Sughrue really began to form at the Maryland Open at Bulle Rock in July, where he closed with a 67 to finish seventh. It turned out to be a magical season for the Bethesda Country Club member, as he won the Middle Atlantic Senior Amateur and qualified for the USGA’s Mid-Am (missed cut) and Senior Amateur (reached the final).
During the year, he amassed 490 points to easily win the Maryland State Golf Association’s Senior Player-of-the-Year honor. Most of those points came from the Maryland Open, the Middle Atlantic Senior Amateur and the U.S. Senior Amateur. Tim Dilli, of Baltimore CC, who tied for first in the Senior Four-Ball and for second in the Middle Atlantic Senior, totaled 315 points, followed by former winner John Howson, Hayfields CC, whose tie for second in the Middle Atlantic Senior Amateur represented his best showing, 215 points.
Although a late bloomer in golf, Sughrue’s goal for the last 16 years or so has been to qualify and play in as many USGA championships as he could. “I see them as the ultimate goal and experience in amateur golf, he says.”Still, I try to play in either the Maryland State Amateur or Open each year, and — now that I’m a Senior golfer — the Maryland Senior Open, which I’ve won and look forward to each year.
Two past experiences stand out in Sughrue’s golfing career, qualifying for the 2013 U.S. Senior Open and his play in this year’s U.S. Senior Amateur.
The Open berth enabled him to play with such golfers as Tom Watson, Colin Montgomerie, Fred Funk, and Corey Pavin in front of 40,000 fans — “An experience I’ll never forget. Unfortunately, I didn’t play well. The massive galleries distracted me and I tore a hamstring in a practice round which made walking difficult. By the end of the week I felt disappointed. I wondered if I could ever get another chance to play in a U.S. Senior Open. I want another shot to prove to myself I can play well in an event of that magnitude, might even make the cut and be around for all four days. [One of the perks for a U.S. Senior Amateur finalist in 2016 is an exemption into the 2017 U.S. Senior Open at Salem (Mass.) Country Club.] I’m thrilled beyond words.”
In September, at Old Warson CC in St. Louis — a course he remembered for having played there in the 1999 U.S. Mid-Am — Sughrue felt comfortable. After qualifying for match play, he worked his way through five matches — beating two world-ranked players in the process — to gain the final. “In the final, I played really well against Dave Ryan, who had an exceptional putting day — 11 putts in 10 holes — and I’m 4-down. I got back to even when I won the 15th, but things did not go my way on the greens for the last three holes.”
There have been a couple of other building blocks in Sughrue’s golfing career, one in this country and one abroad.
He surprised himself by qualifying for match play in the 2015 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Johns Island in Florida, and won two matches. “The confidence I gained that week served me well this year. After that, I began to believe that I could not only qualify for U.S. championships, but compete successfully in them.”
In the 2015 (British) Senior Amateur Sughrue led late on the final day at Royal County Down before finishing second to Pat Tallent, from Vienna, Va., and Congressional CC, who had been second the year before. “Sometimes I wonder if I have what it takes to get that close again and win,” Sughrue offered. “We’ll see.”
Sughrue’s appearance in a British golf event was not unusual. He started going to Great Britain some 15 years ago to test his game by competing in R.&A. championships. Through the years he played in five British Mid-Ams, but later, of his second in the British Seniors he said, “It meant I had the game that could compete at the highest levels in Senior golf — another big boost for my confidence.”
Outside of golf, one of his biggest decisions resulted in a mid-life career change. Although he had enjoyed a successful business career in insurance, he felt as though he had a greater purpose to pursue in life. I was open to making a change. I was encouraged to become a therapist by a few people I know and respect in the medical and mental health fields, including my sister who is a physician in Northern Virginia. While finalizing a decision, “I met the love of my life, Carolyn [they were married in 2010]and with her encouragement and support I applied and was accepted for Virginia Tech’s Marriage and Therapy graduate program and its daily classes. That lasted 3 1/2 years and was followed by a 3-year post-master’s clinical study, which ended last year.
He loves what he does and the practice is growing — helping individuals, couples, and families with relational conflicts and mental illnesses.In addition, his sports performance practice has grown by word-of-mouth. “It seems the better my golf, the more people want to learn how I do it. Using my therapist skills and understanding mental health research as a result of my golf, I am able to help athletes — mostly golfers and baseball players — feel better about themselves: Think better so they can perform better. I also try to help them get more enjoyment from their sport.”
Reported by: John Stewart
