Today marks the beginning of the 95th Maryland State Golf Association’s Amateur Championship, which is being held at The Elkridge Club in Baltimore, Maryland. The Championship will run from June 9th through June 12th on the Seth Raynor designed course, that will play 6,361 yards and a par of 71. This year will be the ninth time Elkridge has hosted the Maryland Amateur Championship, last hosting ten years ago in 2006.
Ben Warnquist, a Manor Country Club member, will look to defend his Amateur Championship title this week. In late May, Warnquist participated in the USGA Four-Ball Championship at Winged Foot, with fellow Manor Country Club member Brandon Cigna. The team advanced to the finals, but eventually lost 3&2 to the opposing team. Warnquist has proven that he is certainly a force to be reckoned with during match play.
The Maryland Amateur is open to any amateur golfer with a USGA handicap index of 7.1 or less, who is a member of an MSGA member club. An entry of 325 golfers in the Amateur Championship has been narrowed down by means of four qualifying rounds to a final field of 130 golfers, which includes 36 exempt players. On Thursday, a stroke-play qualifying round will be played for a chance at 31 spots in the match play field, since the defending champion automatically qualifies. Past Champions in the field include Ben Warnquist (2015), Mark Cusic (2011), Michael Mulieri (2008) and David Nocar, Jr. (2002).
Live scoring will be available during the match play rounds on Friday through Sunday.