95th Amateur Champions James Morgan, a senior at Southeast High School; Lucas Harrington of Aurora and Dove Fall of Windham.

By Susan Jenior

Staff Writer

The Portage County Amateurs are proud to announce that registration is open for the four annual events held in July and August.

Registration is available online at PCAGolf.net, at host golf courses in person or via mail to: Portage County Amateurs, 2739 Tallmadge Road, Ravenna, 44266.

THE AMATEUR

It was 1930 when the Portage County Amateur first took to the local fairways to provide a competitive event for area golfers. Held Labor Day weekend in 1930, Don Ulrich was the first champion.

Now, 96 years later the Amateurs have a full slate of four events that welcome ALL golfers including seniors, kids and junior.

Courses throughout Portage County have hosted the event with Windmill Lakes in Ravenna anchoring the event for many years.

The Amateur and Senior Amateur are unique, along with the Junior Amateur because golfers compete over two days on two different courses instead of playing the same golf course twice like many tournaments, assuring that no golfer has a home course advantage over the 36 holes.

Hosting all events on public golf courses also offers the availability of practice rounds for all golfers prior to the events. It is with appreciation that Raccoon Hill in Kent and Sunny Hill in Brimfield have remained host courses along with Windmill Lakes for the Amateurs, offering completely different fairway designs as a challenge to golfers from seniors to kids third grade and under.

Seniors golfers have had separate divisions for 56 years and now enjoy their own separate event the final weekend in August.

Sponsors of the Amateurs include Portage Sports, Fairways at Twin Lakes and Birdie Shack.

JUNIOR GOLFERS

While the Amateurs have been around for almost 100 years and welcome both adult and high school golfers, the junior golfers have also become a major focus in the last 20 years with the start of the Matt Mishler Junior Portage County Amateur and the Kids Amateur.

The Junior Amateur became a reality in 2006. As the final ball dropped in the cup of the second round at Raccoon Hill, Ryan Coll of Ravenna secured his first of two straight Amateur victories.

Scott Mishler was competing in that event and was a former Amateur champion. Talking about the families that played golf together and families that followed golfers to cheer them to victory, the Junior Amateur with the support of the Mishler family in honor of their son Matt and Raccoon golf professionals at that time, Jim Beers and Mike Jenior, was started.

The Junior Amateur is often a who’s who in Portage County high school golf as well as up-and-coming junior golfers and that will become even more important as the schools in Greater Portage County join back together in their own league in 2027.

Eight years later, the Kids Amateur, with the encouragement of Bryan Harvey, coach of the successful Kent Roosevelt girls varsity golf team, became the fourth event on the Amateur calendar.

Coach Harvey wanted to give his little girls program a place to compete in the slate of Amateurs and since that time, the Kids Am has grown to more than 50 competitors each season from around northeast Ohio on the short nine of Sunny Hill Golf Course. Kids from grades three and under through entering ninth grade play either four holes, six holes or nine holes. The tournament is ideal as a first tournament experience as high school golfers walk with the junior golfers to help with rules, finding the ball and keeping score.

Sometimes a course may not be available and another course always steps up. That is the case this season as Windmill Lakes unfortunately could not host the Junior Amateur and Raccoon Hill welcomed the second day of the event paired with Sunny Hill.

WITH APPRECIATION TO HOST GOLF COURSES

Windmill and Herb Page have been instrumental in helping to keep the Amateur strong as one of the host courses and one of the first to accept registration at the host golf course as well as welcoming the split of the Amateur and Senior Amateur when Aurora Golf Club was the additional host course of the both events.

Most important, the golf courses hosting and sponsoring the Portage County Amateurs are supportive of not only adult golfers but also building junior programs and making sure golfers of the future of places to play. The cooperation of host courses and managers/professionals Herb Page and his staff at Windmill, Robin Liggett at Sunny Hill and Jason Turner at Raccoon Hill have allowed the registration fees to remain affordable starting with the youngest golfers playing four holes for only $15 at Sunny Hill to only $100 for two 18-hole rounds, gift certificates and participation at different courses for the Amateur and Senior Amateur. Junior Amateur golfers pay only $45 or $60 to play two golf courses.

The Amateurs do not take any money for the tournament directors and staff. All proceeds go back into the tournaments, pay host courses and provide monies for youth golfers to play even though they may not be able to afford competing.

The Amateurs are very proud to welcome golfers to all four events this season and look toward expansion in the future as the events look to 100 years as part of the Portage County golf calendar.

SAVE THE DATES

To be added to this calendar please text 330-206-9083 or email golffam2@gmail.com

GOLF CALENDAR

PORTAGE COUNTY AMATEURS

To register, visit PCAGolf.net for online registration and information, register in-person at host courses, or mail registration to Portage County Amateur, 2739 Tallmadge Road, Ravenna, OH 44266. To receive an email registration form or for questions call or text 330-206-9083 or email golffam2@gmail.com

• JULY 25-26—96^th PORTAGE COUNTY AMATEUR. July 25 – Windmill Lakes Golf Club, Ravenna; July 26 – Raccoon Hill Golf Club, Kent. Divisions: County, Open, Women. 18-holes each day. Registration $100 by July 10; late registration $120 by July 23.
• AUGUST 29-30—56^TH PORTAGE COUNTY SENIOR AMATEUR. Aug. 29 – Raccoon Hill Golf Club, Kent; Aug. 30 – Windmill Lakes Golf Club, Ravenna. Age Divisions: 50-59, 60-69, 70-plus, Women. 18-holes each day. Registration $100 by Aug. 14, Late registration $120 by Aug. 26.
• JULY 21-22—20^TH MATT MISHLER PORTAGE COUNTY JUNIOR AMATEUR. July 21 – Sunny Hill Golf Course, Brimfield; July 22 – Raccoon Hill Golf Course, Ravenna. Age Divisions for Boys and Girls: 16-19, 13-15 play 18-holes each day; Boys and Girls 12 and under play nine holes each day. Registration ages 13-19 $60, 12 and under $45. Deadline July 18. Each golfer receives a $10 gift certificate.
• JULY 19—12^TH PORTAGE COUNTY KIDS AMATEUR. July 19 – Sunny Hill Golf Course, Brimfield (middle nine). Four separate age divisions for boys and girls: Grades 8-9, 6-7 (play nine holes) – $20; Grades 4-5 (play six holes) $20; Grades 3 and under (plays four holes) $15. Deadline July 16.

LOCAL OUTINGS AND SCRAMBLES

FEBRUARY

• TODAY: Cleveland Golf Show, IX Center, Brookpark. Purchase tickets at ClevelandGolfShow.com.
• Feb. 28—Chili Open @ Olde Dutch Mill Golf Course, Lake Milton

MARCH

• Mar. 21—Chili Open @ Olde Dutch Mill Golf Course, Lake Milton

MAY

• May 15—PARTA 21^ST Annual Golf Outing @ Sunny Hill Golf Course, Brimfield.

JUNE

• June 7—Portage Sports Annual Golf Outing @ Olde Dutch Mill Golf Course, Lake Milton.
• June 20—Rootstown Endzone Club Golf Outing @ Sunny Hill Golf Outing, Brimfield.

JULY

• July 25-26—Christmas in July Night Golf @ Fairways at Twin Lakes. $240 per foursome.

AUGUST

• Aug. 10—Ben Curtis Golf Classic @ Congress Lake Golf Club, Hartville.