On July 1-3, Wampanoag Country Club will welcome the state's top senior golfers to the 13th playing of the Connecticut Senior Match Play Championship.
Though this will be its first Senior Match Play, Wampanoag is no stranger to major state championships. Its Donald Ross golf course has previously hosted six Connecticut Open Championships (1932, 1937, 1940, 1950, 1968 and 1980) and six Connecticut Amateur Championships (1930, 1939, 1963, 1973, 1982 and 2003). Wampanoag's most recent major championship was the 2016 Connecticut Mid-Amateur Championship won by Connecticut Golf Hall of Fame member Dave Szewczul.
Szewczul missed the 2018 season as he recovered from back surgery but plans to compete at Wampanoag. He is expected to meet challengers Patrick McGuinness, the 2018 Senior Match Play Champion and Senior Player of the Year; Ray Underwood, the 2018 Connecticut Senior Amateur Champion, and Hall of Fame member Bill Hermanson who will be looking to add another Match Play title to his record. He won in 2015 at the Golf Club at Oxford Greens.
Wampanoag, in West Hartford, is a private club founded in 1924. Early on the club commissioned famed architect Donald Ross to design an 18-hole layout. Ross, best known for minimalistic designs featuring holes created from the existing landscape, produced a course that has endured for almost a century, producing some exceptional players, including 2018 Palmer Cup Champion Brian Ahern.
The Senior Match Play is a three-day championship beginning with 18-holes of stroke play from which the low 16 players advance to two days of two matches each, culminating in an 18-hole final.
