Waterbury is as old as the CSGA itself. It was founded in 1899 with a nine-hole course designed by Waterbury native Arthur Fenn. In 1927 the club hired esteemed golf course architect Donald Ross to create an 18-hole layout on existing and newly acquired land. The current Ross course opened for play on Saturday, September 15, 1928, and has been a staple on Connecticut championship golf schedules ever since. It last hosted the Amateur in 2010.
At 6,658 yards Waterbury plays to par 69, with one par 5, the 9th, and four par 3s, two of them measuring more than 220 yards. Jay Reynold of Plano, Texas set the course record of 61 on July 21, 2003 during US Amateur qualifying. The previous record of 62 had been shared by Connecticut Hall of Famer, Dick Siderowf, longtime Watertown Director of Golf, Mike Carney and current CSGA Executive Director, Mike Moraghan.
Caroline Keggi holds the women's course record at 66, set in 1984, a year in which she won the Connecticut Match and Stroke Play Championships, the New England Amateur Championship, and qualified for the U. S. Women’s Amateur. She was club champion several times before moving to the LPGA Tour.
Club professional Tom Gleeton was, as an amateur member, club champion in 1974, and NCAA Division II Individual Champion (Florida Southern) in 1979. Gleeton spent a year on the PGA Tour in 1986, before becoming the head pro at Waterbury in 1993. He has won several Connecticut Section PGA events, placed second in the Connecticut Open in 1998 (the same year he was named Connecticut Section PGA Player of the Year) and has served as president of the Connecticut Section PGA.
Keggi was inducted into the Connecticut Golf Hall of Fame in 1999, and Gleeton was inducted in 2016. Additional Connecticut Golf Hall of Fame inductees from the Country Club of Waterbury include longtime superintendent Charles Baskin (1978), former CSGA Tournament Director Marty Moraghan (1991), and CSGA past-president, Charles Arnold (2001).
This year’s field of 126 competitors is especially formidable.
Former Connecticut Amateur Champions to Watch
Four former Connecticut Amateur Champions will compete:
Richard Dowling, eClub of Connecticut, defending champion and a member of the winning 2018 Two Man at Black Hall in April. (Dowling’s partner, Nick Taylor, a Waterbury member, will also compete.) Dowling, as a member of the Fairfield University’s Division I team, captured the individual ECAC Championship.
Brian Ahern, who last month won the Russell C. Palmer Cup, was twice Connecticut Mid-Amateur champion, and 1999 Amateur champion. He is one of only two players in state golf history to win all three of these championships. Hall of Famer Bill Hadden is the other.
Bill Hermanson of Black Hall, the 1991 champion and a five-time Mid-Amateur champion, seeks his second Amateur title. The Two Man Team Championship is played in Hermanson’s honor.
Evan Grenus of the TPC of River Highlands, the 2015 Amateur and 2014 Connecticut Junior Amateur Champion
Other storylines:
Waterbury as Hall of Fame Maker:
Waterbury has a knack for identifying the state’s very best players. Four of the 10 previous Amateur winners at Waterbury have entered the Connecticut Golf Hall of Fame: They are Charles Clare (1933), Holly Mandly (1947) and James T. Healey (1958) and James Grant (1967).
A Field Full of Major Champions:
Besides winners of the Amateur, the field is filled with other major Connecticut champions. They include:
Kyle Nolin of Tallwood Country Club, the 2016 Public Links Champion
Andrew Sciarretta, Brooklawn Country Club, the 2015 Connecticut Junior Amateur Champion and a recent runner-up in the 2018 Russell C. Palmer Cup. (The other runner-up, Rasmey Kong of Wallingford Country Club, will also compete).
Chet Hrostek, eClub of Connecticut, who won both the Connecticut Public Links and Mid-Amateur championships in 2015
Brent Dietz, the 2013 Connecticut Public Links Champion and the 2007 Connecticut Mid-Amateur Champion. Following hip replacement surgery Dietz has one two CSGA One Day tournaments already this year.
Benjamin Day of New Haven Country Club, the 2015 Palmer Cup Champion.
Philip Perry of the Black Hall Club, the 2008 Palmer Cup Champion.
The Julius Boros Challenge Cup Victors:
All but three members of the victorious CSGA amateur side in May’s 2018 Julius Boros Challenge Cup at New Haven Country Club will compete. Besides Dowling, Dietz, Ahern and Nolin these include:
Ben Conroy of New Haven Country Club
Mike Kennedy of New Haven
Chris Maxwell of the Country Club of Farmington
Rob Neaton of Black Hall Club
Ron Soccoli of New Haven
Nick Waddington of Manchester Country Club
Last Year’s Quarterfinalists:
Six of eight quarterfinalists in the115th Connecticut Amateur Championship at Tashua Knolls return to this year’s field. Besides Dowling and Grenus, they are:
Justin Clark of Rolling Hills Country Club
Mike Kennedy of New Haven
Chris Simione of Race Brook Country Club
Michael VanDerLaan of the eClub of Connecticut
For Four, a Home Game:
Finally, four Waterbury members will participate: Nick Taylor, Chandler Morris, Chris McCarthy and Tim Sullivan
History
The Connecticut Amateur Championship is the oldest event conducted by the CSGA and one of the nation's oldest state amateur golf championships. The format comprises both match and stroke play: After two days of stroke play the low 32 players qualify for match play. Two rounds of match play each day culminate in a 36-hole final.
The first winner of the Connecticut Amateur was Thomas L. Cheney. Since Cheney's inaugural victory, past champions have included Robert M. Grant, for whom the stroke-play medal is named, and current PGA tour player, J.J. Henry, who won three Amateur championships. Longtime PGA Tour player and 2017 Connecticut Golf Hall of Fame inductee Tim Petrovic also won it.
Richard Siderowf of Westport holds the record for the most Amateur victories at five, the last two coming in 1984 and 1985. He was also runner-up five times.
