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The 2022 Northeast Ohio Amateur Championship returns to Windmill Lakes Golf Club in Ravenna! There will be 54 holes of championship golf on Saturday through Monday, June 4-6 for the Men, Mid-Ams and Seniors, and 36 holes on Sunday and Monday, June 5-6 for Women in Championship and Senior Divisions.
Last year, a full field of 100 men competed at Windmill Lakes, while the brand new Northeast Ohio Women’s Amateur added another 12 players to the field count.
But because of a change to this year’s entry specifications, even more players are expected for the 2022 edition.
In 2021, Xenia’s Tyler Goecke, who plays golf at Wright State, shot a final round 67 to win the Championship going away. The year before winning he was runner-up. Goecke completed the 54-holes with a 7-under par total, good for a four shot victory.
Michael Klaric III of Peninsula finished behind Goecke in the Championship Division while earning the Mid-Am Division title for players age 25+. Klaric matched the champion’s 67 on Monday, making him the only other am or mid-am player besides Goecke to finish under par for the three days.
Solon’s Monty Guest survived a late run by Allen Freeman of Brecksville to win his third Senior NEO Am title, to go along with his 2015 and 2020 trophies. Guest finished with a 2-under par total for 54 holes to win by two shots.
Kelsey Sager, a senior-to-be at Bowling Green State University, won the inaugural playing of the Women’s NEO Am with rounds of 76-77. The 153 total was good for a four-shot victory over Hudson High School graduate Meaghan Grant.
And Canton’s Suzi Spotleson posted a solid first round score of 72 then overcame a triple-bogey start on the first hole of her second round to win the Senior Women’s division. Finishing with a 149 total, Spotleson ground out a three shot victory over Alison Reifers Cress, the mother of PGA Tour player Kyle Reifers and a five-time match play qualifier in the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur.
THE CHANGING NATURE OF THE NEO AM
Originally known as the Plain Dealer Invitational when it began in 1931, there was significant interest from both the area’s best amateur players and the general public for decades. The height of the PD Invitational and its coverage came in 1953, when a young Arnold Palmer won the tournament with a record-setting score, earning Palmer front page headlines with an action-packed game story and above-the-fold photos.
But times changed and the tournament didn’t. Eventually, the PD Invitational needed to be rescued by the Northern Ohio Golf Association to keep it relevant. In 1965, NOGA assumed control of the event and re-branded it as the Northeast Ohio Amateur Championship.
For many years, NOGA selected two or three different golf courses each year to host the 72 holes of the championship. Both the courses and dates were spread out, like a Monday/Thursday/Monday schedule seeing a different course for each round, with the final day of of play consisting of 36 holes to complete a 72-hole tournament.
Those years were dominated by Joe Ungvary Sr., Bob Fairchild and Doug Hauenstein.
Ungvary of Akron won the NEO Am title five times, in 1970, 72 and 73, then again in 1981 and 84. Ungvary later won a national championship, taking the 1993 USGA Senior Amateur.
Avon Lake resident and Canterbury Golf Club member Fairchild ran off his three NEO Am titles in 1983, 87 and 88.
Then Aurora’s Hauenstein also captured five wins, in 1989, 1991, 1992, 1998 and 2001.
In 1995, a Senior Championship was added to the NEO Am as a separate division within the event. Avon Lake’s Bob Miller dominated the Senior championships early, taking three victories in a row at the start, in 1995, 1996, 1997. Later, Jim Durr of Silver Lake matched that feat with three Senior NEO Am titles of his own, in 2014, 2017, 2019. And just this past year, Solon’s Monty Guest added his third Senior title to go along with wins in 2015 and 2020.
But by the mid 2000s, the drawn-out, multi-day format of the NEO Am saw a decline in the number of players. So a second reinvention was required. In 2017, NOGA decided to pick a single golf course and play that course for 54 holes on three consecutive days, with the first two of those days on the weekend. That decision changed the nature of the championship.
StoneWater Golf Club in Highland Heights hosted the first two 54 hole events. After the first year there, NOGA added a Mid-Am Division to the NEO Am for players age 25+, to give those slightly older contenders another opportunity separate from of all the college-aged players that were now competing.
2019 brought another major change. NOGA reached an agreement with former Kent State golf coach and course co-owner Herb Page to bring the NEO Am to Windmill Lakes Golf Club in Ravenna. That same year, NOGA also reached an agreement with Great Lakes Auto to act as the presenting sponsor of the event.
The combination of Windmill Lakes and the Great Lakes Auto sponsorship jump-started growth in the field. In 2019, Miami Redhawks golfer Jack Herceg beat a field of 44 golfers, with 13 Seniors playing in that division (Durr’s third victory) and Chris Okeson of Lyndhurst winning the Mid-Am title.
Then in 2020, Kent State player Cade Breitenstine of Akron took the title by a whopping six shots, shooting a 7-under par total score against a field of 68 players. 20 Seniors competed (Guest’s third victory) and Michael Kelley came up from Westerville to take the Mid-Am.
Most recently, 2021 brought 100 men and 12 women to Windmill Lakes for the NEO Am. Those entry numbers certainly will be bigger in 2022.
NEW FOR 2022
Over the winter, NOGA made a new change to the eligibility requirements that could alter the complexion of the 2022 Northeast Ohio Amateur Championship: the minimum age limit of 19-years old has been eliminated, allowing amateur plays of any age to enter. This means that talented high school players may now participate for the first time ever.
To accommodate this age-limit change, the maximum field size for the event has been increased to 120 male players for this year’s championship. The women’s field remains open to all who register for now.
It will be interesting to see how – or if – this removal of the age restriction changes the makeup of the 2022 NEO Am champion. Will future tournament champions keep getting younger and younger? Or will the wily veterans of the Northeast Ohio Am step up and have their say?
Fans interested in learning the answer to that question can come out to Ravenna during the first weekend in June to see for themselves…
