Defending champion Jimmy Jones
(Chat Sports Photo)
ST. PETERSBURG, FL (January 5, 2017) -- For the 91st time a new calendar year will begin with the New Year's Invitational (NYI) at St. Petersburg Country Club. The 72-hole event to be contested from from January 5-8 has been played continuously since 1927 with the only change coming in 1956 when the tournament switched from match play to the present day stroke-play format.
Over the years many past and present PGA Tour players have competed in and won the event. In 1928 Johnny Revolta, then a locker room attendant and part-time course ranger at the then Lakewood Country Club, won the tournament before going onto win 18 PGA Tour titles and the 1935 PGA Championship. Bob Goalby won the first stroke-play event in 1956 and then just over a decade later he pulled on the green jacket following his 1968 Masters triumph.
More recent PGA Tour stars of note to win the NYI are J.B. Holmes (2003), Brandt Snedeker (2004) and Jeff Overton (2005).
Overall the NYI can boost 74 PGA Tour victories from its past participants, 20 Web.com Tour wins, five Ryder Cup appearances and two President Cup appearances.
The 2017 field will be led by defending champion and South Florida junior Jimmy Jones. A year ago Jones survived a four-way playoff to emerge with the title. While in the Senior Division, two-time defending champion Dennis Monahan will be back in hopes of making it three straight. In the 54-hole Senior Division Monahan will be challenged by past winners Tom Hyland and Stuart Sierra. Also ready to contend in the Senior Division is Jimmy Jones Sr., the father of Jones and a scratch player.
For Jimmy Jones in the Championship Division the competition will again be fierce. LSU senior Brandon Pierce will be among those leading the charge and he has performed well in the last two NYI's. In 2015 he was the runner-up and last year he finished seventh. Pierce, a member of the 2015 LSU National Championship team has overcome two potentially career ending injuries. First in 2013 he fractured his back when he struck a root hitting a shot and then in a 2015 swimming accident he injured multiple vertebrae. Pierce recently won the David Toms Award for overcoming adversity.
Local mid-amateur star Joe Alfieri is looking to become the oldest winner of the event after missing the 2016 playoff as a 47-year-old by a shot before placing fifth. Alfieri is a four-time Florida Amateur Player of the Year.
Other notable players in the field include Ty Strafaci (Georgia Tech), Stephen Stallings (Kentucky), Hayden Buckley (Missouri), Joo Young Lee (Northern Illinois), Billy Walthouse (Rhode Island), Brian Carlson (Purdue University), Andrew Orischak (Virginia) and Ben Schlottman (Auburn).
The Championship Division comprises of some local high school standouts, namely Blake Dyer (St. Petersburg High School), Greyson Porter (Shorecrest Preparatory School) and Kyle Shealy (Canterbury School).
St. Petersburg Country Club is par-72 track that will play at 6,900 yards from the back tee for the Championship Division and 6,250 yards from the middle tees for the Senior Division.
Each of the four days will feature shotgun starts with Thursday-Saturday beginning at 11:00 a.m. and Sunday's final round teeing off at 9:30 a.m.
ABOUT THE New Year's Invitational
Historic invitational golf tournament that
originated
on the Lakewood golf course in 1927. This
same
amateur invitational tournament -- which
attracts
top Florida amateurs and a strong group of out-of-
state players as well --
continues,
unbroken, each year although the club
name was
later changed to St. Petersburg Country
Club.
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