MET Open: Amateur Mark Costanza comes up just short, finishes runner-up
Mark Costanza (Metropolitan Golf Association Photo)
Mark Costanza of Morristown, N.J., finished in solo second place at the 108th Metropolitan Golf Association Open Championship and was the low amateur.
Costanza shot 2-under overall and 2-under 69 in the final round to jump up the leaderboard into second place.
Dylan Newman won the tournament at 4-under, even though he shot a 2-over 73 in the final round.
Newman started the day with a two-shot lead, but a pair of early bogeys on Nos. 2 and 7 and movement from other players led to a crowded leaderboard with nine holes to go. Mark Costanza of Baltusrol and 2022 champion Ryan Siegler of TPC Jasna Polana both made an eagle on the par-5 ninth.
The jump pulled Costanza within a single shot while Siegler found himself tied with Newman at 4-under after adding a birdie on the par-4 10th. However, Costanza then made double-bogey five on the par-3 11th, while Siegler played his final eight holes in 4-over.
Newman made birdie on the ninth himself as he made the turn. Though he made a bogey on 10, he bounced back with birdies on Nos. 11 and 13 to quickly extend his lead to four shots as others fell back.
"I had a feeling they would move the tees up on 13," Newman told the MGA. "I wasn't going for that. I hit the same shot in the pro-am from the fairway. I let [the ball] feed down to the right, and it was perfect."
Mark Costanza finished as the low-amateur
Costanza carded a 2-under 69 in the final round -- one of just four sub-par rounds in the final round -- to move up the leaderboard and earn low amateur honors with the second-place finish.
Amateur
Melan Dhaubhadel finished in T3 at 1-under for the tournament.
Dhaubhadel, playing in the final group alongside Newman, started the final round at 4-under, but the Louisiana Monroe senior made three bogeys and no birdies in the final round en route to posting a 3-over par 74.
Dhaubhadel won the Metropolitan Stroke Play Championship in June.
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ABOUT THE MET Open
Open to:
1. Past MGA Open Champions.
2. Male PGA Members in good standing in
the
Metropolitan or New Jersey sections. (A-3
members must have their principle place of
residence in the MGA district.)
3. Male professionals, employed at a golf
facility in the MGA District, who are
enrolled in
the PGA’s GPTP.
4. Male head & assistant professionals
at
MGA Member Clubs.
5. Male professionals who are bonafide
members with full golfing privileges at MGA
Member Clubs, have a residence in the
MGA
District and a current USGA Handicap
Index of
4.0 or less at that member club.
6. Amateur members & applicants for
Amateur
re-instatement at MGA Member Clubs with
a
current USGA Handicap Index at that club
of
4.0 or less.
7. Male amateur golfers, 21 & under, in
the
immediate family of the Head Professional,
Manager, & Superintendent at MGA
Member
Clubs with a current USGA Handicap Index
of
4.0 or less.
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