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Saturday, August 20, 2011

Met Open At Sleepy Hollow

A powerful field of more than 150 golfers will compete in the Met Life Metropolitan Open Championship at Sleepy Hollow Country Club August 23-25. This will be the first Met Open hosted by the Scarborough, NY, club, a major highlight of Sleepy Hollow's centennial year celebration.

Defending champion Bob Rittberger will face challenges from top players like Rob Labritz, winner of the 2011 NY State Open, Andrew Giuliani, 2009 Met Open champion, Kevin Foley, 2011 New Jersey State Open champion, and Frank Bensel, 2011 Connecticut Open champion and a previous Met Open champion. Former champions of the modern era include Darrell Kestner, George Zahringer III, Bobby Heins, Mike Diffley, Johnson Wagner, and Andrew Svoboda. Wagner, who won the Met Open as an amateur in 2001, won the title again in 2002 for his first victory as a professional.

The Met Open was once considered one of golf's "majors" along with the U.S. Open and Western Open. Winners during golf's golden era include Gene Sarazen, Walter Hagen, Tommy Armour, Byron Nelson, Craig Wood, and Claude Harmon.

photo courtesy of Sleepy Hollow CC

Sleepy Hollow Country Club was founded in 1911 by some of the nation's most prominent business leaders at the pinnacle of America's "Gilded Age" including members of the Vanderbilt and Rockefeller families. Charles Blair Macdonald, assisted by Seth Raynor, designed the course, which was later tweaked by A.W. Tillinghast. More recently, Sleepy Hollow Country Club completed a comprehensive restoration bringing back the original designs and concepts of Macdonald. The result is a wonderful classic yet fully up-to-date course world renowned for its 16th hole, with its dramatic green and unparalleled view of the Hudson Valley.

John Cooney, Jr., President of the Sleepy Hollow Country Club, said: "We are honored to have been selected to host the Met Open during our club's centennial year. Competing golfers will enjoy our unique and challenging course that is in keeping with the Met Open standards and tradition."

Over the decades, Sleepy Hollow Country Club has hosted numerous golf tournaments including the Met Amateur Championships in 1944, 1965 and 1983, the Metropolitan Golf Association's 2003 Ike Championship as well as the 1993 French-American Challenge. From 1986 to 1993, Sleepy Hollow hosted the "Legends of Golf" Senior PGA tour event and in 2002 it played host to the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship.

Mr. Cooney added, "The strong fields and world-class venues that characterize the Met Open have made it one of the nation's most sought-after regional titles. Sleepy Hollow County Club is proud to join the Met Open's distinguished list of host sites."

In addition to writing about golf, Dave Donelson distills the experiences of hundreds of entrepreneurs into practical advice for small business owners and managers in the Dynamic Manager's Guides, a series of how-to books about marketing and advertising, sales techniques, hiring, firing, and motivating personnel, financial management, and business strategy.

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