Monroe Golf Club is a Donald Ross-designed course in

Pittsford, New York Pittsford is a town in Monroe County, New York. A suburb of Rochester, its population was 30,617 at the time of the 2020 census. The Town of Pittsford (formerly part of the town of Northfield) was settled in 1789 and incorporated in 1796. The ...

, a suburb southeast of

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

. Opened for play in 1924, it is home to the annual

Monroe Invitational The Monroe Invitational Championship is an annual amateur golf tournament in the United States, played since 1937 at Monroe Golf Club in Pittsford, New York, a suburb southeast of Rochester. Originally a match play event, it switched to 72-hole str ...

Championship, a highly regarded

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

event first played in 1937. Monroe Golf Club was ranked #96 in ''

Golfweek ''Golfweek'' is a golf magazine and digital media outlet based in Orlando, Florida, United States. It is part of Gannett's USA Today Network. History and profile The magazine was founded in 1975 by Charley Stine and was originally named ''Florida ...

s 2011 top 100 best classic courses. Nearby to the northwest is the well-known Oak Hill Country Club, also designed by Ross.

Monroe Invitational

In the semi-finals of the 53rd Monroe Invitational Championship in 1993, 17-year-old

Tiger Woods Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records. * * * Woods is widely regarded as ...

hit a miraculous low, rising cut four iron that sliced some under, around, and over the maples left of the fairway. The ball traveled to just from the hole. Tom Creavy made 3, Woods a 4, and Creavy went on to win 3&2. Woods was one up after ten, but the 22-year-old Creavy won four of the next five holes, and halved the 16th to end the match. It was Woods' only loss in

match play Match play is a scoring system for golf in which a player, or team, earns a point for each hole in which they have bested their opponents; as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 h ...

over a five-year period that began with three consecutive U.S. Junior Amateurs (1991–93) and ended with three consecutive

U.S. Amateur The United States Amateur Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Amateur, is the leading annual golf tournament in the United States for amateur golfers. It is organized by the United States Golf Association and is currently held each August ov ...

s (1994–96). Creavy won the final match the next day for the MIC title and later became a leading instructor, with

Se-Ri Pak Pak Se-ri or Se-ri Pak ( ko, 박세리, ; born 28 September 1977) is a South Korean former professional golfer who played on the LPGA Tour from 1998 to 2016. She was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2007. Career overview Born in ...

among his students. His great uncle, also named

Tom Creavy Thomas Daniel Creavy (February 3, 1911 – March 3, 1979) was an American professional golfer, the winner of the PGA Championship in 1931. Born in Tuckahoe, New York, Creavy learned the game as a caddie at Siwanoy Country Club, and was the clu ...

, won the

PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. It is one of the four men's major championships ...

1931 Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

, defeating

Gene Sarazen Gene Sarazen (; born Eugenio Saraceni, February 27, 1902 – May 13, 1999) was an American professional golfer, one of the world's top players in the 1920s and 1930s, and the winner of seven major championships. He is one of five players (along ...

in the match play final. Originally a match play event, the MIC switched to 72-hole

stroke play Stroke play, also known as medal play, is a scoring system in the sport of golf in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 holes. In stroke play, the winner is the player who has taken the fewest strokes over the ...

in 1998.

LPGA Championship

In August 2014, the course hosted the

Wegmans LPGA Championship The Women's PGA Championship (branded as the KPMG Women's PGA Championship for sponsorship reasons) is a women's professional golf tournament. First held in 1955, it is one of five majors on the LPGA Tour. It is not recognized as a major by the ...

, a

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

on the

LPGA Tour The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at the LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekl ...

., with a change in date and location from

Locust Hill Country Club Locust Hill Country Club is a championship golf club located in the Towns of Henrietta and Pittsford, New York, suburbs six miles (10 km) southeast of downtown Rochester. Golf course The club was founded in 1925 as a nine-hole golf course on ...

which held the tournament in June in the previous four years. However it would only host the Championship for one year, due to the

PGA of America The Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA of America) is an American organization of golf professionals that was founded in 1916. Consisting of nearly 29,000 men and women members, the PGA of America's undertaking is to establish ...

taking over as the organizer starting 2015 and moving the venue to different locations year to year.

References

External links

*{{official website, http://www.monroegolfclub.com/
Monroe Invitational Championship
– official site Golf clubs and courses in New York (state) Golf clubs and courses designed by Donald Ross Sports venues in Monroe County, New York 1924 establishments in New York (state)