Written By Mike Cooney, Golf Director

Golden Ocala Golf & Equestrian Club will host the FSGA and the 98^th Florida Men’s Amateur Championship June 25-28^th to crown the state’s top amateur golfer. This is the first time the event, featuring a field of 168 players, has been held at Golden Ocala.

A portion of the field will alternate play during the first two days of the tournament at nearby Ocala National Golf Club. Once the field is cut to 70 players after Friday’s round, the last two days of the tournament will be exclusively at Golden Ocala.

We’ve spent the last five months getting ready for the event on the heels of the LPGA Coates Golf Championship presented by R+L Carriers in January 2015. This is the amateurs biggest event and the largest men’s event we’ve had here.

Hole 15 at Golden Ocala.

The amateur players qualified for the event range in age to mid-teens to late 50s. The amateur championship also counts for the World Amateur Golf Ranking.

Gabriel Lench won the 2014 Florida State Amateur Championship.

A few local area players will tee off including Brent Dorman, Joel Durrance, Matthew Giovannelli, Kelly Grosse, Jay King, and Daniel Owen, all from Ocala along with Patrick Mallory of Summerfield.

Many of the players began playing practice rounds on the course last week ahead of the tournament tee off at 8 a.m. on Thursday, June 25. Other players will get in practice rounds on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

The Golden Ocala golf course will be closed on June 25-27 and will reopen after 1 p.m. on Sunday, June 28^th unless there is a weather delay. Members will still have tee time availability on June 23^rd and June 24^th.

Spectators are invited to come out to cheer on their favorite player or just enjoy the great field of amateurs in the tournament. Players will tee off from Hole 1 and Hole 10 during the tournament.

Hole 12 at Golden Ocala

This is a great time to witness some of the best men’s golf in the state here at the beautiful Golden Ocala Golf & Equestrian Club featuring several holes patterned after famous ones at St. Andrews, Augusta National, Royal Troon and Balusrol. Learn more about the golf course through our blog and connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.