Based upon their play in the recently-concluded golfing season, the BDGA has named the following golfers as PLAYERS OF THE YEAR in their respective divisions for 2009:

               MEN                      RAMAN LUTHRA, CRAG BURN

               WOMEN                KIM KAUL, GOWANDA

               JUNIORS              AUSTIN NOWAK, LANCASTER

               SUB-JUNIORS      ANDREW ROMANO, LANCASTER

LUTHRA totaled 1137on the Adult Men’s Point List primarily from his victory in the BDGA Men’s Individual Championship and tie for third in the BDGA Men’s Match Play Championship.  He backed those up with a finish in the top five of several other scratch invitationals plus the BDGA Mid-Amateur and NYSGA Mid-Amateur events. Second to him was Jake Katz with a 991 total.

KAUL earned a second POY award following her first title in 2005 with a total of 960 points on the Adult Women’s Point List to best runner-up Kathy Hunt who had 750.  Her titles in the WGAWNY Championship and the WBDGA Championship plus a strong third in the BDGA Women’s Championship coupled with a second in the one-day Medal Play event and a ninth at the NYSGA Senior Amateur gave her a solid overall total.

NOWAK parlayed a championship in the BDGA Junior Match Play with a Junior Stroke Play Qualifier fourth place and a tie for sixth in the NYSGA Championship to garner 475 points and nose out Joe Bellavia who finished second with 348 points.

ROMANO won his third Sub-Junior POY by totaling 675 points on the points list with victories in the BDGA Match Play Qualifier and Finals, the Stroke Play Qualifier and Finals, and the NYSGA Boys Qualifier.  He finished 3^rd overall in the NYSGA Boys Championship.  Second went to Hanish Nagrani who had a 425 point total.

All four golfers will receive their awards at the BDGA Annual Meeting this coming April (date TBA).  Point totals were determined from the player's place of finish in the list of events that have been approved by the BDGA.  This is the 9th year the award has been presented (6th year for women)

The BDGA F.C. (Sid) LEONARD TROPHY for the best performance by a club's Junior and Sub-Junior golf team and individuals in the Friday League Interclub competition has been awarded this year to the BRIGHTON PARK GC of the Town of Tonawanda. The award is named after Sid Leonard, a man who contributed to the growth of junior golf and  the BDGA for many years.

     Brighton's Junior team and sub-Junior team each won the Championship of the McMahon Division in the Friday League regular season and then both teams finished second in the Friday League Finals at Crag Burn in mid-August.  Team winners in the Finals were East Aurora (Juniors) and Crag Burn (Sub-Juniors).

     Since the inaugural championship in 1975, Brighton Park has won the trophy an amazing eight times with four of them coming in the last five years.  The program is supervised by Jeff Rainey and Shannon Greco of the Town of Tonawanda Recreation Department along with the assistance of adult volunteer Adrienne Sakavicius.  Defending champion Fox Valley finished off the pace this year with a second place for the Juniors and a  third place for the Sub-Juniors in the O'Connor Division.

     This years there were 33 member clubs sponsoring Junior and/or Sub-Junior teams in this popular interclub competition.  Brighton will retain possession of the FC (Sid) Leonard trophy for the coming year.