A strong international presence will be felt throughout the week at the 80th Monroe Invitational. Learn more about some of the top talent coming to Rochester in the second  “Get to Know the Field” preview!

Three cheers for top amateur talent

The Rochester community is highly encouraged to come out to enjoy some of the top amateur golfers in the world. The event is FREE, patrons are just asked to be cognizant and respectful of the players while attending.

Get to know him – Louis Dobbelaar 

Louis Dobbelaar (Brookwater, Australia) headlines the Monroe Invitational field, ranking 13th in the World Amateur rankings according to the most recent poll from scratchplayers.org. The 19-year old has been on a tear in 2021, winning the last three amateur tournaments he has competed in. His most recent win came at the the North & South Amateur Championship which is the longest consecutively run amateur tournament in the United States and includes past winners of Jack Nicklaus and Curtis Strange.

Prior to that, Dobbelarr blew away the field at the Dogwood Invitational in Atlanta, Georgia, carding an 18-under (270) for the tournament. His other time out in early February he took home the Australian Men’s Amateur Championship.

The phenom will be joined by two other Team Australia mates this week in Aiden Didone and Andre Lautee.

Oh Canada

Our neighbors to the North are sending seven of their eight national amateur squad members to the Monroe Invitational, including Brendan MacDougall who recently made it to the finals of the USGA fourball event with his University of Nevada teammate Sam Meek.

Etienne Papineua (St.Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Qué) returns to the Monroe after finishing in a tie for 14th place back in 2019. He is joined by three Ontario natives, including past player Johnny Travale (Hamilton, Ont.), Matthew Anderson (Mississauga, Ont.) and Noah Steele (Kingston, Ont.). Team Canada is rounded out by Cougar Collins (Cledon, Ont.) and Laurent Desmarchais (Longueuil, Qué).

Keep your eyes out for the young buck

Owen Corby, one of the top juniors in the Rochester area, will be teeing it up this week.  The 15-year old plays for Pittsford Sutherland and will graduate in 2023. A strong golf pedigree runs in the family with Corby’s maternal grandfather, Byron Morgan, winning The Monroe in 1968. In addition, Corby’s family owns the ever-popular The Pittsford Dairy.

Seven Mid-Am golfers take the field

To be considered a Mid-Amateur or Mid-Am, a player must be at least 25 years old when the competition starts and that competitor must have a USGA handicap index of 3.4 or lower. The competitors are Herbie Aikens (Kingston, MA), Kyle Downey (Rochester, NY), David Hanes (Elma, NY), Colby Harwell (Sant Antonio, TX), Matt Parziale (Brockton, MA), Ryan Terry (Nashville, TN) and Scott Turner (Stuart, FL).

Home club advantage

In addition to Owen Corby, Geoff Fountain and RJ DeMonte are Monroe Golf Club members that will compete in the Invitational.