MAAC Golfers to Compete for the 26th McLeod Memorial Award
MAAC Sports
Lake Buena Vista, FL - Golfers from the Metro Atlantic Athletic
Conference will compete for the McLeod Memorial Award at the 2011 MAAC
Men's and Women's Golf Championships at Disney's Magnolia Golf Course in Lake Buena Vista, FL. This marks the 26th anniversary of the award, dating
back to when the MAAC Championship was held at Pelham Country Club.
The
men's and women's individual champions will each receive McLeod
Memorial Award trays engraved by JJ Mele of Pelham who has prepared
every award offered by the program. Both of the 2011 Champions will
have their names inscribed on the permanent McLeod Memorial Award Tray.
The
Charles "Scott" McLeod Award has been presented annually since 1986 to
the men's and women's individual winners of the MAAC Championship. The
award has been presented in memory of a graduate of Pelham Memorial
High School '75 and Iona College '80, who passed away in 1985. Scott
McLeod was an enthusiastic golfer, a member of the Pelham Country Club,
and a sponsor of the MAAC Golf Championship when the event was first
held at Pelham. In addition to presenting the annual award, the McLeod
Award Association supports interest in collegiate golf and highlights
the history of golf in Pelham.
The Committee has a tradition of
honoring golfers who have made a special contribution to the history of
golf in Pelham, N.Y. or at Iona College by adding their names to a
"Special Award Section" on the perimeter of the permanent McLeod
Memorial Award Tray.
In 2007, the program honored K. Peter
Maneri, a long time supporter of the McLeod Memorial Award and Gael
Athletics. He was a trustee of Iona College, a broadcaster of Iona
basketball, and an avid golfer. The Committee also remembered Jack and
Alma Rennau, two lifelong Pelham golf enthusiasts and friends of the
program
In 2005-06, Princeton golf team member Lt. Maurice K.
Collette, who died at the Battle of the Bulge in France, and Edmund B.
Overton, club champion ('41) and holder of the course record, who died
in an aircraft training accident in Texas, were honored.
In
2001, Jim Barnes, known as "Long Jim," was the Pelham Country Club host
pro when the club was the site of the 1923 PGA Championship, and was
the winner of both the 1921 US Open at Columbia CC outside of
Washington DC and the 1925 British Open at Prestwick.
In
1999 three special golfers with ties to Pelham and MAAC member Iona
were remembered by having their names added to the Memorial Section of
the permanent McLeod Memorial Award Tray. Pat DiJulio, gifted 1970s -
1980s Iona College Basketball broadcaster; Louis Leahy, avid golfer at
Pelham CC and WWII veteran; and the legendary Gene Sarazen winner of
the 1923 PGA Championship in the famous match over Walter Hagen at
Pelham CC.
In 1998 the special memorial tradition was begun
when Scott's father, C. Anderson McLeod and his father in law, Walter
Spath, both avid golfers, were memorialized in this way.