Randolph, Komline, Stamberger Play Well For N.J. In State Team Championship

Trevor Randolph of Arcola, Brian Komline of Black Oak, and Mike Stamberger of Spring Lake represented Team New Jersey well at the U.S. Men’s State Team Championship, which concluded Friday, Sept. 30, at Country Club of Birmingham (West Course) in Birmingham, Ala.

US STATE TEAM SCORING INDIVIDUAL SCORING

The trio played well over the first two days, helping New Jersey to 14th place, and able to make the cut of the top 21 teams and ties among the 52 teams represented. After Friday's third and final round, Team New Jersey was at plus-12 for the event in 15th place.

The top two scores of each round counted to the team total. Stamberger's 68 in Round 2 tied for the lowest of all the golfers in the championship that day. His rounds were 74-68-76-218. Randolph's scores: 73-78-72-233; Komline's scores: 79-75-76-230.

Randolph, a resident of Franklin Lakes, Komline, of Bridgewater, and Stamberger, of Brielle, have been considered top amateurs in the state with multiple championships among them.The team is selected by the New Jersey State Golf Association. NJSGA executive director Kevin Purcell will accompany the team and serve as non-playing captain.

Collegiate players are ineligible for the event.

All three were semifinalists in this year’s NJSGA Mid-Amateur Champinship at Spring Lake, with Randolph defeating Komline in the final, winning the Mid-Am for the third time in four years.

This year has arguably been Randolph’s best. Besides winning the State Mid-Amateur, he has also won the Hochster Invitational and Travis Invitational. He has also qualified for the U.S. Mid-Amateur and reached match-play. Also, he tied for fourth at the Met Ike Championship. He was T-13 at both the State Amateur and State Open.

Last summer, besides winning the Met Mid-Am, Randolph also captured the Bergen County Amateur and was runner-up in the New York City Amateur and the Arcola Cup. He also reached sectional qualifying for U.S. Open and finished sixth at the U.S. Four-Ball Championship with Keith Unikel of Potomac, Md. He has twice played in the U.S. Amateur (1992, 1997) and the U.S. Mid-Amateur in 2012. He has won the club championship at Congressional six of the past seven years.

Komline, 42, is the only man in NJSGA history to win five different state championships. He won the State Open twice (2007 and 2005), the State Amateur (2010), State Mid-Amateur (2012) and State Public Links (2008) and Four-Ball Championships (2008 with Niall Handley),

In 2016, he was tied for third in the State Amateur and reached the round of 16 in the Met Amateur.

In 2015, Komline won the Boff Invitational and the Hochster Invitational, was third in the Eagle Oaks Invitational and fourth in the Arcola Cup. He has also won the Met Public Links (2010).

Stamberger this year won the Eagle Oaks Invitational, was semifinalist at the State Mid-Amateur, and a quarterfinalist at the Met Amateur. He was 10th in the State Open and 16th in the State Amateur

In 2015, he was runner-up in the Met Mid-Amateur, tied for third at the State Open, and tied for eighth at the New York City Amateur.

Stamberger’s championships include the State Amateur in 2013 and 2014, the State Mid-Amateur in 2008 and the Met Amateur in 2003. He is also a two-time champion of the New York City Amateur (2006 and 2003).

All 50 states and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico may enter teams of three players. Eighteen holes of stroke play are scheduled for September 28-30, with the two lowest of the three individual scores counting as the team’s score for each day’s round. The team with the lowest aggregate score through 54 holes will win the title.

The Men’s and Women’s Championships were held the same year through 2009, but since 2010, the men’s competition has been held in even-numbered years.New Jersey won the women's competition in 2013.

The competition grew out of the United States Golf Association’s centennial anniversary in 1995. USGA officials believed that a new championship, one in which each state could be represented by amateur, non-college golfers, was an appropriate way to cap the USGA’s year-long birthday celebration. The competition proved to be such a success that the Association decided to continue conducting the championship biennially.

The format was fashioned after the biennial World Amateur Team Championship, which involves three-person teams in a 3-count-2 stroke-play format. State associations were given a variety of options in which to select its team members.

In 2009, the USGA decided to hold the Men’s State Team and Women’s State Team competitions at separate sites, and beginning in 2010, the schedule was changed to have the competitions alternate years, with the Men’s State Team Championship conducted in even years and the Women’s State Team in odd years.