Yesterday I had the pleasure of covering the Stoddard Trophy Matches at Fresh Meadow Country Club in Lake Success (great name!), Long Island.

For those of you not aware, the competition is a team-format similar to the Ryder Cup. Except there are three teams and there isn’t one team that seems to win every year…

The three teams are the Westchester Golf Association (WGA), New Jersey State Golf Association (NJSGA) and Long Island Golf Association (LIGA). The WGA’s team was very strong this year, with plenty of college-aged talents and not surprisingly, it cruised to a win over the other two teams.

Max Buckley (Westchester Hills), Andrew Giuliani (Trump National) and Jim Graham (Winged Foot) led the way with four points each. Michael Quagliano (GlenArbor) and Joe Sommers (Winged Foot) were among those chipping in with three points.

Rockland residents Pat Pierson (Minisceongo) and Chris Scialo (Dellwood) added two points apiece.

For Buckley, the 2007 Journal News High School Player of the Year, he will be off to SMU next week to begin his freshman year after a year of attending a junior golf academy in South Carolina. The hard work certainly seems to have paid off as he had a strong summer, highlighted by a win at the Westchester Amateur, and he should have a smooth transition into contributing for the Mustangs.

While many of the younger players will be returning to school as well, Pierson will be going on his own trip next week down to Pinehurst, N.C., for the U.S. Amateur. He will be joined by another area golfer, Joe Ervasti of Sleepy Hollow, in the event as well.

As for professional golf, I still can’t believe Sergio Garcia couldn’t pull out his first major title at the PGA Championship. It’s tough to beat Padraig Harrington though, who apparently in the absence of Tiger Woods has become, well, Tiger Woods.

His incredible clutch putting down the stretch along with the great ball striking of Garcia and the solid play of Ben Curtis made this a much more exciting event than I could have ever imagined.

Good for Harrington for using the Tigerless period to elevate himself into Hall-of-Fame status. Meanwhile, Sergio will just have to keep trying as despite playing terrificly, he wasn’t able to turn this year’s “glory’s last shot” into his first major glory.