Mahopac’s Marisa Kamelgarn made it through stroke-play at the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at the Hartford Golf Club in West Hartford, Conn., before falling to Victoria Tanco of Argentina 3 and 2 in the first round of match-play.

Kamelgarn fired rounds of 77 and 72 to finish in a tie for 39th through the first two rounds and be one of the 64 players that reached the match-play portion.

On the boys side at Shoal Creek Golf Club in Birmingham, Ala., two local boys, Brewster’s Mike Miller and Bronxville’s John Torell, didn’t fare as well, as neither made the cut to match-play. Still, just being in the prestigious field of 156 in the country and beyond (the medalist, Jorge Fernandez Valdes is from Argentina) is quite an accomplishment.

And both will have more chances since they will only be entering their junior years this fall…

Currently, reigning New York State high school champion Dominic Bozzelli of Pittsford, N.Y., is in the semifinals. So, there’s definitely a little state pride for junior golf, which not surprisingly, is usually dominated by other, warmer areas of the country.

We all know where the No. 1 golfer in the FedExCup standings wasn’t this past weekend. No. 2? He wasn’t at Royal Birkdale either.

Kenny Perry made the British Open his second straight major championship that he didn’t play in. He also didn’t play in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, saying he seldom played well there.

Maybe Alex Rodriguez will just stay home when the Yankees go to Boston this weekend.

Sure, golf is a sport where the players ultimately determine their schedules. But the four majors, if you are fortunate enough to qualify for them, are usually the events set in stone.

But I guess those aren’t important to Kenny Perry anymore. After all, he’s won a grand total of zero in his career.

I commend his enthusiasm for making the Ryder Cup (that’s his main reasoning for the way he’s set up his schedule), which will be held in his home state of Kentucky in the fall, but with three wins already this year, the whole playing in places where you’ve had success excuse is getting pretty old. Perry is No. 3 on the list and is a virtual lock to make the team.

Also, playing in the British Open could have just as easily have added to his standing. It’s not like you lose points if you play poorly in events and no one is playing better golf than he is right now. But instead, Perry honored a prior commitment by playing in the prestigious U.S. Bank Championship where he’s had a lot of success in the past (No wonder, when the best players are across the pond).

He enjoyed some more this weekend thanks to with a final round 64 that vaulted him into a 6th place tie and earned him $125,000. For his efforts, Perry remained at No. 3 in the Ryder Cup standings and No. 2 in the FedExCup chase. But with No. 1 sidelined with a bad knee, he certainly missed out on a glorious opportunity to really cash in.

I won’t lie: I was rooting for the guy.

There aren’t many people who can be insanely wealthy, possess world-class talent and have Chris Evert on their arm and still come across as a sympathetic character.  Greg Norman is that guy.

One of my first epiphanies that golf produces drama like no other sport came watching Norman’s classic meltdown in the ‘96 Masters. I was a senior in college. It was the first warm day after another brutal New Hampshire winter, but we were all glued to the TV watching Norman and Faldo.

Until, that is, we couldn’t watch anymore. It was too painful to witness, too sad a display of heartbreak. One of my favorite pieces of sports writing is Rick Reilly’s account of that Sunday at the Masters in Sports Illustrated.

Three years later, Norman was at it again, with a chance to knock off Jose Maria Olazabal in the ‘99 Masters until he airmailed the green on the par 3 12th and wound up in the azaleas. I swore right then I would never get my hopes up watching Norman try to win another major.

Today I broke my own promise.

Anthony Aloi of Plainsboro, N.J., captured the MGA’s 2008 Met Junior Championship at Rockaway River Country Club in Denville, N.J. On the final day, Aloi, who will play at Furman University in the fall, defeated both tournament favorite Cameron Wilson (Norwalk) and Dillon Corbo (Montville, N.J.) in the championship match. Amazingly, both matches went extra holes.

As for the local players, it was a so-so week. Rye’s Sam Weiss led the way by making it to the quarterfinals before losing to Sayville’s Michael Furci, 2 and 1. Weiss, who will play at Occidental College next season, hasn’t been playing many competitions this summer, but came in playing the best golf of his life.

He recently tied the course record at Rye Golf Club with an 8-under-par 63 and in this event he stayed sharp. His most impressive performance was a 5 and 3 win over Brewster’s Mike Miller, this past season’s high school golfer of the year for Westchester/Putnam. In that match, Weiss didn’t card anything worse than a par.

Bronxville’s John Torell, who will be a junior at Brunswick Academy next year, made it to the round of 16 before losing to Weiss, 3 and 2. Torell knocked out the Rockland player of the year in New City’s Stephen Scialo (Clarkstown North), 1 up in the second round.

Speaking of Scialo, the Delaware-bound player won Monday’s MGA Met Amateur qualifier at Arcola Country Club in spectacular fashion. Playing in a field of 130 golfers, with the top eight earning spots, Scialo fired a course-record-tying 7-under 65 to win by four shots. He then won his first match on Tuesday 7 and 6 and was leading 4 up through six holes against Torell before losing.

Sounds crazy, but those are the types of things that happen in match-play. To win a 6-round tournament in that format you either have to fire six great scores or get lucky with certain matchups.

Speaking of great scores, we’re certainly not seeing many of those through two rounds at the British Open. And how about Greg Norman and David Duval in the hunt? Their performances should certainly help fill the void left by Tiger’s absence.

Here are the links to the special section of The Journal News, which came out last Friday and recognizes the top athletes in Westchester/Putnam and Rockland counties:

Sorry for the delay. I was away for the weekend and amazingly, didn’t play golf once.

Golf fans will enjoy these two sections since they have a strong golf representation, especially with Marisa Kamelgarn of Mahopac being named the Westchester/Putnam Athlete of the Season.

I believe Ardsley’s Mike Quagliano is the only other area golfer to win the award back in 2004. Congratulations to her as well as to the two boys golfers of the year: Brewster’s Mike Miller (Westchester/Putnam) and Clarkstown North’s Stephen Scialo (Rockland).

Those three along with a bevy of others made this a truly special year in LoHud high school golf.

The key to winning the Ryder Cup is to not have Tiger Woods on your team. I’m kidding…sort of.

But think about it: one of the Americans’ major obstacles has been overcoming their own perceived surplus of talent in comparison to the relatively unimpressive Europeans. This, of course, to paraphrase the Brits, is complete rubbish. The Europeans are not just some second-class band of misfits who are more willing to embrace the intricacies of alternate shot. They are all world-class players, some of whom just happen to be lesser known because they play their golf somewhere other than Orlando, Fla., and Columbus, Ohio.

But back to my point. For all of the Americans’ efforts in building up their opponent before the matches, they could never get past the fact that they had the world’s most dominant player on their side. But now Woods is out for the rest of the year, and yesterday he said he wouldn’t even serve in any sort of ceremonial role (what’d you expect, him to sing the national anthem?) and my bet is it’s only going to help the Americans.

Or so I’m guessing. Who really knows? For all the theories about why the U.S. has faltered so clumsily in the Ryder Cup of late—they don’t like each other, they’re too self-interested, their uniforms have been hideous—it’s really been a matter of not making enough putts. That’s not a very sexy reason. But it’s probably the best place to start.

So here’s my take on the new Pound Ridge Golf Club in today’s paper. The abridged version: I liked it a lot, but my ego and my wallet couldn’t afford to play there on a regular basis.

Which is fine. I doubt a sports writer with a mortgage and two kids is what owner Ken Wang had in mind as a target market when he built the place. And to be fair, when some of my Wall Street buddies have called to ask my opinion, I’ve recommended it (and suggested they bring me along).

The larger problem—and I didn’t broach this topic in the story—is given the current state of the economy, could Wang have picked a worse time to open a high-end golf course?

For years, I’ve been ridiculed by friends for pretty much rooting for Tiger Woods and against the rest of the field in every tournament. That position has had one exception in Wake Forest classmate Bill Haas, who hasn’t exactly been tearing it up on the PGA Tour.

But recently, before Tiger announced his season-ending surgery, I decided to branch out and pick a couple players to root for on a weekly basis. Good thing, since none of us will be seeing Eldrick cloaked in red on a Sunday for a long time.

For one of my picks, I took a sleeper in Andres Romero. The young Argentinian made waves with 10 birdies in the final round of the British Open last year, only to still lose thanks to a couple blowups. I like his gun-slinging mentality though and he has already picked up a win this year on Tour.

My other pick, was a little more trendy. Anthony Kim seemingly is a can’t miss prospect and a dominant win at the Wachovia this year showed that he has blossomed already at the age of 23.

He did it again today. With a 5-under-par 65 in the final round at Congressional Country Club, he captured the AT&T National. Ironically, the player who is being hyped as perhaps the best long-term solution to catching Tiger in the world rankings, racked up his second victory in his last five events at this Tiger-hosted tournament.

Former Garrison resident Johnson Wagner had a pretty good final round. He fired a 2-under 68 to finish in a tie for 27th place.

In Kim, a.k.a. A.K., it looks like I picked a winner (tough one…). Hop on the bandwagon before it gets too crowded.

Greetings all,

I’m back from a golf trip to Kiawah Island in South Carolina and only one word can describe the famed Ocean Course: Unbelievable.

Anyway, before I left, fellow Team Journal News member Josh Thomson and I taped a podcast discussing the possible TJN Athlete of the Season candidates in both Westchester/Putnam and Rockland. No, we didn’t announce who is winning (you’ll have to wait to see the special section of the paper, which will come out July 11), but we do give a thorough rundown of the possibilities and the process behind the selection.

Here’s the link. Enjoy: Download:

Nehansic Valley’s Kevin Foley held off Arcola’s Morgan Hoffman by one shot to win the Ike Championship yesterday at Mountain Ridge Country Club in West Caldwell, N.J. The victory is the first MGA title for Foley, who recently wrapped up an All-American sophomore season at Penn State University.

Mike Dougherty was on the scene while continuing to track the circus that is the Knicks during NBA draft week. Here is his article that ran in today’s paper.

Max Buckley, last year’s Journal News Westchester/Putnam golfer of the year, finished in a tie for sixth place. The Rye product is on an incredible run lately, recently winning the Westchester Amateur Championship as well. He will be playing for SMU next year.

Another former TJN player of the year, Michael Quagliano, shot a 3-under-par 68 in the second round to move up into fourth place.

Speaking of player of the year awards, I’m wrapping up my three stories (Westchester/Putnam boys and girls and Rockland boys) today. Who will win? The suspense will continue to build until the special All-Star section comes out July 11…