2022 NCGA Players of the Year

NCGA Males’s Participant of the 12 months–Garret Wagner

Discovery Bay member Garret Wagner all the time enters every new golf season with focus and dedication to play higher than he did the 12 months earlier than.

In 2022, Wagner took his sport to a complete different degree. The 46-year-old police officer would go on to seize NCGA Males’s Participant of the 12 months honors, ending the 2021-22 season with a complete of 1,503 factors. Marc Engellener was second with 1,378 factors.

“It’s superior to have gained Participant of the 12 months honors, to say the least,” Wagner mentioned. “I performed rather well on the finish of the season and shot up the factors listing.”

In the course of the summer time, Wagner bought his sport in a groove by typically enjoying rounds along with his son, Gavin. Garret is believed to be the oldest Participant of the 12 months since Bob Niger gained the award in 2006 at age 46.

Amongst Wagner’s highlights had been runner-up finishes on the Novice Stroke Play Championship and Valley Novice. He additionally reached the Spherical of 32 on the NCGA Novice and picked up wins on the Antioch Metropolis Championship and Antioch Metropolis Grasp 4-Ball Championship.

“It was a strong season for me,” Wagner mentioned. “I performed nicely on the proper occasions and made it so nobody might catch me.”

NCGA Girls’s Participant of the 12 months–Annika Borrelli

If the 2021-22 season was the novice swan music for Alamo resident Annika Borrelli, she actually departed in type.

Borrelli, a fifth-year senior at Cal-Berkeley who deliberate to show skilled probably as quickly as winter, would earn her third Girls’s Participant of the 12 months award, tallying 875 factors. Her Bears teammate, Cristina Ochoa, was second with 790 factors.

Together with changing into the primary ladies’s participant to win three titles, Borrelli, 22, joined Sabrina Iqbal as the one gamers to win back-to-back honors.

“It means the world to me,” Borrelli mentioned. “My dad (David) and I wrote down objectives for the 12 months, and repeating as Participant of the 12 months was on there. I’m so grateful to characterize the NCGA as nicely. All of it seems like a blessing.”

Borrelli’s massive win got here when she repeated as champion of the California Girls’s Novice. She’d be part of LPGA Tour member Mina Harigae and NCGA Corridor of Famers Patty Sheehan and Lynne Cowan as one among solely seven gamers to go back-to-back within the illustrious occasion. She’d additionally place third on the NCGA Girls’s Novice.

“My dad and I had sport plan going into summer time,” Borrelli mentioned. “Lots of the exhausting work I put in paid off.”

As for her skilled goals, we’re hoping we see her among the many subject when the 2023 U.S. Girls’s Open tees of at Pebble Seashore Golf Hyperlinks in June.

“That will be superior,” Borrelli mentioned.

NCGA Senior Males’s Participant of the 12 months–Randy Haag

Olympic Membership member and NCGA Corridor of Famer Randy Haag has skilled fairly a bit in his profession.

In the course of the 2021-22 season, the now 63-year-old could as nicely have thought he was on the Large Dipper.

In what was a rollercoaster journey, Haag opened the season with a long-awaited win on the California Senior Novice, his first State crown. Just a few months later, he’d have 6-inch screws inserted in a nasty left ankle.

“I keep in mind the physician informed me, ‘You might be able to play golf in April. However you in all probability gained’t play very nicely,’” Haag recalled.

By the tip of all of it, Haag would earn his third Senior Participant of the 12 months award, ending the season with 1,665 factors. Tony Ralph was second with 1,140 factors.

Together with successful the 2021 California Senior Novice, Haag bought a victory on the NCGA Senior 4-Ball Championship enjoying with Robert Funk and reached the Spherical of 16 on the NCGA Senior Novice. Nonetheless needing a robust end, Haag would clinch POY honors by inserting third on the season-ending NCGA Senior Championship after a ultimate spherical 69 vaulted him 26 spots up the leaderboard.

“That was one among my greatest rounds all 12 months,” Haag mentioned. “It’s very thrilling to once more be Participant of the 12 months. You by no means know the way it’s going to really feel till you really do it. It nonetheless actually issues to me. But it surely’s additionally about greater than the golf. We additionally love seeing our associates and the camaraderie.”

NCGA Senior Girls’s Participant of the 12 months–Lynne Cowan

As an NCGA Corridor of Famer, Rocklin resident Lynne Cowan already has a ton of profession highlights.

In the course of the 2021-22 season, nonetheless, Cowan did one thing even she had by no means carried out earlier than. The 60-year-old would earn medalist honors on the U.S. Senior Girls’s Novice in Alaska.

“It was fairly superior,” Cowan mentioned.

That is also the way in which to explain Cowan’s season. The Sierra View CC member would go on to say her report fifth Senior Girls’s Participant of the 12 months award with 1,620 factors. Lara Tennant was second with 1,535 factors.

Cowan’s earlier Participant of the 12 months awards got here in 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2021.

“I’m fairly amazed by it,” Cowan mentioned. “Particularly with the caliber of participant that we now have.”

Alongside along with her stellar play in Alaska, Cowan additionally gained the NCGA Senior Girls’s Novice and completed third in two WGANC Legacy occasions. The cherry on prime was a hole-in-one in September, her first in 37 years.

“I benefit from the competitors and the problem of placing all of the items collectively, together with my physique, to hit fairways and greens and make birdies,” mentioned Cowan, who has lengthy suffered from axial spondyloarthritis, a type of arthritis within the backbone.

 There to assist her alongside too has been her husband and part-time caddie, Carl.

“Golf is nice for my physique. The stretching helps maintain me free,” Cowan mentioned. “And Carl all the time is pushing me. He’s my coach.”

NCGA Tremendous Senior Participant of the 12 months–Jim Knoll

A few month and a half earlier than the tip of the 2021-22 season, Rooster Run member Jim Knoll was requested by one among his (Northern California PGA) skilled associates if he can be enjoying within the annual Cup Matches.

Replied Knoll on the time, referring to the occasion that pits one of the best of the NCGA versus one of the best of the NCPGA, ‘You realize, I’m undecided.’

Having not missed a Cup occasion in over twenty years, Knoll, 70, made it a aim to make the NCGA workforce. Turned out, his play would earn him Tremendous Senior Participant of the 12 months honors.

A report five-time Senior Participant of the 12 months winner, Knoll, a printing salesman, would go on a late-season tear to win the Tremendous Senior title with a complete of 1,442 factors. Two-time defending champion Jeff Burda was second with 1,335 factors.

“I sort of snuck in there,” Knoll mentioned. “I had a late rally, enjoying nicely on the finish of the season.”

From August to the tip of the season (Sept. 30), Knoll had two wins, two runner-up finishes and two third place finishes. His greatest factors got here from a second place end on the 2021 NCGA Senior Valley Novice and attain the semifinals of the Tremendous Senior Match Play Championship. He additionally positioned third on the 2022 Senior Valley Novice.

“It’s good. It nonetheless means loads to be a Participant of the 12 months,” Knoll mentioned. “Final 12 months I didn’t play so nicely. But it surely’s not nearly successful. We play for the friendships and camaraderie.”