Mark Costanza (2023)

The Metropolitan Golf Association is pleased to announce Mark Costanza of Baltusrol as the recipient of the 2023 MGA Jerry Courville Sr. Player of the Year Award.

Costanza’s run to earning the award for the third time in four years was highlighted by a spectacular nine-week span which began August 3 with medalist honors in the 121st Met Amateur Championship at Friar’s Head and culminated October 4 with a playoff victory in the 17th MGA Mid-Amateur Championship at Country Club of Fairfield.

Costanza was just inside the top-50 on the season-long points listing entering the Met Amateur, which sparked momentum for the stretch run. Next up the 34-year-old logged a runner-up finish and collected low amateur honors in the 108th Met Open Championship Presented by Callaway at Arcola Country Club, placing the prospect of again winning the award on his radar.

He followed with a match play appearance in the 42nd U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at Sleepy Hollow Country Club and a tie for second in the rain-altered Farrell at The Stanwich Club.

Having barely surpassed Cavaliere in the standings after those finishes, Costanza knew it was going to take a good performance in his season-closing event to earn the honor. He made the most of his last opportunity, holding off 2022 MGA Player of the Year Brad Tilley of Sleepy Hollow in a playoff as he made a pair of birdies to win his fourth career MGA title.

The win secured Costanza the MGA Jerry Courville Sr. Player of the Year Award once again, having closed the year with 1007 points to Cavaliere’s 860. Darin Goldstein of Deepdale (683), Matt Lowe of Bethpage (670), and Tilley (667) rounded out the top five in the year-end standings.

Costanza joins elite company, now standing as one of just four players to have won the award three times.

“Being in the same conversation with guys like George Zahringer, Jerry Courville, Jr., and Jeff Thomas – who are legends in amateur golf in this area – is definitely something I’m damn proud of,” says Costanza. “It wasn’t that long ago that I wasn’t even thinking or planning on playing competitive golf anymore. The fact that only a few years later, having won three out of the last four years, and being in that conversation with those guys, I’m honestly speechless to tell you what that means to me.”