LEWISTON — Last year, the Porter Cup went into uncharted territory by having the men’s and women’s divisions run simultaneously for the first time. Building on the success of 2023 — and with a slight change to the schedule — the number of golfers has grown for next week’s tournament.
The 65th edition of the Porter Cup is scheduled to take place from July 17-20 at the Niagara Falls Country Club, with the committee hoping the momentum from last year will carry over.
“We really put a lot of effort into recruiting this year,” Marty Shimmel, Porter Cup assistant tournament director and media chairman, said. “We have a really good field. We’re excited about the field that we have and we’ve got some really top-notch women and men coming in.”
In the first year of the merging, the Porter Cup saw 65 compete in the men’s field and 28 in the women’s field. But, this year, the field has expanded to 116 total golfers — 80 men and 36 women — with familiar faces in both divisions, including the reigning champions in Juan Martín Loureiro and Sarah Gallagher.
The 21-year-old Loureiro returns after he shot an 11-under-par 269 to become the first Argentinian to win the men’s division last year. The 20-year-old Gallagher finished her sophomore season at Ball State and looks to go back-to-back in the women’s division after she finished at 8-over-288 to become the fourth Canadian to win since 2013.
But heading back to Lewiston, Loureiro and Gallagher will have tough competition ahead. This year, nine different countries are represented in the men’s division and four different countries are represented in the women’s division.
Six of last year’s top-10 finishers return on the men’s side, including Loureiro. Scarsdale native and UC Berkeley soon-to-be junior Charlie Berridge returns after finishing two strokes behind for a runner-up finish.
University of South Florida soon-to-be senior and India’s Shubham Jaglan and Sarasota, Florida’s and soon-to-be Rutgers senior Noah Kumar both returning after finishing tied for fourth. And, after finishing tied for seventh last year, John Daly II, the son of former PGA champion, John Sr., also returns to Lewiston following his redshirt junior season at Arkansas.
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior Garrett Engle returns for a third year and was the runner-up at the Porter Cup two years ago. South Africa’s Christopher Bagnall and Pennsylvania natives Rocco Salvitti and Calen Sanderson are all competing after helping Notre Dame win its first national championship since 1966.
Other newcomers include Auburn commit and Arizona’s No. 1 ranked high school golfer Tyler Spielman and soon-to-be Clemson freshman Jacob Immelman, the son of CBS Sports’ lead commentator, Trevor, who are both competing. Great Falls, Virginia’s Nikita Gubenko enters the field after shooting a 1-under 69 to win the Porter Cup men’s qualifier in June.
On the women’s side, four of the top finishers return, including Gallagher. Burlington, Ontario native and soon-to-be Michigan State sophomore Ella Weber and 16-year-old Amelie Phung of Forest Hills both return after finishing in a three-way tie for second last year.
Ottawa, Ontario resident and Georgia Southern Haley Yerxa also returns after placing tied for fifth last year. After finishing as the runner-up in the women’s division three years ago, Toronto native and Southern Methodist graduate Ashley Chow heads back to the tournament.
Newcomers in the women’s division include Ava LaBelle. The 20-year-old from Webster and soon-to-be Florida Southern sophomore earned her spot after shooting a 4-over-74 in the women’s qualifier.
The women’s division also features three competitors from the Southeastern Conference. Ontario’s Nicole Gal (Mississippi), Venezuela’s Vanessa Gilly (Tennessee) and Arizona’s Kendall Todd (Arkansas) are all entering the field.
The result of the expanded divisions came from moving the tournament’s start date five days later, after starting on July 12 last year. This was in the hope of lining up with the 83rd Monroe Invitational for the men on July 24-27 in Rochester, while also trying to work around the existing women’s tournaments.
The result of the expanded division for both fields came following the Porter Cup’s heavy recruiting cycle, which began in January, as the number of competing tournaments increases each year. Along with word of mouth and some of the first golfers to sign up being past competitors, the committee began directly contacting potential competitors through Instagram and other social media and other modes of communication as their college season progressed.
“We were a little more intense with it,” Shimmel said. “We would send out initial emails with follow-up calls and then follow-up emails to the individuals, kind of following tournaments, their college career, congratulating them on a nice showing in the most recent tournament and I think they liked the personal touch a little bit.”
With its largest field in tournament history, changes to the course and the schedule are put in place for this year. With tee times, a split tee will take place on the first and 10th holes from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. and then again from noon to 1:30 p.m. to provide more exposure for all the golfers.
Similar to last year, the third and final rounds will feature alternative pairings of the men’s and women’s leaders. The pairings will be based on the scores following the second round.
And while nothing is set in stone at the moment, discussions to change up the course set-up have been ongoing since the committee’s last meeting in June to increase the pace of play. This could include moving up some of the tees on the par-3 holes and potentially adjusting the yardage.
“We want to make sure that there’s some excitement out there and the fans are seeing a lot of birdies and the players are having fun,” Porter Cup executive committee member Michael Boss said. “Because the players have more fun when they make birdies too. … We just want to make sure that it’s going to be fun, a little different and a lot of birdies.”
Other competing amateur golfers include Texas’ Lucky Cruz and England’s Rosin Scanlon, in the men’s and women’s divisions, respectively, from Steph Curry’s Underrated tour; Niagara soon-to-be sophomore Benjamin Hebert; Tonawanda resident and Canisius senior Ryan Edholm; Grand Island’s Nicholas Morreale and Clarence resident and Indiana soon-to-be sophomore Rosie DiNunzio.