Jackson Saroney Captures SDGA District Match Play Title

Jackson Saroney continued a stellar summer season with his first Syracuse District victory on Sunday. 

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After a runner-up finish at the NYS Boys’ 18U Junior Amateur and seventh-place finish at the 102nd NYS Men’s Amateur championships in July, Saroney finally broke through with a 1-up victory over John Gruninger in the championship match of the 2025 SDGA District Match Play Championship at Drumlins CC.  

This victory comes one year after Saroney won the SDGA Junior District Match Play Championship, which helped him garner 2024 SDGA Junior Player of the Year honors. His championship match on Sunday against Gruninger marked the second match of the day for Saroney, coming off a semifinal victory over Anthony Maglisco, and his only match across five in four days that required a full 18 holes. 

Saroney trailed in the championship match for just one hole, when Gruninger rolled in a birdie on the par-5 first to take an early lead. Saroney wasted no time evening the match with a birdie on the second, then won the next two holes with birdies to grab a two-up advantage through four holes.

The two traded pars on five, bogeys on six and pars on seven before Saroney would give one back with a bogey on the par-3 eighth. After each settling for par on the short par-4 ninth, Saroney entered the back-nine with a 1-up lead. He shot one-under on the front-nine, going out in 35 with three birdies and two bogeys. 

Gruninger bogeyed the tenth, giving Saroney his two-hole cushion back. After each parring the eleventh, Gruninger would convert his first birdie since the first hole on the par-3 twelfth to bring his deficit back down to one hole. 

Both Saroney and Gruninger birdied the next hole, a par-five, to keep the match at one-up in favor of Saroney. Gruninger's bogey on the par-4 fourteenth would bring Saroney’s lead back to two holes with four to play.

The two traded pars on the fifteenth and sixteenth. Looking to extend the match to the eighteenth hole, Gruninger stuck his approach on the par-4 seventeenth to five feet for a birdie opportunity. After Saroney failed to convert his putt for par, he conceded the hole as the match carried on to the eighteenth with Saroney leading by one hole.

Gruninger reached the green in regulation on the 375-yard par-4, leaving himself approximately 20 feet for birdie. Saroney landed just short of the green, though executed a chip that left him within five feet of the cup for par.

Gruninger three-putted for bogey, while Saroney failed to convert his par putt, also settling for bogey to halve the hole and officially crown Saroney as champion. 

Gruninger was the only player across the 32-person field to take Saroney the distance. Saroney’s largest margins of victory (5 & 3, 4 & 3) came in the quarterfinal and Round of 32 matches. He defeated David Ahn, 2 & 1, in the Round of 16 before taking down the one-seed, Maglisco, 2 & 1, in the semifinals to reach the Sunday afternoon showdown with Gruninger. 

Gruninger also dominated his way to the championship match, winning his Round of 32 match, 4 & 3; his Round of 16 match, 5 & 4; his quarterfinal match, 3 & 2; and his semifinal match 1-up.