News Release

For Immediate Release: June 18, 2008

Headline: James Renner Captures 2008 State Open Championship Title by Four Strokes

Stockbridge, MA – Seven years ago, a young Jim Renner(Plainville, MA) surprised the local golf world by finishing second at the 2001 Massachusetts Amateur Championship. A relatively unknown high school player at the time, Renner has since blossomed into a dangerously good professional who can now finally call himself an MGA Champion.

Renner, the 24 year old from Plainville, posted a three-day score of 6-under par 204 to capture the 2008 Massachusetts Open Championship which was held this week at Stockbridge Golf Club. Renner capped off his impressive title run with a sizzling 5-under par 65 on Wednesday during the final round of play. He edged long-time professional and 1991 champion of this event, John Elliott (Bristol, CT) by four strokes.

As a result of his dominating play, Renner takes home a winner's check of $15,000 and has earned the right to have his name etched on the Clarence G. Cochrane Memorial Trophy. He joins an impressive list of past champions that includes Walter Hagen, Jesse Guilford, Francis Ouimet, Gene Sarazen, Paul Harney, Dana Quigley and Geoff Sisk.

It did not take Renner, the 2005 New England Amateur Champion and former NAIA national player of the year at Johnson & Wales-Miami, very long to pull away from the field. After entering the final round in a two-way tie for the lead with Shawn Warren (Falmouth, ME), Renner exploded out of the gates by making three birdies – on the 1st, 4th and 5th holes – to make the turn at 3-under par 33.

While Warren fell victim to the challenging Stockbridge layout that featured some punishing rough, it was Elliott who made an early charge at the lead by equaling Renner's feat of three birdies on the front nine. The wheels fell off the bus on the back nine, however, as Elliott made a costly triple bogey on the 405-yard, par 4 12th hole. While Elliott was struggling on the 12th hole, Renner was calmly making his fourth birdie of the day on the 11 th hole to pull five shots ahead of Elliott and essentially seal his first-ever MGA championship victory. Elliott rebounded with two birdies to finish at 2-under par 208 overall.

Winning championships is nothing new for Renner this season as he has already captured two marque titles this season – the Cape Cod Open and Vermont Open. He also qualified for and competed in the PGA Tour's PODS Championship in March.

The battle for low amateur honors was won by Mike Calef (Brockton CC), who maintained his second round lead over fellow amateur Brian Higgins (Franklin CC) by carding a 2-over par 72 this afternoon and posting a final score of 2-over par 212. Aaron Siekierski (Dudley Hill CC), the 2003 Massachusetts Junior Champion, finished second to Calef in that category thanks to a strong 2-under par 68 final round score.