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2 days ago
- Sport
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Former Golf Channel analyst Dave Marr provides voice of Sunnehanna Amateur livestream
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Dave Marr III stood amid a large television monitor, multiple laptops and other high-tech gadgets in a makeshift digital production room at Sunnehanna Country Club in Westmont. The respected former Golf Channel analyst watched as a group of eight young men and women maneuvered tripods and cameras, prepped a drone and reviewed the game plan for a livestream during the third round of the 84th Sunnehanna Amateur Tournament for Champions. Advertisement Marr smiled as the group buzzed around the room at a sometimes hectic pace Friday afternoon. The activity took him back to 1983 during another big golf tournament in western Pennsylvania. 'It's interesting to me because 42 years ago, I was working with ABC Sports at Oakmont for the U.S. Open,' said Marr, who will provide Championship Golf Network livestream, insight and commentary at Sunnehanna. 'They had three different mobile units, millions of dollars of technical equipment, different crews to do producing of the front nine and back nine, different broadcast teams. My dad was on the broadcast team and I was on the production team.' CGN will livestream portions of the final two rounds, adding another layer to the Sunnehanna Amateur's digital imprint. Advertisement The CGN team spent the past few days assembling a control room. The crew covered the course through two rounds, collecting player interviews, behind-the-scenes content and producing leaderboard graphics and recaps. 'We've got a group of golf-loving guys and gals coming together and doing what we did 42 years ago,' Marr said of the similarities between 1983 and 2025. 'It looks like it's out of the back of a van with unbelievably high-tech equipment. 'That is going to allow this – one of the most important amateur events in the game anywhere, not just this country – to be broadcasted and enjoyed by people all over the world,' Marr said. Advertisement Marr spent 17 years at the Golf Channel, filling roles such as tower announcer, interviewer and play-by-play host for the network's PGA Tour Champions coverage from 2000-17. He also hosted PGA Tour Champions Learning Center, a weekly 30-minute series. A native New Yorker who now resides in Florida, Marr is the son of the late Dave Marr, who won the 1965 PGA Championship at Laurel Valley Golf Club in Ligonier. Dave Marr III's father also was a respected broadcaster. 'My perspective on Sunnehanna has changed since I got here,' Marr said. 'I went to school at Bucknell University right here in central Pa., so I always knew what Sunnehanna was all about. 'My dad was pals with Jay Sigel,' Marr said of the former three-time Sunnehanna champion who died in April. 'Jay was always nice to me and always talked highly about Sunnehanna.' Advertisement This year's Sunnehanna Amateur is dedicated to Sigel's memory. 'Many of my friends who played amateur golf highly competitively, this event, the U.S. Amateur, the North and South, the Western, those are the tournaments they all wanted to win, all the time,' Marr said. 'My dad played professional golf from an early age so he never got a chance to play, but he always missed coming here.' The rolling hills and the layout of the historic Sunnehanna course impressed Marr. 'I knew it was a Tillinghast design, so I knew it was going to be a beautiful place,' Marr said of golf course architect A.W. Tillinghast. 'But are you kidding me? Up here on this hilltop, this mountaintop. It's such a beautiful location to have such a fantastic course and a great event. It all dovetails together and makes sense.' Advertisement His role on the livestream will have Marr looking both to the future and the past. 'I'm more of a historian,' Marr said. 'A lot of times, people focus in amateur golf on who's going to be on the PGA Tour in the future. If you look back just a decade ago, all four major championship winners from last year were in the (Sunnehanna Amateur) field a decade prior (in 2014). 'There are some great up-and-comers. 'The overall amateur game is focusing a little bit more toward college golf, the PGA U program, all of those things that are gearing those rare few to the tour, but there is a lot to be celebrated about amateur golf in general.' Advertisement Marr pointed to an interview PGA Tour winner Collin Morikawa did earlier this week on the eve of this year's U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Pittsburgh. The 2016 Sunnehanna Amateur champion, Morikawa reflected on his time in the Westmont tournament. 'Collin Morikawa just this week called it pure golf,' Marr said. 'To celebrate pure golf for all of those others in the field that are not going to play the PGA Tour or win major championships, I think it's an important thing for the overall strength and soul of the game. Sunnehanna is right in the middle of all of that.' Mike Mastovich is a sports reporter and columnist for The Tribune-Democrat. He can be reached at 814-532-5083. Follow him on Twitter @Masty81.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
'Hitting good shots all day': Sunnehanna Amateur co-leaders motivate, push each other
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – University of Tennessee golfer Bruce Murphy made birdie putts on two of the first four holes in the 84th Sunnehanna Amateur Tournament for Champions. Playing in the same group as Murphy, University of Illinois player Ryan Voois didn't get out to an ideal start to Wednesday's opening round. Advertisement He made two bogeys on the front nine and had a mental error by inadvertently leaving behind his scorecard on the No. 1 tee at the par-70 Sunnehanna Country Club course. Eventually, Murphy and Voois hit their stride, motivating each other with consistent play and birdie putts to share the first-round lead at 5-under-par 65. PHOTO GALLERY | Sunnehanna Amateur Tournament for Champions | Opening Round 'He was hitting good shots all day. I was hitting good shots,' said Murphy, a Johns Creek, Georgia, native. 'You kind of feed off the momentum. It's good.' Voois used Murphy's early success as a sign that he simply needed to stick to his game plan. Advertisement 'Bruce was lighting it up on the front, making putts, hitting good shots, so I could see it was out there,' Voois said. The 102-player field will play the second round Thursday, with the third and fourth rounds set for Friday and Saturday, respectively. A total of 38 golfers shot under par Wednesday on a course softened by ample rainfall throughout the past six weeks. 'I birdied 3 and 4 and felt good,' said Murphy, who shot 3-under on the front nine. 'I tried to make a bunch of pars today. If you're hitting the fairways and playing on the short grass out here, it's going to be a pretty easy day, especially with how soft the greens were. I got some putts to fall and got it going.' Advertisement Bruce Murphy Murphy made the turn with momentum after his birdie on the par-5 ninth hole. 'On 9, I made a 12-footer, and then a two-putt birdie on 11,' Murphy said of a bogey-free round. 'On 12, I made a 20-footer that really got me going. I just cruised to the finish from there.' A first-team all-Big Ten player with the Fighting Illini, Voois made bogey on the par-4 second hole, but recovered with a pair of birdies. 'I got off to a slow start, actually,' Voois said. 'I bogeyed 2. I left my scorecard on the first tee. It wasn't a hot start. After NCAAs I took some time off, and I guess I forgot how to play tournament golf for a bit.' Advertisement Voois had a bogey on No. 7 and then birdied No. 8 to shoot 1-under 34 on the front. Ryan Voois Ryan Voois of Ladera Ranch, CA., eyes a putt on No.16 during opening round of the 84th Sunnehanna Amateur Tournament for Champions in Johnstown, PA., Wednesday, June 11, 2025. He got hot on the back, with birdies on 11, 12, 15 and 18. 'The thing about easier and softer golf courses like this is you can't go and try to make seven or eight birdies,' Voois said. 'You've still got to play the right way. Put it in play. Strong side pins. You've got to let it happen. 'I was patient. I was only 1-under on the front. I kind of let it come to me on the back and the putts started falling.' Advertisement University of Georgia signee John Daniel Culbreth made five birdies and had a bogey-free round through 16 holes. His bogey on the par-4 No. 17 was the only blemish in a 4-under 66 that put him in a three-way tie for third place with Adam Bresnu, of Odessa, Texas, and Tyler Watts, of Huntsville, Alabama. 'I just played pretty solid all day. I put it in the right spots coming to the green other than 17, where I made a bogey,' said Culbreth, who attended Brookwood School in Thomas County, Georgia. 'It just shows this golf course, you've got to hit your spots, be conservative. The birdies will come. 'But the greens, you've just got to put it in the right spot. These greens are so tough and it's really 'penalizing' where they put these greens. 'I'm just trying to stay patient, but you still have to take advantage of holes and make birdies.' Nine players tied for sixth place at 3-under 67, and 14 players tied for 15th at 2-under 68. Mike Mastovich is a sports reporter and columnist for The Tribune-Democrat.
