The Mid-Ohio Golf Association (MOGA) was formed in 1965 and sponsored the first Mid-Ohio Invitational that year at the Coshocton Town and Country Club. In place of merchandise, the association established a tradition of awarding trays to the champion, runner-up and other top ten finishers that were emblematic of their achievement. The Floyd F. Redman Memorial Trophy, named for the recently deceased father of a founder, would carry the names of all winners and be displayed at the championship each year.

The first four tournaments were 72 holes, the first two of which were won by Miami University golfer Dick Baker. He eventually would win a record five times, all in the early years of the tournament. The 1967 event was won by recent hight school graduate John Mellett, who entered Miami U. the following year and two years later played on the Redskin team that took 13th in the NCAA Championship.

The original format proved unwieldy and the tournament was shortened to 36 holes in 1968. Because the event was not officially sanctioned by the club, substantial growth proved difficult. To achieve its goal of becoming an important amateur event, the tournament was moved in 1970 to the Hilltop Country Club, a public course nearby, and the field more than doubled. Former Ohio State University golfer Ted Beattie won the event that year by two strokes over Ohio high school champion Kim Miller. The success of the tournament in 1970 resulted in an invitation by the Town and Country Club to return the next year, this time as an officially sanctioned event.

The 1971 tournament proved to be one of the most exciting in all 44 years and generated the enthusiasm to achieve the level of play that exists today. Local high school prodigy Mark McConnell won by birdieing the third play-off hole after he and Mid-American Conference champion Chris Roderick from Miami U. tied at 138. McConnell later starred at Bowling Green State University and after graduation turned professional. Roderick also turned professional and eventually would serve as host head professional to the U.S. Open when it was held at the Olympic Club in San Francisco in 1987.

After four years, Coshocton Town & Country Club members had wearied of the event and MOGA officials were anxious to find an 18-hole course to further expand the field. The tournament was moved in 1975 to the Hickory Flat Greens Golf Course, a 6,600-yard, par-72 public course near West Lafayette, OH. It has been played there since.

Three more golfers who would eventually turn professional were winners during the 1970s---Chris Freeman in 1975, Don Beattie in 1977 and Mike Thomas in 1978. Beattie, a Floridian and Georgia Southern College golfer, won with a nine-under-par 135 to establish a tournament record. Former Otterbein College player Jim Stoffer became the event's second multiple winner when he took the 1973 and 1976 titles. He is the only player to win the event on more than one course.

For the first 14 years the oldest player to win the tournament was former Ohio University golfer Jim Nordstrom, who became champion in 1974 at the age of 30. But domination by the younger golfers took a hiatus in 1979 when Michigander Jim Briegel won his first of two consecutive championships. At age 53, Briegel's victory in 1980 made him the oldest champion to date.

In the early 1980s, the dominant player in the Mid-Ohio Invitational was local golfer John Tignor. He won by four shots in 1981, returned on leave from the armed forces two years later to win in a sudden-death play-off over Tim Cooksey and Don Darr in 1983, and was one of three co-champions in a rain-shortened tournament in 1994. Between Tignor's first two wins was a victory by Indiana University golfer Mike Ingram, who won the Big Ten Championship the following spring.

Twice in the 1980s---Matt Chalcraft in 1985 and Tom Young in 1986---the tournament was won by reinstated amateurs. And twice in that decade it was won by future professionals---Kelly Maxwell in 1984 and Craig McConnell in 1987.

The year 1988 marked the beginning of the Mid-Ohio Invitational era of Chuck Smith, winner of more than 200 tournaments nationwide and arguably the most accomplished amateur golfer in Ohio over several decades. He would go on to win the following year and again in 1993 and be a force in nearly every Mid-Ohio Invitational for over 15 years. During that period, he once was ranked the top senior amateur in the nation by Golf Digest magazine. Smith's second win came at age 58, making him the oldest Mid-Ohio Invitational winner.

Several other Ohio career amateurs have been prominent over the last two decades. Former Ohio State University All-American Raymond Sovik has been a close contender numerous times since he began competing in 1990. He was a winner over Randy Reifers in a play-off in 1996 and was runner-up in 2006. Reifers, the only golfer to win the Ohio Amateur, Ohio Mid-Amateur and the Ohio Senior championship, was runner-up a second time in 1997 and has been in the running for the title several times since. And an area high school golf coach, Brad Baker, has the lowest scoring average (71.000) of all golfers who have played in the event ten or more times. He won the championship in 1999.

But beginning in the 1990s and continuing into the new century, the tournament has experienced a growing domination by collegiate golfers. Starting with Otterbein College's Brad Smith in 1997, every tournament but one has been won by a college player.

During that time, collegians have virtually rewritten the tournament record book. Don Beattie's 15-year-old 36-hole scoring record of 135 was tied in 1992 by Kent State golfer Kevin Kraft and was lowered to 134 by Kent State's Steve Lohmeyer in 2002. It was lowered again by Ohio Amateur and Big Ten Champion Chris Wilson of Northwestern who shot 133 in 2005. In 2007, Ohio State's Zach Sebert shattered Wilson's record by five strokes to set the current record of 128, 16 strokes under par.

The eighteen and nine-hole records have also fallen to collegians in recent years. An eighteen-hole record of 64, set by Roger Redman 36 years earlier, was eclipsed by Duke University's, David French, enroute to a runner-up finish in 2002. French's record lasted five years until Sebert shot 62 in the second round in 2007. The tournament's nine-hole record was broken by Youngstown State's Ryan Harmon, when he shot the tournament's first 29 on the opening nine of his victory in 2001. That record was tied by Sebert's final nine last year.

As winning scores have gone lower and lower, so have scores by players in the rest of the field. In 2005, for the first time a score of 150 did not make the top 50.

Players who have competed in the Mid-Ohio Invitational have experienced success in many other tournaments. The Ohio Amateur, Ohio Mid-Amateur, Ohio Junior, Ohio Senior, Ohio Publinx, and all three levels of the Ohio High School championships are among the titles owned by MOGA players. There have been many accomplishments in collegiate tournaments by MOGA players. Among them are five Mid-American Conference and two Big Ten Conference championships and a runner-up finish in the NCAA Championship.

Three MOGA players have played on the PGA Tour. Raymond Sovik played the tour in 1977 and was reinstated to amateur status before playing the Mid-Ohio Invitational. Karl Kimball, who tied for eleventh in the tournament in 1976, competed on the tour in three separate seasons. His best year was 1991 when he made nine 36-hole cuts. And in 2007, Kyle Reifers, who tied for third in the Mid-Ohio Invitational in 2002, won $276,369 to finish 181st on the PGA money list.

Reifers is now playing the Nationwide tour as is 1992 Champion Kevin Gessino-Kraft. Playing the Hooters Tour are 2005 Champion Chris Wilson, 2005 Runner-up Blake Sattler, B.J. Pitzen and Chris Yoder.

The Mid-Ohio Golf Association is governed by a four-member board of directors, including three of its founders. Founder members of the board are Richard J. Baker of Westerville, OH; John R. Mellett of Frisco, TX and Roger S. Redman of Lumberton, NC. Tim S. Cooksey of Coshocton became a member of the board in 2001.

The 45^th annual Mid-Ohio Invitational is set for June 27-28 at Hickory Flat Greens.