The Lighthouse Classic Miniature Golf Tournament in NJ

The Lighthouse Classic Through the Years

2024 — And So It Begins

In the first of its kind on Long Beach Island in New Jersey, The Lighthouse Classic attracted 17 pros and 8 amateurs to Jen’s Links at Lighthouse Cove in Barnegat Light, N.J. on May 4. With three rounds for pros and two for amateurs, competitors did their best to conquer the High Tide course and seven pros managed sub-40 averages.

Paired together for the first two rounds, Connecticut’s Matthew Liles and New Jersey host David Biggy started the tournament with matching aces on the first hole, and the two battled from there, with Liles snatching The Lighthouse Classic trophy by a stroke over Biggy. After Liles and Biggy carded scores of 37 and 39, respectively, during the first round, Liles dropped a 34 — breaking the previous course record of 35 — while Biggy managed a 36, as Liles brought a four-stroke lead into the final round.

During the third round, Biggy registered a trio of aces to score an even-par 36, but Liles’ 39 was enough to win with a three-round score of 110. Biggy finished second with a 111, while Connecticut’s Justin Seymour swiped third with a three-round set of 41-36-36 for a 113. New Jersey’s Ed Weiss (37-41-38) captured fourth following a nine-hole putoff after he and Connecticut’s Mark “Highlighter” Novicki (38-38-40) each recorded three-round totals of 116. Georgia’s Bryan Akers (42-36-40) and Connecticut’s David Vayda (43-37-38) each totaled 118 to finish as the last two players to post averages under 40.

In all, eight pros from Connecticut, six from New Jersey, and one each from Georgia and New York comprised the professional field. Biggy scored the most aces with seven. Liles was right behind him with six, while Seymour carded five aces.

On the amateur side, mostly made up of New Jersey competitors, nearby resident Bradford Birch scored a two-round total of 82 following a 42 in the first round and a 40 in the second. Connecticut’s LouAnn Corbidge managed scores of 43 and 40 to end with an 83 for second place, while another local, Barbette Lovas, delivered scores of 44 and 41 for an 85 to grab third place.

To view the leaderboard for the tournament, click here.

See the photo gallery below. To watch the fourth-place putoff between "Highlighter" and Ed Weiss, click here.

Biggy and Liles take on the 6th hole (above), before the tourney host later awards the trophy to the first Lighthouse Classic champ.

Through a variety of conditions and against a solid professional field that included three of the top four finishers from the inaugural event in 2024, Mark “Highlighter” Novicki was the epitome of consistency on Saturday, May 17, tallying a three-round score of 110 to capture The Lighthouse Classic title at Jen’s Links at Lighthouse Cove in Barnegat Light, N.J.

With cloudy and showery conditions for the first round, the Connecticut pro — a week removed from the World Adventure Golf Tour championship in Portugal — managed a 1-over-par 37 on the High Tide course and was tied for the lead at 73 with defending champion Matt Liles after dropping a 36 in the second round, as skies began to clear and gnats swarmed the back nine.

During the sunny and warmer third round, Highlighter had a rough sixth hole but otherwise deuced and aced his way to another 37, while Liles slipped back to third and “El Presidente” Aaron Kaminski of New Jersey drained back-to-back aces on the 10th and 11th holes to ultimately wedge his way into the second position.

Novicki finished with a three-round total of 110, followed by Kaminski’s 112 and Liles’ 113, while New Jersey’s Joe DiPrima swiped the fourth spot with 114 and tournament host David Biggy, last year’s runner-up, grabbed fifth at 116. Novicki eventually won the AMA title.

As he did last spring, Liles delivered the low score of the day — this time a 35, a stroke short of his course record 34 — and Novicki, Kaminski, DiPrima and Biggy were the only pros to record sub-40 scores in each of the three rounds.

Rounding out the top 10 among the 17-player pro field were New York’s Bill Mezier (117), New Jersey brothers Griffin (118) and Landon (119) Weiss and their father, Ed Weiss (120), who last year finished fourth by beating Novicki in a nine-hole puttoff, and Pennsylvania’s Bryan Weaver (122).

The pro field consisted of eight players from New Jersey, five from Connecticut, two from Pennsylvania and one from New York.

Meanwhile, the amateur field, featuring all New Jersey players, was won by Ray Marcolongo, who fired back-to-back scores of 40 to win by two strokes over Bradford Birch III, who carded a 40 and 42 to finish with an 82. Bradford Birch Jr., who won the amateur division in 2024, scored 40 and 44 to finish in third place with an 84, winning a tiebreaker by criteria over Craig Henry, who registered the low amateur score of the tournament with a 38.

To view the leaderboard for the tournament, click here.