The 2013 U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club’s
East Course is so close now we’ve even taken up the countdown in the print
pages of the Daily Times and, needless to say, yours truly, with a lot of help
from Mr. Google, have been providing the Merion factoids that appear with the
countdown. Anyway, round 1 it’s just 19 days away.
Speaking of Merion
and the U.S. Open, Merion member and Haverford High product and Saint Joseph’s
University product (pretty sure he has deserved spots in both schools
respective athletic Hall of Fame) Michael McDermott tried to get his game in
good enough shape to at least make it through the local qualifying and earn a
shot in sectional qualifying to play in a U.S. Open on his home course.
It didn’t quite
work out, but he told the Golf Association of Philadelphia website that maybe
some of that early preparation might pay off when GAP’s first major of the
season, the Middle-Amateur Championship, teed off this week at Fieldstone Golf
Club in Greenville, Del.
It wasn’t easy, but
McDermott, owner of five William Hyndman III Awards that go to the GAP Player
of the Year, captured his fourth career Mid-Am title Thursday, beating Peter
Barron III of Stone Harbor Golf Club in a four-hole aggregate playoff after
they had finished tied at even-par 142 after the regulation 36 holes.
McDermott
immediately fell behind by two shots In the playoff when Barron birdied the
ninth hole and McDermott made bogey. McDermott got one of those shots back with
a par on the third playoff hole, the 17th.
Both players found
the bunker off the tee at the 523-yard,
par-5 18th, which meant neither was going to reach the green
in two. McDermott drilled his third-shot
approach from 146 yards to 12 feet, on the same line as the birdie putt
he had an hour earlier that got him in the playoff.
Barron’s approach
from 110 yards caught the front of the
green and trickled back into the fairway. A poor pitch left him with a
25-footer for par and he left that putt four feet short. When McDermott knocked
in his birdie putt, it was over.
“It was such a
battle for two days,” McDermott told the GAP website. “It’s such a tough golf
course. The leaderboard was all over the place all day. There were moments when
I was four back of Ray Thompson and he’s just playing perfect golf and I’m
figuring he’s going to finish at 2-under and I have to do something miraculous.
“Then he had his
unfortunate stumble. Then I have a feeling I can win it and I end up in a
playoff. The playoff was such a roller
coaster. Pete outplayed me. He did everything but win the playoff. And then I
make that great birde at the last. I’m very, very excited.”
McDermott was
unaware that he trailed Barron by a shot when he reached the 18th in regulation. But the 38-year-old still has
a little of the power that made him the dominant player in this area in the
early 2000s. A big drive left him 240 yards to the hole and he reached the
par-5 hole in two with a 4-iron. His first putt went by, but put him on a line
that would look very familiar an hour later and he made the birdie putt.
That gave him a
second straight even-par 71 over the 6,638-yard, par-71 layout and a 142 total.
Barron followed up an opening-round 73 with a sparkling 2-under 69 to get into
the playoff with McDermott.
McDermott’s last
Mid-Am title came in 2008 and was also at Fieldstone.
In the meantime,
family and business have taken their rightful places ahead of golf in
McDermott’s priority list. But the Mid-Am victory is proof that McDermott is
still a force to be reckoned with on the GAP circuit.
Third place went to
Jeff Osberg, who moved his considerable talent from Llanerch Country Club to Huntingdon Valley
Country Club over the winter. Osberg’s second-round 68 was the lowest score of
the day and, combined with an opening-round 76, left him at 2-over 144.
Chris Lange Jr. of
Overbrook Golf Club had rounds of 74 and 72 and ended up in seventh place at
146.
Shawn Levin (75-72)
of Rolling Green Golf Club and Overbrook veteran Oscar Mestre (76-71) were
among four players tied for eighth at 147.
Overbrook’s
Thompson, at 61 years young, had an opening-round 71 and, as McDermott alluded
to, looked like he was on his way to becoming the oldest to ever win the Mid-Am
when he made a pair of double bogeys and a triple bogey on the way home to fall
out of contention. Still, he shot 77 and finished among four players in a tie
for 12th at 148.
Also at that
figure was Llanerch’s Steve Seiden (72-76), a Strath Haven All-Delco, and
McDermott’s young brother Brian (74-74), a Llanerch member, and, like Michael,
a former Haverford High and Saint Joe’s standout.
Michael Quinn of
Edgmont Country Club had rounds of 79 and 73 for a 152 total.
Will Holt (77-78),
a former Daily Times sports scribe playing out of Kennett Square Golf &
Country Club, and Conrad Von Borsig (78-77), the 2004-05 Daily Times Player of the Year at Strath Haven playing out of White
Manor Country Club, both landed at 155. Also at that figure was Edgmont’s Peter
Moran, who had rounds of 75 and 80.
Jon Lavin (79-80)
of Rolling Green finished at 159.
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