Covello, Hill finish atop local U.S. Open qualifier

   A Delco native on a trip home and a relatively new player on the Delco scene landed atop the leaderboard at a local U.S. Open qualfier and earned themselves a trip to golf’s longest day June 2, sectional qualifying for our national championship.

   Medalist honors went to Dan Covello, a Havertown native and Episcopal Academy product who fired a 2-under 69 over the 6,818-yard, par-71 Laurel Creek Club in Mt. Laurel, N.J.

The former Llanerch Country Club member lives in Ponte Vedre Beach, Fla. and is trying to play his way back on the web.com Tour.

   “I’ve been doing all of the Monday qualifiers for the web.com Tour, trying to get my job back,” Covello told the Golf  Association of Philadelphia website. “I’ll take anything I can get myself into.”

Covello played Laurel Creek very professionally, hitting 15 greens in regulation and taking advantage of the par-5s. He will tee it up at Woodmont Country Club in suburban Washington, D.C. in his fourth try at sectional qualifying.

   Covello will be joined at Woodmont by Mark Hill, who joined Rolling Green Golf Club a year ago after playing college baseball at George Mason and trying the Independent League route. Hill might want to give this golf thing a little more of his attention after firing a 1-under 70 to finish a shot back of Covello and easily earn one of just six coveted tickets to sectional qualifying that were available to a talented field.

   “I wanted to do something competitive again since I don’t play baseball anymore,” said the 26-year-old Hill, who works in a law office and resides in Media. “I figured it’d be fun to do something like (U.S. Open qualifying). I played in the GAP Team Matches in the past month. It was fun, I figured might as well go out and let it rip.”

   Michael Tobiason Jr. of Wilmington, Del. was one of four players who matched par at 71 as the quartet grabbed the last four berths to sectionals. Tobiason made it through sectional qualifying in 2011 and teed it up in the U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club. Also in the group at 71 was Justin Martinson, who won the 2010 Philadelphia Amateur title by beating Overbrook Golf Club’s Michael Kania in the final.

   As always, there were some frustrating near misses, most notably by Merion Golf Club’s Michael McDermott, who carded a 1-over 72. McDermott really wanted to give it his best shot a year ago when the 2013 Open was staged at his home course in the Ardmore section of Haverford Township. He failed, but his game was so sharp, he won the first two majors on the GAP circuit, the Mid-Amateur championship for the fourth time and his second Philadelphia Amateur title.

   A couple of Malvern Prep standouts, present and past, were in the next wave. Michael Davis, who will graduate next month after four years as one of the Inter-Ac League’s best players, had a 2-over 73 and Billy Stewart, a dominant player at Malvern a decade or so ago, was another shot back at 74. Stewart is back in the area after spending several years on the professional mini-tours in Florida.

   Among some other finishers of note were Radnor junior Paul Yun (79); Ryan Walker (79) of St. Davids; former Haverford School standout Nelson Hargrove (79), who is coming off a runnerup finish at the Ivy League Tournament to cap his senior at Brown; reigning Daily Times Player of the Year Cole Berman (81) and his Haverford School teammate Jake Van Arkel (81); Chris Hoyle (82) of Drexel Hill; and former Haverford School, Virginia and Villanova standout Cory Siegfried (83), who reached sectional qualifying last year before falling short of making the field for the return of the Open to the historic East Course at Merion.