Benedetto sticks with his plan to take Marston Cup at Fieldstone

   Concord Country Club’s Greg Benedetto had played Fieldstone Golf Club enough times to develop a strategy for the tight 6,373-yard, par-71 layout in Greenville, Del. as he prepared to tee it up in Monday’s Golf Association of Philadelphia Marston Cup.

   The plan was to put the driver away on the front nine, focus on keeping the ball in play off the tee and avoiding any kind of big number. Even when he started on the back nine and bogeyed the first two holes, he didn’t waver from his plan.

   And it worked well enough that he birdied his last three holes, Nos. seven, eight and nine, to fire a 3-under-par 68 to claim the Marston Cup title by two shots. The event is limited to players ages 40 to 54. And as Benedetto, a 48-year-old West Chester resident, pointed out, that is a pretty good bunch of players.

   “It is a very above-average field,” Benedetto told the GAP website after earning his first career individual GAP win. “Looking up at some of these names like (Michael R. Brown Jr.), P. Chet Walsh and Brian Gillespie really make it fun to come out here and compete. The exemptions (into GAP majors) are pretty crazy, too.”

   Benedetto was in the early wave of play Monday and his 3-under total held up even with the moon partially blotting out the sun for a period of time in the afternoon.

   After those two opening bogeys, Benedetto got it back to even par with birdies at the 16^th and 18^th holes. He hit a gap wedge to five feet at the 105-yard 16^th and made the putt and knocked his approach at the par-5 18^th hole to a foot for a kick-in birdie.

   Despite two early birdies on the front nine, he was still even-par when he arrived at the par-4 seventh hole. A 5-wood off the tee left him 104 yards away. He wedged it to 25 feet and then rolled in the birdie putt.

   A 6-iron at the 175-yard eighth hole finished six feet from the hole and he dropped that putt. An 8-iron at the par-4 ninth again left him six feet for birdie and he rolled it in to finish 3-under.

   Robert Bechtold, playing on his home course, and Clark Halle of Mercer Oaks Golf Course were the only other players to better par as they finished tied for second, each carding a 1-under 70.

   Steve Oh of the Philadelphia Cricket Club, Michael Boden of Aronimink Golf Club and Jamie Slonis of Tavistock Country Club finished tied for fourth at even-par 71. Andrew Strock of Makefield Highlands Golf Club finished alone in seventh with a 1-over 72.

   Peter Williamson of Manufacturers Golf & Country Club and the aforementioned Michael R. Brown Jr. of Lu Lu Country Club shared eighth place, each coming in at 2-over 73.

   Rounding out the top 10 were three players – Patrick Dougherty of Philadelphia Cricket Club, Michael Minter of Makefield Highlands and Keith Matt of Talamore Country Club – tied for 10^th at 3-over 74.

   The Marston Cup is named for the great Philadelphia amateur Max Marston, who took the golf world by storm in the summer of 1923, winning everything he played in, capped by a run to the U.S. Amateur title during which he defeated two of the giants of the game, Bobby Jones in the second round and Francis Ouimet in the semifinals.