Jeff Osberg was there, hanging out at the first tee at
Stonewall’s Old Course on the opening day of qualifying for match play in last
year’s U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship.
The Huntingdon Valley Country Club member was in the
excruciating limbo of being the alternate.
He had stumbled ever so slightly in the local qualifier at
Llanerch Country Club, which came on the heels of a magnificent stretch of golf
that included a Philadelphia Open victory at The Ridge at Back Brook and a
Patterson Cup triumph on his home course at Huntingdon Valley. Osberg lost in a
playoff to Huntingdon Valley clubmate Sean Seese for the final secured spot
into the field at Stonewall.
It had to be killing Osberg watching a strong Golf
Association of Philadelphia contingent playing the two Stonewall courses that
many of them are familiar with. That elusive spot never opened up for him.
Well, he’ll have a starting time when the 2017 U.S.
Mid-Amateur Championship tees off Oct. 7 at the Capital City Golf Club in
Atlanta. Osberg was one of the survivors as five players battled for the final
four berths to Capital City in a qualifier administered by GAP Monday at White
Manor Country Club.
Osberg will join his partner at the 2016 U.S. Amateur
Four-Ball Championship at Winged Foot
Golf Club, Merion Golf Club’s Michael McDermott, who was exempt from qualifying after reaching the quarterfinals at Stonewall before falling, 2-up, to eventual champion Stewart Hagestad, at Capital City.
Golf Club, Merion Golf Club’s Michael McDermott, who was exempt from qualifying after reaching the quarterfinals at Stonewall before falling, 2-up, to eventual champion Stewart Hagestad, at Capital City.
Osberg carded a 2-over 73 at the 6,978-yard, par-71 White
Manor layout, where he won the 2014 BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship,
Monday. That left him in a five-way tie for fourth, four shots behind
qualifying medalist Matthew Finger, a Woolwich Township, N.J. resident who
plays out of DuPont Country Club.
Osberg, Lu Lu Country Club’s Michael R. Brown Jr., and
Llanerch’s Joe Kerrigan Jr. quickly punched their tickets to Capital City in
the playoff. It took a while longer to decide the final berth as Philadelphia
Cricket Club’s Ryan Gerlot battled Scott Ehrlich of White Manor for eight holes
before Gerlot finally nailed down the last of seven spots available to the U.S.
Mid-Amateur Championship.
Ehrlich is the first alternate. Osberg can feel his pain.
In addition to Finger, who carded a 2-under 69 in claiming
medalist honors, and the four playoff survivors, the other players who earned
berths in the U.S. Mid-Amateur were Stone Harbor Golf Club’s Peter Barron III,
who was a shot behind Finger at 1-under 70, and the Cricket Club’s Gregor
Orlando, the reigning BMW Philadelphia Amateur champion who carded a 1-over 72.
Orlando, in his first year of eligibility as a mid-am,
reached the second round of match play at Stonewall last summer before falling,
2 and 1, to Michael Muehr of Potomac Falls, Va., one of the three qualifying
co-medalists.
Finger lost in a playoff for GAP’s Middle-Amateur title in
the spring of last year at Waynesborough Country Club and didn’t have a whole
to show for his efforts on the links in 3017. Until now.
He put the Scotty Cameron Futura that had been kind to him
last year back in the bag for the Mid-Am qualifier and the decision paid
immediate dividends.
Starting on the back nine at White Manor, Finger rattled off
three straight birdies at 15, 16 and 17 to get to 2-under for his round.
Finger converted a 10-foot birdie try at 15 after a sand
wedge from 70 yards, he drilled a 6-iron from 176 yards away to two feet at 16
and made that and then rolled in a 25-foot, left-to-right slider for birdie on
the par-5 17th after laying up and sending a wedge in from 120 yards
away.
The 40-year-old Finger, who qualified for the 2015 U.S.
Mid-Amateur Championship at the John’s Island Club in Vero Beach, Fla., got to
3-under with a birdie at the second, but his tee shot at the par-3 eighth hole
found water and resulted in a double bogey. But his Scotty had one more birdie
in it and, after hitting a 5-iron from 177 yards, he rolled in a downhill
20-footer for birdie that ultimately gave him the qualifying medal.
“I went back to the putter that did me well last year,”
Finger told the GAP website. “Today it was working. I’m really happy to have
played well today. I’ve had a rough year. This turns it into a great year. To
shoot 69 after the year I’ve had and make the U.S. Mid-Amateur is awesome.”
The second alternate is Patrick Knott of Bryn Mawr, who was
of three players who finished tied for ninth at 3-over 74. Joining Knott at
that figure were Bryan Keeling of Holland and Michael Carr of East Norriton.
It was a pretty impressive showing by the Philadelphia
contingent of mid-ams at Stonewall with Yardley Country Club’s Christopher Ault
and the Cricket Club’s John Brennan joining McDermott and Orlando in the
match-play bracket.
It will be a strong group heading for Atlanta in October
this year, too, and this time it will include Osberg, probably the area’s best
mid-am.
No comments:
Post a Comment