Smeraglio finally lands a GAP Senior Amateur title at Lehigh

   It isn’t easy winning a Golf Association of Philadelphia Senior Amateur championship.

   The fact that Glenn Smeraglio of Lu Lu Country Club claimed the title for the first time Wednesday as the opening round of 6-under 65 he shot Tuesday at Lehigh Country Club held up when the event was shortened to 18 holes is exhibit A.

   Smeraglio is a terrific player. He added the GAP Senior Amateur title to the Pennsylvania Golf Association Senior Amateur title he won earlier this summer at St. Clair Country Club. He is the first player to pull off that difficult double since Overbrook Golf Club’s Ray Thompson did it in 2007.

   Smeraglio owns three GAP Silver Cross Awards and is the defending Senior Silver Cross Award winner. All he will have to do to repeat as the Senior Silver Cross winner is beat Thompson in an 18-hole playoff after they finished tied at 6-over 219 at the conclusion of the Senior Amateur. The Senior Silver Cross, GAP’s stroke-play championship, combines a player’s rounds from the Chapman Cup, which was held at Lu Lu, the Warner Cup, which was played at Spring-Ford Country Club and the Senior Amateur.

   That’s the problem for a guy like Smerglio. He’s competing against a player the caliber of Thompson, who’s won the Senior Silver Cross three times, who reached the semifinals of the BMW Philadelphia Amateur three summers ago at age 62.

   And neither one of the them is the best senior player in the Philadelphia area. That, of course, is Chip Lutz of LedgeRock Golf Club who teed it up at Lehigh, but didn’t return to finish his round after rain suspended play Tuesday. GAP officials figured they had just enough of a window Wednesday to complete the suspended first round, so the event was shortened to 18 holes.

   The 62-year-old Lutz is the reigning seven-time GAP Senior Player of the Year. He won the 2015 U.S. Senior Amateur Championship at Hidden Creek Golf Club in Egg Harbor Township, N.J. He won the third of his three Seniors Amateur Championships at Formby Golf Club in England last year, prompting Global Golf Post to name him its 2016 Male Amateur Player of the Year. Not senior amateur. Best male amateur player in the world.

   He was the low amateur in the Senior British Open earlier this summer at Royal Porthcawl in Wales and reached the round of 16 in last week’s U.S. Senior Amateur at The Minikahda Club in Minneapolis, Minn.

   Smergalio had to battle past Lu Lu clubmate Christopher Clauson to grab the title at Lehigh. Clauson was another member of the GAP contingent teeing it up in the Senior Amateur at Minikahda, although he failed to make match play.

   Smeraglio and Clauson played together Tuesday morning and Clauson put up quite a fight over the 6,548-yard, par-70 Lehigh layout. They started on the back nine and Clauson birdied five of the first six holes.

   Smeraglio birdied his first three holes, hitting a pitching wedge from 129 yards to 10 feet at the 10^th, getting up and down after finishing just off the left side of the green at the par-5 11^th in two and knocking a gap wedge from 108 yards to eight feet at the 12^th.

   He bogeyed the 14^th, but got that shot back at the 175-yard 16^th hole when he drilled a 7-iron to five feet. Still, at 3-under heading to the front nine, he trailed Clauson by one.

   Smeraglio pulled away on the front side, quickly reaching 4-under by dropping in a 25-foot bomb for birdie at the first. His final birdie came at the par-5 sixth as he hit a 4-rescue to the left greenside bunker, blasted to six feet and made the birdie try.

   Clauson finished alone in second with a sparkling 3-under 67.

   Smeraglio got a little help from Mother Nature, which never let up and made sure that his 65 would hold up for the title. But he wasn’t giving it back.

   “It means everything to me,” Smeraglio told the GAP website. “It’s justification for a lot of hard work. I knew I could do it, but you can’t just say it, you have to do it.

   “I’m proud to get the job done. I got two fortunate weather breaks. They had rain in the morning of the state (Senior Amateur) and I had an afternoon time. I was lucky to get the good side of the weather.”

   Thompson matched par with a 70 to get a share of third place with Bob Beck of the host club and Brian Rothaus of Five Ponds Golf Club. Craig Kliewer of Honeybrook Golf Club finished alone in sixth place with a 2-over 72.

   Thompson’s Overbrook clubmate Oscar Mestre headed a group of five players tied for seventh at 3-over 73. Joining him at that figure were Michael Tash of Tavistock Country Club, David West of Whitford Country Club, Gregory Buliga of Yardley Country Club and Timothy Burns of The Country Club of Scranton.

   Robert Billings of Rolling Green Golf Club, much like Smeraglio, is a terrific player who has been teeing it up in GAP events forever. Billings fired a 3-under 67 at Lehigh Tuesday, matching his age, and it held up to give him the Super-Seniors title, the first individual GAP win of his long career.

   Much the way Lutz does in the senior division, the super-seniors is ruled by 69-year-old Don Donatoni of White Manor Country Club, the reigning four-time GAP Super-Senior Player of the Year.

   Donatoni also represented GAP at The Minikahda Club last week. He reached match play and won a match before falling in the second round to Lutz in another in a long series of GAP matchups in USGA championships.

   Donatoni settled for fourth place in the Super-Senior division with a 1-over 71.

   Billings got off to a good start when he hit a 6-iron to 18 feet at the par-3 third hole and made the putt.  He bogeyed the fourth, but got that shot right back when he knocked an 8-iron five feet away at the fifth. A bogey at eight left him at even-par at the turn.

   He made three straight birdies at 12, 13 and 14, hitting a 7-iron to 10 feet at the 12^th, drilling a 7-iron to three feet at the 150-yard, par-3 13^th and knocking a 9-iron from the right rough to 16 feet and dropping the putt at 14.

   He gave a shot back with a bogey at 15, but finished with a  flourish, hitting his 6-iron approach at the 18^th to five feet and making the putt to finish at 3-under.

   “Listen, everyone knows Don Donatoni is the tiger of the Super-Seniors,” Billings told the GAP website. “He wins 70 percent of these tournaments. He nipped me in the Brewer Cup (at St. Davids Golf Club) this year in match play, but he’s just so tough.

   “And obviously he’s one of the best Super-Seniors in the country. We all think we’re playing for second. But I also kid him, I’m going to sneak up on him one of these days Today was that day.”

   Buck Jones of the Philadelphia Publinks Golf Association was the runnerup to Billings with a solid 1-under 69. It also gave him the Super-Seniors Silver Cross Award.

   Frank Polizzi of Whitemarsh Valley Country Club matched par with an even-par 70, a shot ahead of Donatoni in fourth. Robin McCool of Saucon Valley Country Club took five with a 72, William Lawler of Fox Hill Country Club was sixth with a 73 and Thomas Humphrey of Wilmington Country Club was seventh with a 74.

   Three players finished tied for eighth at 75, including James Prendergast of Bellewood Country Club Carl Everett of Merion Golf Club and Raymond Pawulich of Little Mill Country Club.