It’s no secret that Philadelphia Cricket Club has the
deepest pool of talent when it comes time for the Golf Association of
Philadelphia’s BMW Team Matches each spring.
But the Cricket Club really drove that point home this year
by placing its top two teams into the Division AA Playoff last Saturday.
Philadelphia Cricket Club 1 prevailed in the Playoff over Huntingdon Valley
Country Club, Philadelphia Cricket Club 2 and Llanerch Country Club to claim
its second straight BMW Team Matches Playoff and fourth in the last six years.
It was the seventh straight year the Cricket Club’s top team
reached the Playoff in Division AA, the top tier of the Team Matches.
Philadelphia Cricket Club 1 became the first team to repeat as the Team Match
Playoff winner since Little Mill Country Club accomplished the feat in 2011 and
2012.
It was the first time a club was able to push two teams
through to the final four Playoff. It resulted in six foursomes of top players
patrolling the fairways at the Cricket Club’s Wissahickon Course, a classic
A.W. Tillinghast design. And the Cricket Club did it despite losing some of the
veterans who had been a big part in its recent success.
Philadelphia Cricket Club 1 piled up 72.5 points in the
Playoff to finish ahead of runnerup Huntingdon Valley with 58, Philadelphia
Cricket Club 2 was third with 46 and Llanerch was fourth with 39.5.
“It’s the first time we defended,” Philadelphia Cricket Club
1 team captain Kevin Kelly told the GAP website. “We lost a couple of guys this
year. Everyone was concerned about the second team not being as strong and
obviously that was not the case.
“When you lose veterans like (former captain) Rob Savarese,
P.J. Bartholomew, Jack Wallace and Joe April, the next man up has to step up.
We’ve had a lot of guys step up. Everybody scored points and that’s what you
need.”
In Saturday’s Playoff, Philadelphia Cricket Club I kept its
big guns at home and was rewarded with a 24-point haul from reigning BMW
Philadelphia Amateur champion Gregor Orlando, Brendan Borst and McFall.
Orlando, the 2007 PIAA champion as a junior at Erie
Cathedral Prep, had an especially tough task as he was paired with Llanerch’s
Brian McDermott, Huntingdon Valley’s Andrew Mason, winner of back-to-back
Philadelphia Open titles in 2011 and 2012, and Philadelphia Cricket Club 2’s
Ryan McDonald and emerged with 8.5 out of a possible nine points.
Kelly, Sean Semenetz and Steve Oh traveled to Llanerch and
held their own, earning 15.5 points.
One of the Huntingdon Valley trios at the Cricket Club was
comprised of Drexel golf coach Ben Feld, Harvard-bound Brian Isztwan, the
Inter-Ac League’s best player the last two seasons for Penn Charter, and Sean
Ryan and they picked up 15.5 points on the road.
It’s tough to even get to the final four Playoff against all
of the top GAP clubs.
Philadelphia Cricket Club 1 rolled to a 3-0 mark in Section
1 and Huntingdon Valley was unbeaten in three matches in capturing Section 4.
The Llanerch crew prides itself on getting to the Playoff
and did so for the third time in four years. But Llanerch had to survive a
tough test against Little Mill to to complete its 3-0 run through Section 3.
And there was Philadelphia Cricket Club 2. The team claimed
a victory in Week 3 over Makefield Highlands Golf Club to finish 2-1 and bested
an always tough Overbrook Golf Club side in the total-points tiebreaker by three
points to advance to the Playoff.
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