Chip Lutz, the Reading native who plays out of LedgeRock
Golf Club, admits he wasn’t sure what to expect from his 2018 senior amateur
campaign.
At 63, the best senior amateur player on the planet since
turning 55 in 2010 might have wondered when this little run was going to lose
steam. But rejuvenated by his annual sojourn across the pond, where he finished
tied for fourth in The Seniors Amateur Championship at Royal Porthcawl in
Wales, Lutz has gotten himself on a roll in the U.S. Senior Amateur at Eugene
Country Club in Eugene, Ore.
Lutz won a pair matches Tuesday and has moved into the
quarterfinals. Two more wins Wednesday and Lutz can find himself getting a shot
at adding a second U.S. Senior Amateur title to the one he won at Hidden Creek
Golf Club in Egg Harbor Township, N.J.
Lutz, the reigning eight-time Golf Association of
Philadelphia Senior Player of the Year, began his day in Eugene Tuesday with a
2 and 1 victory over Dirk Mast of Phoenix. Lutz won the 12th hole
with a par to get the match all square. He then birdied the next three holes,
getting a half with his birdie at the par-5 13th and then winning
the 14th and 15th with birdies to take a 2-up lead.
He lost 16 with a bogey, but made it four birdies in the
last five holes of the match with a birdie at the 17th to close out
the match.
In the afternoon, Lutz pulled out a 4 and 2 win over Dave
Ryan of Taylorville, Ill., taking control of the match on the back nine.
Lutz won the 10th and 11th holes with
pars to go 3-up. Ryan, the 2016 U.S. Senior Amateur champion, won the 12th
with a par, but Lutz quickly restored his 3-up advantage by winning the par-5
13th with a birdie.
Ryan won the 14th with a par, but Lutz got that
right back by taking the 15th with a pair and then finished off Ryan
with a birdie at the 16th.
“This year has really been a different kind of year for me,”
Lutz, named by Global Golf Post as
the male amateur Player of the Year in 2016, told the USGA website. “I didn’t
really have high expectations because I hadn’t played in much competition. So,
it’s a real thrill to be back in the mix.”
Lutz will take on Craig Davis of Chula Vista, Calif., a 2
and 1 winner over two-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Tim Jackson of Memphis,
Tenn. in another round-of-16 match, in the quarterfinals Wednesday morning.
Another Pennsylvanian with a U.S. Senior Amateur title on
his resume, defending champion Sean Knapp, the longtime western Pennsylvania
amateur standout, also moved into the quarterfinals with a couple of
hard-fought 19th-hole wins.
Knapp was 2-down with three holes to play against Jack
Larkin of Atlanta in the afternoon’s round of 16, but won 16 with par and 18
with par to send the match to extra holes. Larkin missed a five-footer for par
on the 18th that would have given him the match.
Knapp then dropped a 24-foot putt for birdie on the 19th
hole, the par-4 first at Eugene, to reach the quarterfinals, where he will get
another former U.S. Senior Amateur champion, 2013 winner Doug Hanzel of
Savannah, Ga., who cruised to a 4 and 3 victory over Frank Vana Jr. of Boxford,
Mass.
While Knapp was surviving a 19-hole test against Jeff Burda
of Modesto, Calif. in Tuesday morning’s second round, Vana was ending the
unlikely bid of Pine Valley Golf Club caddy Edward Armagost with a 2 and 1
victory.
Armagost, playing out of the RiverWinds Golf & Tennis
Club in West Deptford, N.J., certainly battled to the finish as neither player
led by more than a hole until Vana won the 17th hole to close out
the match.
Larkin, meanwhile, reached the round of 16 by ousting David
Blichar, the Lehigh Valley senior standout who was the medalist in a
GAP-administered qualifier at Tavistock Country Club, with a 3 and 2 victory.
The third Pennsylvanian to own a U.S. Senior Amateur crown
still left in the field when the second round teed off Tuesday morning, 2008
champion Buddy Marucci of Merion Golf Club, fell to Ned Zachar of Bedford,
N.Y., but not without a fight.
Marucci, twice the captain of a winning U.S. Walker Cup
team, took Zachar to 19 holes before going out. The 66-year-old Marucci pulled
out a dramatic win over Randy Haag of Orinda, Calif. in 21 holes in Monday’s
opening round.
One of the qualifying co-medalists, Jeff Wilson of
Fairfield, Calif., reached the quarterfinals with a 2 and 1 victory over Scott
Sullivan of Grand Junction, Colo. Wilson was the low amateur in the U.S. Senior
Open earlier this summer at The Broadmoor’s East Course in Colorado Springs,
Colo.
Wilson’s opponent in the quarterfinals is Zachar, the
second-round conqueror of Marucci who claimed a
1-up decision over Gene Elliott of West Des Moines, Iowa in his
round-of-16 match.
The other quarterfinal will pit 2013 U.S. Mid-Amateur
champion Michael McCloy of Des Moines, Iowa against Jerry Rose of Sarasota,
Fla.
McCoy rolled to a 5 and 4 round-of-16 win over Buzz Fly of
Memphis, Tenn. while Rose went 20 holes to halt two-time champion Paul Simson
of Raleigh, N.C., the runnerup to Knapp a year ago at The Minikahda Club in
Minneapolis.
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