McNeil's power game gives him one-shot lead in Patterson Cup at Gulph Mills

   There are so many good players teeing it up when the Golf Association of Philadelphia stages one of its major championships.

   And Bala Golf Club’s Scott McNeil is one of those guys. The 32-year-old owns a victory in one of those GAP majors, the 2015 Middle-Amateur Championship.

   Wednesday, McNeil bombed his way to a 4-under-par 67 on the classic Donald Ross design at Gulph Mills Golf Club to grab a one-shot lead after the opening round of the 116^th Joseph H. Patterson Cup.

   Bolstered by a lesson from Bala pro Chris Barletta and the presence of his favorite looper, 73-year-old Doug Havens, on the bag, McNeil patiently got what he could out of the tricky 6,501-yard, par-71 Gulph Mills layout.

   “I had a lot of good looks that I wasn’t able to convert,” McNeil told the GAP website. “The pins and greens are difficult. It is difficult to make everything you look at because the greens break so much. I got more looks than I have had recently and I don’t feel like there is a ton of trouble off the tee for me.”

   McNeil did get the first putt he looked at to fall, a 30-footer for birdie at the first. He overpowered the par-5 seventh hole, firing a 7-iron from 166 yards away to three feet and making the putt for eagle.

   McNeil nearly drove the 317-yard, par-4 11^th, chipped to two-and-a-half feet and made the putt to get it to 4-under. After dropping a shot with a bogey at the par-3 17^th, McNeil reached the par-5 18^th hole in two and two-putted for birdie.

   One of the area’s top mid-amateur players, Yardley Country Club’s Christopher Ault, a bomber like McNeil, heads the group of three players a shot behind McNeil at 3-under 68.

   Ault, who finished tied for third in the Patterson Cup a year ago at Wilmington Country Club’s South Course, was one of four GAP players who qualified for match play when the U.S. Mid-Amateur was played at Stonewall in 2016.

  Ault was joined at 3-under by Joe Tigani of Fieldstone Golf Club and Campbell Wolf of Carlisle Country Club. Tigani of Hockessin, Del. completed a solid college career at Hamilton College this spring. Wolf was the runnerup in the 2016 PIAA Class AAA Championship as a senior at Cumberland Valley. After taking a year off from school to recover from an injury, Wolf will join the program at DePaul in a few weeks.

   Conrad Von Borsig of the Philadelphia Cricket Club and Blaine Lafferty of Little Mill Country Club are tied for fifth at 2-under 69.

   I chronicled Von Borsig’s scholastic career at Strath Haven in a previous life with the Delco Daily Times. He won the 2009 BMW Philadelphia Amateur at Stonewall. Lafferty completed a solid college career at Delaware this spring.

   Two other guys who made the match-play bracket in the 2016 U.S. Mid-Am at Stonewall, Von Borsig’s Cricket Club clubmate Gregor Orlando and Merion Golf Club’s Michael McDermott, head a group of six players tied for seventh at 1-under 70, four shots out of the lead.

   Orlando captured the BMW Philadelphia Amateur title on his home course at the Cricket Club a year ago. McDermott, a three-time BMW Philadelphia Amateur champion, captured the Patterson Cup in 2007 when he was dominating the GAP scene.

   Joining that formidable pair at 2-under are Peter Barron III of Greate Bay Country Club, Nicky Marrollo, a sophomore at Eastern College who plays out of Whitford Country Club, Marty McGuckin of RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve, who lost in the semifinals of this summer’s BMW Philadelphia Amateur to eventual winner Jeremy Wall, and Temple senior Sam Soeth, who plays out of The ACE Club.

   Soeth, much like Von Borsig, was a player whose high school career at Marple Newtown I chronicled in the Daily Times.

   The Patterson Cup brings the added intrigue of being the final two rounds in the competition for the Silver Cross Award, GAP’s stroke-play championship. The two rounds of qualifying for match play in the BMW Philadelphia Amateur and the two rounds of the Patterson Cup are combined to determine the Silver Cross Award winner.

   Wilmington College junior Ryan Rucinski, who plays out of Fieldstone, matched par with a 71 Wednesday and leads the Silver Cross scoring at 2-under 212. Rucinski was the qualifying medalist in the BMW Philadelphia Amateur at Whitemarsh Valley Country Club.

   Carlisle Country Club’s Wolf is a shot behind Rucinski at 213 and the Cricket Club’s Orlando is another shot behind Wolf at 214.