Mattare advances to second round of match play in U.S. Mid-Amateur in Charlotte

   Matthew Mattare probably didn’t get enough credit for winning the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Open Championship at Philadelphia Country Club and the Metropolitan Golf Association’s Amateur Championship at Laurel Lakes Country Club on Long Island within weeks of each other in the summer of 2017.

   Not many players even attempt to compete simultaneously in two of the most competitive amateur golf associations in the country. But the 32-year-old Mattare, a financial adviser with Morgan Stanley, has himself uniquely positioned to do just that. He lives in Jersey City, N.J., which allows him the opportunity to compete in the New York City area and he maintains his membership at Saucon Valley Country Club, where his father Gene is the director of golf, which keeps him GAP-eligible.

   So it shouldn’t be surprising that the Allentown Central Catholic product has a solid track record in the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship. Monday morning, Mattare survived a playoff among 16 players for the final 12 spots in the match-play bracket at Charlotte Country Club after finishing in the group tied for 53^rd at 5-over 147 after qualifying rounds at Charlotte and the Carolina Golf Club.

   Mattare then advanced to the second round of match play Tuesday morning with a 2 and 1 victory over Bradford Tilley of Easton, Conn., who had finished tied for second in qualifying with a 3-under 139 total, in an opening-round match.

   Mattare reached the quarterfinals in the 2012 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, Ill. and came back the following year to earn medalist honors in qualifying at The Country Club of Birmingham in Birmingham, Ala.

   Mattare’s experience showed when he saw his 3-up lead suddenly disappear when Tilley won 13 and 14 with birdies and the 15^th with a par to square the match. But Mattare answered by taking the 16^th with a par and the 17^th with birdie to close out the match.

   Mattare’s Philly Open-Met Amateur double went a long way toward earning him GAP’s William Hyndman III Player of the Year award for 2017. He leads that race again in the late stages and making a run into match play in the U.S. Mid-Am will help pad that lead.

   Mattare’s second-round opponent will be Brett Tanfohrde of Chicago, who edged Harold Baldwin of  Loganville, Ga., 1-up, in his first-round match.

   Another of GAP’s top mid-amateur players, 2014 BMW Philadelphia Amateur champion Jeff Osberg, who plays out of Huntingdon Valley Country Club, was the last man in out of Monday morning’s 16-for-12 playoff.

   That meant the 34-year-old Osberg had to turn around and take on the qualifying medalist, Stephen Behr of Florence, S.C. in the opening round of match play. The 25-year-old Behr knocked off Osberg, 3 and 2.

   Osberg drew even in the match when the won the eighth hole with a par. But the 25-year-old Behr, not that far removed from a solid college career at Clemson, came right back with a win on the ninth and then pulled away on the back nine by taking the 11^th and 16^th holes with pars to close out GAP’s William Hyndman III Player of the Year in 2015 and 2016.

   Brett Boner, the 44-year-old Charlotte resident who came north to qualify for his hometown U.S. Mid-Am in a GAP-administered qualifier at Cedarbrook Country Club, continued his strong play with a 4 and 2 victory over David Jennings of Layton, Utah.

   Stewart Hagestad of Newport Beach, Calif., who quite memorably won the 2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur title at Stonewall in an epic 37-hole final, advanced to the second round with an 8 and 6 victory over Bradley Wohlers of Vadnais Heights, Minn.

   Hagestad’s reward is a second-round match with Jeff Wilson of Fairfield, Calif., who is coming off a U.S. Senior Amateur victory last month at Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Ore.

   Wilson had to go through Pennsylvania to earn that title, beating Reading’s Chip Lutz, the 2015 U.S. Senior Amateur champion, in the semifinals and Sean Knapp, the defending champion from Oakmont, in the final.

   Players who win their second-round matches Tuesday will turn right around and play in the round of 16. So, weather permitting, only eight mid-ams will still be standing when the sun goes down on Charlotte Tuesday.

   At the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship at Norwood Hills Country Club in St. Louis, Mo., South Jersey native Meghan Stasi, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla. resident and a four-time winner of this event, advanced to the second round with a 4 and 3 victory over Allison Schultz of Madison, Wis.

   The 40-year-old Stasi, a product of Eastern High who starred collegiately at Tulane, pulled away when she ripped off wins at 13 and 14 with pars and at the 15^th with a birdie to close out the match.

Stasi, an eight-time winner of the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Match-Play Championship, will take on Arielle Swan of Seaside, Calif. in Tuesday morning’s second round.    Swan edged Kay Daniel of Covington, La., 1-up, in her opening-round match.

   Coatesville’s Kelli Pry, who played college golf at South Florida, was ousted by Lauren Judson of Atlanta, who claimed a 3 and 2 victory.

   Judson’s second-round opponent will be defending champion Kelsey Chugg of Salt Lake City, Utah, who earned a 3 and 2 victory over Hui Chong Dofflemyer of Belvidere, Ill. in her first-round match.

   Katie Miller, a two-time Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur champion from Jeanette, looked like she was on her way to the second round when she won the 16^th hole with a par to take a 1-up lead in her first-round match against Gretchen Johnson of Portland, Ore.

   But Johnson promptly birdied 17 and 18 to knock out Miller with a 1-up victory. The 34-year-old Miller won three PIAA titles at Hempfield area and was an all-Atlantic Coast Conference performer at North Carolina.

   Qualifying medalist Shannon Johnson of Norton, Mass. cruised to a 6 and 5 victory over Brenda Pictor of Marietta, Ga.

   The runnerup in the 2016 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am at The Kahkwa Club in Erie, Johnson gets a tough second-round draw against St. Louis legend Ellen Port, a four-time U.S. Women’s Amateur champion.

   The 57-year-old Port edged Truc Ly of Vietnam, 1-up, in her opening-round match. I’m sure there will be plenty of support for Port in her home town.

   Lauren Greenlief of Ashburn, Va., the 2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champion, advanced with a  4 and 3 victory over Kim Braaten of Las Vegas.

   Just as with the guys, the winners of Tuesday morning’s second-round matches in the U.S. Women's Mid-Am will turn right around and tee it up in the round of 16. Weather permitting, the quarterfinals will be set by the end of the day.