According to the USGA website, 25-year-old Vince Kwon is a
looper at Philadelphia Cricket Club and Merion Golf Club.
In its Twitter updates on the progress of Kwon and fellow
Marlton, N.J. resident Troy Vannucci in this week’s U.S. Amateur Four-Ball
Championship at the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort’s Old Macdonald Course, the Golf
Association of Philadelphia listed Kwon as playing out of Huntingdon Valley
Country Club with Vannucci part of the talented stable of golfers at Little
Mill Country Club.
When the U.S. Four-Ball comes to the Cricket Club next
spring, Kwon won’t be there as a caddy, but as a player.
When Kwon, a Cherry Hill East High product, and the
27-year-old Vannucci, who works at American Athletic Track and Turf in
Southampton, N.J., claimed a 2-up victory over the duo of Matt Parziale, the
Brockton, Mass. firefighter who won the 2017 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship, and
Herbie Aikens of Kingston, Mass. in Tuesday afternoon’s quarterfinals, they
were fully exempt from qualifying for the 2020 U.S. Four-Ball.
Kwon and Vannucci saw their U.S. Four-Ball run come to an
end when they fell to eventual champions Scott Harvey of Kernersville, N.C. and
Todd Mitchell of Bloomington, Ind., 4 and 3, in Wednesday morning’s semifinals.
They are already looking forward to playing in front of a
supportive group of family, friends and Philadelphia-area golf supporters next
spring at the Cricket Club.
“Oh, that’s going to be great,” Vannucci told the USGA
website. “Got the home crowd behind you. I had a bunch of support from the Golf
Association of Philadelphia, the New Jersey State Golf Association, family, the
membership of Little Mill Country Club, Huntingdon Valley Country Club.
“We had everyone texting us, rooting us on. A bunch of great
guys and family, that should be fun. Can’t wait to play.”
Harvey and Mitchell then came back Wednesday afternoon to
claim a 2 and 1 victory over East Carolina teammates Logan Shuping and Blake
Taylor in the title match. They are just the second mid-amateur pair to win the
U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship. Western Pennsylvania’s Nathan Smith,
a four-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion,
and Todd White of Spartanburg, S.C. captured the inaugural U.S. Four-Ball title
in 2015 at The Olympic Club.
Harvey has had two nice U.S. Mid-Amateur runs in
southeastern Pennsylvania. The 40-year-old property manager won the 2014 U.S.
Mid-Am at Saucon Valley Country Club and let another title slip away when he
fell to Stewart Hagestad on the 37th hole in a memorable U.S. Mid-Am
final in 2016 at Stonewall.
It was quite a week for Kwon and Vannucci, who earned their
ticket to Bandon Dunes in a local qualifier last summer at Green Brook Country
Club in North Caldwell, N.J.
Cold-weather gear was very much in evidence on the USGA
website when qualifying opened Saturday with the thermometer struggling to hit
the 50-degree mark. Kwon and Vanucci opened with a 7-under 64 over the Old
Macdonald course, a homage to legendary golf course architect C.B. Macdonald
designed by Tom Doak and Jim Urbina.
The two Jersey guys then added a 6-under 64 at Doak’s
Pacific Dunes Course as things warmed up Sunday to get a share of medalist
honors with former Santa Clara teammates Matthew McCarty and Derek Ackerman and
Texans Derek Abel of Dallas and Christopher Wheeler of Addison at 13-under 128.
Bandon Dunes never really warmed up all week, but it didn’t stop the action on
the golf course from being hot and heavy all week.
Abel and Wheeler had opened with a 5-under 66 at the Old
Macdonald Course and erupted with an 8-under 62 Sunday at Pacific Dunes to get
their share of medalist honors. McCarty and Ackerman opened with an 8-under 63
at the Old Macdonald Course and added a 5-under 65 at Pacific Dunes to also
reach 13-under.
A couple of 30-somethings, former Southern California
standout Taylor Wood, 35, and Andrew Medley, 39, who played collegiately at
Mississippi and Arizona, shared fourth place with the pair of Nicholas
Osterberg and Oliver Mast at 12-under 129. Both teams opened with a 5-under 65
at Pacific Dunes and added a 7-under 64 at the Old Macdonald Course.
The intriguing mid-am pair of Hagestad, the winner of the
2016 U.S. Mid-Am at Stonewall, and Derek Busby of Ruston, La. finished alone in
sixth place in qualifying at 11-under 130. Hagestad and Busby opened with a
5-under 66 at the Old Macdonald Course and added a 6-under 64 at Pacific Dunes.
I watched all of Busby’s round-of-16 match with three-time
BMW Philadelphia Amateur champion Michael McDermott in the 2016 Mid-Am at
Stonewall, a match McDermott won on the 18th hole, and Busby was as
pure a ball-striker as you’ll ever see.
The only other Philadelphia area team – and we’re stretching
this to the Jersey Shore here -- to make match play were Christian Brothers
Academy teammates Jack Wall, a South Carolina commit, and Brendan Hansen, who
is headed for Rutgers. Wall of Brielle, N.J. and Hansen of Spring Lake, N.J. opened
with a 2-under 68, but surged into the match-play bracket with an 8-under 63 at
the Old Macdonald Course that left them in the group tied for seventh place at
10-under 131.
Vannucci made it a memorable Memorial Day for the Jersey
guys when he holed a 25-foot putt on the 18th hole to lift them to a
1-up victory over M. Tyler McKeever of Atlanta and Steven Groover of
Birmingham, Ala., former college teammates at Auburn, in the opening round of
match play.
The Jack Wall-Hansen pairing fell in the opening round of
match play, but not without a fight. The duo of 33-year-old Brandon Cigna of
Arlington, Va. and 36-year-old Ben Warnquist of Olney, Md., who fell in the
2016 U.S. Four-Ball final at Winged Foot Golf Club, needed 21 holes to oust the
Christian Brothers Academy seniors.
Kwon and Vannucci then cruised into the quarterfinals with a
5 and 3 victory over Louisianans John Faulk and Matt Nichols.
Meanwhile, Parziale and Aikens advanced to the quarterfinal
matchup with Kwon and Vannucci by edging the team of Hagestad and Busby, 1-up.
In the quarterfinals, Kwon and Vannucci won the ninth and 11th
holes with birdies to take a 3-up lead. Parziale and Aikens battled back by
winning the 12th with a birdie, but Kwon and Vannucci restored their
3-up advantage with three holes to play by taking the 15th with a
birdie. A half at the 16th sent Kwon and Vannucci into the
semifinals.
Harvey and Mitchell, a 40-year-old former professional baseball player who is in the insurance business, won the first hole in the semifinal
match, but Kwon and Vannucci got it right back by taking the second hole with a
birdie. But Harvey and Mitchell ripped off wins at the fourth, sixth and ninth
holes, all with birdies, to take control of the match.
Kwon and Vannucci cut into the lead by winning the 10th
hole with a birdie and were still just 2-down with five holes to play. But
Harvey and Mitchell won the 14th hole with a par and the 15th
hole with a birdie to close out their rivals from Jersey.
The 21-year-old Shuping of Salisbury, Md. and the
21-year-old Taylor of Wilmington, N.C., both of whom will return to East
Carolina as seniors at the end of the summer, reached the final with a 2-up win
over Wood and Medley.
Shuping and Taylor won the seventh, 10th and 13th
holes with birdies to turn an early 2-down deficit into a 1-up advantage with
five holes to go.
But Harvey and Mitchell responded by winning the next three
holes, the 14th, 15th and 16th holes, all with
birdies, to take a 2-up lead. When Shuping and Taylor could only get a half at
the 17th hole, it was over.
A couple of teams with Philadelphia ties just missed the cut
for match play as seven teams that landed on 6-under 135 played off for the
final four spots in the match-play bracket.
Reigning Patterson Cup champion Michael R. Brown Jr. of
Maple Shade, N.J. and Peter Barron III of Mays Landing, N.J. opened with a
4-under 67 at the Old Macdonald Course, but finished at 5-under 136 with a
1-under 69 at Pacific Dunes.
Brown and Barron got into the field as an alternate out of
the qualifier at Garden City Country Club in Garden City, N.Y.
Drexel teammates Connor Schmidt, the reigning Pennsylvania
Amateur champion, and Alex Butler, both seniors, also landed on 5-under 136 as
they opened with a 3-under 67 at Pacific Dunes and added a 2-under 69 at the
Old Macdonald Course.
Schmidt was a member of the 2015 PIAA Class AAA runnerup
team as a senior at Peters Township and Butler, an East Norriton resident, was
a member of St. Joseph’s Prep’s 2014 PIAA Class AAA championship team as a
junior. They took a road trip to the Oglebay Resort’s Palmer Course in
Wheeling, W.Va. last August and earned qualifying medalist honors with a 58 to
earn their ticket to Bandon Dunes.
The Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Sean Sementz and former
Cricket Club member Jack Wallace, who moved to Burlington Country Club, posted
a 4-under 137 total, rallying with a 4-under 66 at Pacific Dunes after matching
par in the opening round with a 71 at the Old Macdonald Course.
Sementz and Wallace were co-medalists in a GAP-administered
local qualifier on familiar territory, the Cricket Club’s Militia Hill Course,
last fall.
Reigning BMW Philadelphia Amateur champion Jeremy Wall and
brother Ethan Wall opened with a 1-under 69 at Pacific Dunes and added a
2-under 69 at the Old Macdonald Course to finish at 3-under 138 in qualifying.
The former Loyola of Maryland teammates are the older brothers of Jack Wall,
who reached match play with his Christian Brothers Academy teammate Brendan
Hansen.
The Wall brothers, the Jack Wall-Hansen team and
semifinalists Kwon and Vannucci all emerged from the qualifier at Green Brook
Country Club in North Caldwell, N.J.
Pretty good story on Team Wall of Brielle, N.J. on the USGA
website by David Shefter as part of the U.S. Four-Ball coverage.
Pretty sure Jeremy Wall will be headed for Stonewall next
month to defend his BMW Philadelphia Amateur crown.
Smith, a six-time winner of the Pennsylvania Golf
Association’s R. Jay Sigel Match-Play Championship, and White missed match play
as they matched par with a 71 at the Old Macdonald Course and added a 1-under
69 at Pacific Dunes for a 1-under 140 total.
Like the champions, Harvey and Mitchell, Smith and White
have been in the U.S. Four-Ball field in each of its five editions.
An interesting pair popped up that also failed to make match
play in former Temple standout Mark Farley and Connor McNicholas, a one-time
Hatboro-Horsham standout. Farley and McNicholas struggled to a 4-over 74 in the
opening round at Pacific Dunes before carding a solid 4-under 67 at the Old
Macdonald Course for an even-par 141 total.
Farley is a Calvary Christian product out of Penndel.
McNicholas had a strong start at Temple nearly a decade ago, but had his
college career derailed when he was the driver in a car accident that killed
two of his friends. He was convicted of vehicular homicide and it appears he
spent some time in jail. Sounds like he might be on what I’m sure is a long
road back from that devastating incident.
Farley and McNicholas were the qualifying medalists at
Kirkbrae Country Club in Lincoln, R.I. last September.
A couple of Maryland guys, Andrew Rice and Josh Notes, came
up to the Cricket Club and shared qualifying medalist honors with Sementz and
Wallace at the Militia Hill Course last fall. Rice and Notes opened with a
3-under 68 at the Old Macdonald Course before posting a 3-over 73 at Pacific
Dunes for an even-par 141 total.
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