When it comes to really good amateur golfers in this area,
Philadelphia Cricket Club’s John Brennan is something of an Everyman.
Brennan teaches social studies and coaches tennis at
Spring-Ford High School. He may not be the first guy you think of when it comes
to the upper echelon of players regularly competing on the Golf Association of
Philadelphia circuit. But he belongs in that conversation.
Heck, Brennan finished in a tie for third in last month’s
Philadelphia Open at Huntingdon Valley Country Club, an event that annually
produces the deepest field of the year in that it includes the top Philadelphia
Section PGA pros along with the best GAP performers. Pretty sure, the Cricket
Club is happy that Brennan’s around when it comes time fill out the lineup for
the BMW GAP Team Matches in the spring.
Brennan has one GAP major championship on his resume, a win
in the 2012 Middle-Amateur Championship at Chester Valley Golf Club.
Brennan isn’t necessarily running around the country teeing
it up in national amateur events. But when the nation came to this area for the
2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at Stonewall, there was Brennan among the 64
players who booked a spot in the match-play bracket.
Having turned 40, Brennan was looking forward to teeing it up
the Marston Cup, an event for players ages 40 to 54, for the first time this summer. Just back
from a golf vacation to the Old Sod at Ireland’s Old Head Golf Links, Brennan
fired a 1-under-par 71 at Yardley Country Club Aug. 14 to hoist the Marston
Cup.
Brennan finished a shot ahead of three players, Ryan Gelrod,
Brennan’s clubmate at the Cricket Club, Philadelphia Country Club’s P. Chet
Walsh and LuLu Country Club’s Scott McLaughlin. They all matched par with a 72
over the 6,250-yard, par-72 Yardley layout.
“I was excited to play in this one for a while now,” Brennan
told the GAP website. “It’s a great group of guys and we’re really out here to
have a good time. No offense to anyone, but there’s no kids out there.
“It’s all guys just enjoying their rounds and playing good golf.
It you’re hitting more than 15 balls at the driving range before your round,
you’re probably doing something wrong.”
Brennan started slowly, going 2-over for the first five
holes when a 95-minute lightning delay gave him time to regroup.
Brennan came right out of the delay with a birdie at the
310-yard, par-4 sixth hole as he nearly drove the green and got it up and down,
holing a 10-foot putt. His length paid dividends again at the 490-yard, par-5
14th hole as he reached the green in two and two-putted for birdie.
A bogey at the 195-yard, par-3 17th hole briefly
dropped him back to even-par for the round, but he again bombed it nearly on
the green at the 305-yard, par-4 finishing hole, his drive finishing on the
front fringe, 20 feet from the hole. Brennan’s eagle try just slid by, leaving
him with a tap-in for birdie.
Brennan was playing in next-to-last group of the day. He
knew Gelrod was in at even-par and he knew he was a shot better than Walsh, his
playing partner.
Concord Country Club’s Larry Benedetto and Ronald Jamarowicz
of White Clay Creek Country Club finished a shot behind the trio tied for
second in a tie for fifth, each posting a 1-over 73.
Dan Close of Woodcrest Country Club and Matthew Finger of
DuPont Country Club shared seventh place, each carding a 2-over 74. Rounding
out the top 10 were two players, Ed Brown of Wild Quail Golf & Country Club
and Derek Schwendinger of Trenton Country Club, tied for ninth place at 3-over
75.
The GAP website always likes to recount the 1923 season of
the Marston Cup’s namesake, Max Marston, a Merion Golf Club member – still
referred to as Merion Cricket Club in those days -- in its Marston Cup wrapup.
And it bears repeating on occasion. The guy had himself a year.
Marston won a pair of matches to help the United States
claim a win in the Walker Cup Match. He went home and captured the Patterson
Cup and the Philadelphia Amateur, claiming the Silver Cross Award in the
process. In July, Marston won the Pennsylvania Amateur and was the low amateur
in the Philadelphia Open.
In September, it was off to the U.S. Amateur in Floosmoor
Country Club outside of Chicago, where Marston rallied to beat Bobby Jones 2 and 1,
defeated Francis Ouimet in the semifinals and outlasted defending champion Jess
Sweester on the 38th hole to take the title.
In between all of that, he managed to claim the club
championship at Merion Cricket Club and captured the Crump Cup at Pine Valley
Golf Club.
No comments:
Post a Comment