Pennsylvania had half the semifinalists in the U.S. Senior
Amateur a year ago at Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Ore.
One of those semifinalists was Reading’s Chip Lutz, the
winner of the 2015 U.S. Senior Amateur at Hidden Creek Golf Club in Egg Harbor
Township, N.J.
The 64-year-old Lutz, however, fell in the semifinals at
Eugene in his attempt to add a second U.S. Senior Amateur title to his
glittering senior amateur record. And Monday at Old Chatham Golf Club in
Durham, N.C., Lutz saw his bid in this year’s U.S. Senior Amateur halted in the
opening round of match play with a 2-up loss to 59-year-old Titus Harris of
Houston.
The other Pennsylvanian in the match-play bracket,
first-time U.S. Senior Amateur entry Chris Fieger of Denver, Lancaster County,
also came up short in a loss to Victor Minovich of Thornton, Colo. in a 21-hole
thriller.
Lutz, the nine-time reigning Golf Association of
Philadelphia Senior Player of the Year, had stormed into match play after a
second-round 68 in qualifying left him just a shot short of earning a piece of
medalist honors.
He then won the second hole with a birdie, the third hole
with a par and the fourth hole with another birdie to jump out to a 3-up lead.
Surely Harris would wilt in the face of that kind of start from Lutz, who has
been so dominant as a senior amateur over the last decade that Global Golf
Post named him the top male amateur player in the world for 2016.
But nobody knows how talented his fellow old guys are better
than Lutz does. And Harris, who was playing in his first USGA event since the
2009 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship, refused to go away.
Harris won the fifth hole with a par, but Lutz, who plays
out of LedgeRock Golf Club in Mohnton, restored his 3-up advantage by taking
the sixth hole with a par. Harris won the ninth hole with a birdie, but Lutz
won the 10th hole with a par and was again 3-up with eight holes to
play.
That’s when Harris went off. He won the 13th hole
with a par, the 14th hole with a birdie and the 16th hole
with a birdie to get the match even. Harris then won the 17th hole with a
birdie and the 18th with a par and, just like that, it was over.
Lutz will be disappointed, but he finished in a tie for
seventh in the R&A Senior Amateur Championship at North Berwick and in a
tie for fourth in qualifying at Old Chatham. Lutz’s down year would be a dream
summer for a lot of amateur golfers his age.
The 56-year-old Fieger, a member of the golfing Fieger
family of Nether Providence/Strath Haven fame in Delaware County, also got out
to a quick lead, winning the first and fourth holes with birdies.
Minovich evened the match, but Fieger won the 10th
and 12th holes with pars to get back to 2-up with six holes to go.
But Minovich rallied again, winning the 14th hole with a birdie and
the 16th and 17th holes with pars to take a 1-up lead to
the 18th hole.
To his credit, though, Fieger, who reached Old Chatham out
of the GAP-administered qualifier at LuLu Country Club, sent the match to extra
holes by winning the 18th hole with a par. Minovich finally stopped
Fieger’s bid by taking the 21st hole with a par.
Fieger’s USGA debut went pretty well, though. He finished
tied for ninth in qualifying and battled through a tough match before falling.
It was probably as big a match-play spot as Fieger has found himself in in his
56 years on the planet.
The other player with a more tenuous tie to the Philadelphia
area, Edward Armagost, did Fieger one better as he fell in 22 holes to Peter
Detemple of Canada.
Armagost was caddying at Pine Valley Golf Club when he
advanced out of a GAP-administered qualifier last summer to Eugene, where he
reached match play and won a match. Armagost lists Jupiter, Fla. as his home
base because he is a winter looper at another iconic American golf location,
Seminole Golf Club.
Not sure if Armagost is back looping at Pine Valley this summer,
but I’ve heard tales that he was a mini-tour star back in the day, so he’s
always had game.
Armagost won the ninth hole with a birdie to even his match
with Detemple. The two proceeded to halve the next 12 holes, Detemple holing an
18-footer for par on the 18th hole to send the match to extra holes.
Detemple finally ended it with a birdie at the 22nd hole.
Detemple’s reward for that victory will be a second-round
match Tuesday morning with one of the qualifying co-medalists, 56-year-old
Michael McCoy of Norwalk, Iowa, who had a battle on his hands in Monday’s
opening round before pulling out a 1-up decision over Walker Taylor of
Wilmington, N.C.
McCoy was the second-oldest winner of the U.S. Mid-Amateur
Championship when he captured the title in 2013 and figures to be a tough out
this week at Old Chatham.
Another qualifying co-medalist, 59-year-old Dean Channell of
Cary, N.C., advanced with a 2 and 1 victory over Edward Purnell of Altamonte
Springs, Fla. It’s a home game for Channell, who lives all of eight miles from
Old Chatham.
The third qualifying co-medalist, 62-year-old Doug Hanzel of
Savannah, Ga., cruised to a 4 and 3 victory over Keith Smith of Franklin, Mass.
Hanzel won the U.S. Senior Amateur in 2013.
The luck of the match-play draw pitted two former champions,
defending champion Jeff Wilson of Fairfield, Calif. and Dave Ryan of
Taylorville, Ill., who won this championship in 2016. The 56-year-old Wilson
had his hands full with the 65-year-old Ryan, but kept his chances at repeating
alive with a 1-up victory.
Only eight players will be left standing if play goes
according to schedule Tuesday as the survivors of the second round in the
morning will come back for round-of-16 matches in the afternoon.
At the U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur Championship at Cedar
Rapids Country Club in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Bethlehem’s Noreen Mohler dropped a
5 and 4 decision to Laura Webb, the reigning British Senior Women’s Amateur
champion from Ireland.
It was a pretty nice run for Mohler, the 65-year-old Lehigh
Valley legend who captained the 2010 U.S. Curtis Cup team to victory. She was
the qualifying medalist in the GAP-administered qualifier held simultaneously
with the senior men’s qualifier at LuLu.
Mohler did a great job grinding it out in qualifying to earn
a match-play berth. And the 52-year-old Webb couldn’t have run into a better
golf ambassador than Mohler in Webb’s first trip to the United States.
Webb earned an exemption into the U.S. Senior Women’s
Amateur for her British Senior Women’s Amateur win last fall, the second time
she’s won that event. She’s taking a year off from work to take advantage of
the many opportunities to compete for a senior amateur and was able to fit a
trip to the American Heartland into her itinerary.
The USGA’s Ron Driscoll has the whole story on Webb on the
USGA website and it comes highly recommended from this humble blogger.
Although Suzi Spotleson is listed as being from Canton,
Ohio, she seems to show up for the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia
Match Play Championship each summer representing the RiverCrest Golf Club &
Preserve, capturing that prestigious title in 2015.
The 52-year-old Spotleson, a college softball standout at
Northwestern, claimed a 1-up victory over Mina Hardin of Mexico in Monday’s
opening round. Spotleson had a 2-up lead when Hardin sent the match to the 18th
hole by winning the 17th hole with a par, but Spotleson pulled out
the victory.
Spotleson will take on Tina Barker of Fairfield, Calif. in
Tuesday’s second round. Barker advanced with a 3 and 1 victory over Jackie
Little of Canada.
Qualifying medalist Martha Leach of Hebron, Ky. advanced to
the second round with a 6 and 4 victory over Jane Curtin of Silver Spring, Md.
The 57-year-old Leach, the sister of six-time USGA champion Hollis Stacy, won
the 2009 U.S. Mid-Amateur.
Defending champion Lara Tennant of Portland, Ore. survived a
tough match-play opener as she edged Susan West of Tuscaloosa, Ala., 1-up.
The results of Monday’s opening round produced an
interesting second-round matchup Tuesday morning as Ellen Port of St. Louis, a
four-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Am and three-time U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur
champion, will take on Australian Sue Wooster, who fell in the final to Tennant
a year ago at the Orchid Island Golf & Beach Club in Vero Beach, Fla.
The 57-year-old Port rolled to a 6 and 5 decision over Kathy
Glennon of Wildwood, Mo. while Wooster, also 57, defeated Kim Eaton of Mesa,
Ariz., 4 and 3.
Weather permitting, Tuesday morning’s second round of match
play will be followed by the round of 16 in the afternoon.
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