Mestre punches ticket to U.S. Senior Amateur Championship with a 68 at LuLu

   Overbrook Golf Club’s Oscar Mestre has been playing at a high level all season.

   The 59-year-old Golf Association of Philadelphia vice president will take his 2019 roll all the way to the U.S. Senior Amateur Championship. Mestre fired a sparkling 3-under-par 68 to claim medalist honors in a GAP-administered qualifier at LuLu Country Club last Monday to earn a trip to the U.S. Senior Amateur Championship, which tees off Aug. 24 at the Old Chatham Golf Club in Durham, N.C.

   Also punching their tickets to the U.S. Senior Amateur at Old Chatham were 61-year-old John Robinson, playing on his home course at LuLu, and 56-year-old Chris Fieger of Foxchase Golf Club, each of whom carded a solid 2-under 69.

   Mestre won the Francis B. Warner Cup (Gross) at Burlington Country Club in May to open his 2019 campaign and had solid showings in two other GAP majors for the senior players, earning runnerup honors in the Frank H. Chapman Memorial Cup (Gross) at Moselem Springs Golf Club and reaching the semifinals of the Brewer Cup, presented by Callaway Golf, at Fieldstone Golf Club.

   “I’ve been playing well, so I was hoping the run wouldn’t end too soon, to be quite honest,” Mestre told the GAP website. “My only blip on the radar this year was the GAP Open Championship, where I really got heat fatigue at Huntingdon Valley. Other than that, I’ve been in control of my game. I was hopeful.”

   It will be Mestre’s first appearance on the national stage since he qualified for the 2000 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship. That came on the heels of a trip to the 1999 U.S. Amateur.

   Mestre admitted he was fighting his game early and, after starting on the 11^th tee, he made an early bogey with a three-putt at the 12^th hole. A par save at the 14^th hole kept his head in the game.

At the 366-yard, par-4 16^th hole, Mestre knocked a wedge from 98 yards away to 15 feet and converted the birdie try to get back to even-par for the round.

   When he reached the green in two at the 475-yard, par-5 first hole with a 5-iron and dropped his eagle putt from 15 feet, Mestre was 2-under and suddenly had a little wind at this back.

   His drive at the 443-yard, par-4 fifth hole found a bunker and led to a bogey, but he was able to attack two par-5s and make birdies to finish at 3-under.

   Mestre drilled a wedge from 119 yards away to seven feet at the 475-yard, par-5 eighth hole and made the putt and finished with a flourish at the 525-yard, par-5 10^th hole where he wedged his approach from 107 yards to 20 feet and got one more putt to drop.

   Robinson took full advantage of his local knowledge at the 6,471-yard, par-71 layout at LuLu, which he joined in 2015. The U.S. Senior Amateur at Old Chatham will be his first appearance in a USGA championship.

   It will also be the USGA debut for Fieger, who said he couldn’t recall even trying to qualify for a national event since his days as a scholastic standout at Strath Haven.

   Fieger’s older brother Gene Fieger has been a standout on the senior circuit for club professionals. An instructor at Club Pelican Bay in Naples, Fla., Gene Fieger won the Senior PGA Professional Championship in 2013. Gene Fieger finished in a tie for ninth in last year’s Senior Club Pro, which enabled him to tee it up in the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club’s East Course in Pittsford, N.Y. in the spring.
   The first alternate is David West of Oxford, who matched par with a 71. West qualified for last year's U.S. Senior Amateur Championship at Eugene Country Club and earned a berth in the match-play bracket.
   Gary Daniels of Berwyn is the second alternate as he carded a 1-over 72.

   The GAP contingent at the U.S. Senior Amateur is usually led by nine-time reigning GAP Senior Player of the Year Chip Lutz, winner of the 2015 U.S. Senior Amateur at Hidden Creek Golf Club at the Jersey Shore.

   It looks like the 64-year-old Lutz has his game in pretty good shape as he finished in a tie for seventh at 8-under 210 in The Seniors Amateur Championship, which concluded Saturday at North Berwick Golf Club in Scotland. Lutz has three victories in The Seniors Amateur Championship on his remarkable senior resume.

   Lutz reached the semifinals in last year’s U.S. Senior Amateur at Eugene Country Club before falling to eventual champion Jeff Wilson of Fairfield, Calif.