Brandon Dalinka, a member of Council Rock North’s 2008 PIAA
championship team, fired a 4-under-par 68 at Colorado Golf Club Sunday to
finish in a four-way tie for second place in qualifying for match play in the
U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship.
Dalinka, who went on to play college golf at North Carolina,
had opened with a 1-under 69 at CommonGround Golf Course, the other qualifying
site. He had a crazy round Sunday at the 7,620-yard, par-72 Colorado Golf Club layout
with eight birdies against four bogeys, punctuating the round by draining a
30-footer for birdie at the 16th hole that enabled him to finish
with a 5-under 137 total.
“I just tried to stay calm,” Dalinka, who works in finance
in New York City, told the USGA website. “My dad is on the bag and he has kept
me level-headed. I made a couple of mental mistakes, not calculating the
altitude, which cost me two bogeys. I rolled a lot of putts in and got lucky.”
Dalinka, who plays out of The Ridge at Back Brook, and the
rest of the 64 qualifiers for match play will play first-round matches Monday.
Eighteen players who landed at 5-over 147 will be involved in a playoff for the
final six spots in the match-play bracket Monday morning. Match play will be
contested at Colorado Golf Club.
Also earning a spot in the match-play bracket was reigning
Golf Association of Philadelphia Middle-Amateur champion Will Davenport, who
plays out of Whitemarsh Valley Country Club. Davenport added a 3-over 75 at
Colorado Golf Club to the 1-over 71 he posted at CommonGround Saturday for a
4-over 146 total.
Davenport earned his ticket to Colorado at a
GAP-administered qualifier at Indian Valley Country Club last month.
Ben Warnquist of Gaithersburg, Md. claimed medalist honors
as he birdied four of his last seven holes – he finished up on the front nine
-- at the 7,558-yard, par-70 CommonGround layout Sunday on his way to a 2-under
68 that left him with a 6-under 136 total. Warnquist, who played college golf
at Maryland, had opened with a 4-under 68 Saturday at Colorado Golf Club.
Joining Dalinka in the foursome tied for second at 5-under
were Robbie Ziegler of Portland, Ore. and a couple of players out of Dallas,
Ryan Eibner and Paul McNamara.
Ziegler, who played college golf at Oregon, added an
even-par 70 at CommonGround to his opening-round 67 at Colorado Golf Club.
Eibner, a quarterfinalist a year ago at Charlotte Country Club, posted a
2-under 70 at Colorado Golf Club after opening with a 3-under 67 at
CommonGround. McNamara, who played college golf at Notre Dame, fired a 5-under
67 at Colorado Golf Club after matching par at CommonGround in Saturday’s
opening round.
The two players who hooked up in a memorable final at
Stonewall in the 2016 U.S. Mid-Am, Stewart Hagestad of Newport Beach, Calif.
and Scott Harvey of Greensboro, N.C., easily made it into match play.
Hagestad, No. 6 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR),
carded a sizzling 4-under 66 at CommonGround after opening with a 1-over 73 at
Colorado Golf Club to finish in the group tied for seventh at 3-under 139.
Hagestad, who rallied to beat Harvey on the 37th hole at Stonewall,
helped the United States retain the Walker Cup last weekend with a victory over
Great Britain & Ireland at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England.
Harvey, the 2014 U.S. Mid-Am champion at Saucon Valley Country Club, finished in the group tied for 13th at
even-par 142 after adding an even-par 72 at Colorado Golf Club Sunday to the
opening-round 70 he posted at CommonGround.
Nathan Smith, the four-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion from
Pittsburgh, fired a 1-under 69 at CommonGround to finish in the group tied for
33rd at 3-over 145. Smith had struggled to a 4-over 76 Saturday at
Colorado Golf Club.
Smith was joined at that figure by another player who came
out of the Indian Valley qualifier, Yaroslav Merkulou of Penfield, N.Y.
Merkulou added a 1-over 71 at CommonGround to his opening-round 74 at Colorado
Golf Club.
Defending champion Kevin O’Connell of Jacksonville, Fla.
rallied from an opening-round 77 at Colorado Golf Club with a 1-under 69 at
CommonGround to join Davenport at 4-over 147 and earn a spot in the match-play
bracket.
A couple of GAP regulars, Aronimink Golf Club’s Cory
Siegfried and Little Mill Country Club’s Troy Vannucci finished a shot out of
the playoff at 6-over 148.
Siegfried, who had opened with a 1-under 71 at Colorado Golf
Club, struggled to a 77 at CommonGround Sunday. Vannucci, who had teamed with
fellow Marlton, N.J. resident Vince Kwon to reach the semifinals of the U.S.
Amateur Four-Ball Championship at Bandon Dunes last spring, added a 3-over 75
at Colorado Golf Club to his opening-round 73 at CommonGround.
Saucon Valley Country Club’s Matthew Mattare of Jersey City,
N.J. was another shot back at 7-over 149 after adding a 73 at CommonGround to
his opening-round 76 at Colorado Golf Club. Mattare had earned a spot in match
play in last year’s U.S. Mid-Am at Charlotte Country Club.
Former La Salle standout P.J. Acierno struggled to an 83 at
Colorado Golf Club to finish at 155. DuPont Country Club’s Matthew Finger
posted an 80 at Colorado Golf Club to end up at 156. Merion Golf Club’s David
Ferreira carded an 86 at Colorado Golf Club to end up at 162.
Siegfried, Acierno and Ferreira were the other players who
emerged from the qualifier at Indian Valley.
In qualifying for match play in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur
at Forest Highland’s Golf Club’s Meadow Course in Flagstaff, Ariz., Kelli Pry
of Coatesville capped two strong days of stroke play with an even-par 72 that
left her in a tie for seventh at even-par 144.
Pry had opened qualifying by matching par with a 72
Saturday.
Merion Golf Club’s Catherine Elliott-Powell also punched her
ticket into the match-play bracket as she added a 4-over 76 to her
opening-round 73 for a 5-over 149 total that left her in the group tied for 28th.
It was the first time Elliott-Powell, who starred
scholastically at the Academy of Notre Dame and collegiately at Penn, made
match play in her third straight appearance in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am.
Elliott-Powel advanced to Forest Highlands out of a GAP-administered qualifier
last month at Whitford Country Club.
Elliott-Powel opened her round Sunday with a double bogey,
but then rattled off 12 straight pars. After a birdie at the 14th
hole that got her back to 1-over for the day, Elliott-Powell made bogeys at the
15th, 16th and 18th holes.
Julia Potter-Bobb of Indianapolis added a 2-under 70 to her
opening-round 68 to capture medalist honors by four shots with a 6-under 138
total.
It is the third time Potter-Bobb has earned either medalist
or co-medalist honors in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am and the left-hander claimed the title the
two previous times, including a win in the 2016 edition at The Kahkwa Club in
Erie.
Michelle Butler of Columbia, Mo., who reached the semifinals
of the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am a year ago at Norwood Hills Country Club in St.
Louis, and Heather Wall of Lakeland, Fla. finished in a tie for second at
2-under 142. Both players posted a second consecutive 1-under 71.
Defending champion Shannon Johnson of Easton, Mass. was a
shot behind Butler and Wall in a tie for fourth at 1-under 143. Johnson, who
lost to Potter-Bobb in the final at The Kahkwa Club, fired a 3-under 69 Sunday
after opening with a 74.
Kelsey Chugg of Salt Lake City, Utah, the 2017 champion who
fell to Johnson in the final a year at Norwood Hills, added a 2-over 74 to her
opening-round 71 to end up in the group tied for 10th at 1-over 145.
Lauren Greenlief of Ashburn, Va., the 2015 U.S. Women’s
Mid-Am winner, also earned a ticket to match play as she finished in a tie for
15th place at 2-over 146. Greenlief posted a 3-over 75 Sunday after
opening with a 71.
South Jersey native Megan Stasi, a four-time U.S. Women’s
Mid-Amateur champion, again put herself in the match-play mix as she added a
3-over 75 to her opening-round 74 to finish among the group tied for 28th
at 5-over 149.
Three-time Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur champion Katie
Miller of Jeannette rallied in Sunday’s second round with an even-par 72 to
finish in the group tied for 39th at 151. Miller, a three-time PIAA
champion at Hempfield Area and a former North Carolina standout, had struggled
to an opening-round 79.
Six players will be involved in a playoff for the final spot
in the match-play bracket Monday morning after they finished at 156.
Amy Kennedy of York came up short of a match-play berth as
she carded a second straight 80 for a 160 total.
Karen Siegel of Maple Glen also came up short of a
match-play spot as she added an 81 to her opening-round 80. Pretty sure Siegel
plays out of Commonwealth National Golf Club. Like Elliott-Powel, Siegel
emerged from the GAP-administered qualifier at Whitford.
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