Waldmann's game warms up as he claims Junior Tour victory at Buena Vista

   Too cold for golf Saturday? You could certainly argue the point, but that didn’t stop a group of hardy junior golfers from donning their cold-weather gear and heading for Buena Vista Golf Course in Douglass Township for one of the final stops in the fall portion of the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour’s wraparound 2019-2020 schedule.

   Hey, if the youngsters aspire to play golf at a higher level, they’re going to be faced with some tough conditions at some point along the way. At the other end of Montgomery County from Buena Vista Saturday, for instance, players from the Philadelphia area’s Division I schools teed it up in the City 6 Championship at Huntingdon Valley Country Club (I’ll get to a post on that a little later).

   The cold didn’t seem to bother Chris Waldmann of Malvern, who played a steady round with four bogeys and a birdie in a solid 3-over-par 73 over the 5,500-yard, par-70 Buena Vista layout to capture a victory in the 16-to-18 division. Waldmann has been hanging around the top of the leaderboard in the 16-to-18 division for much of the fall.

   Blake Stewart of Perkasie was the runnerup, finishing four shots behind Waldmann with a 77. Jackson Tappen of Lower Gwynedd ad Jack Farkas of Ardmore shared third place, each posting an 80.

   Justin Pileggi of North Wales took fifth place with an 84, Sean Maguire was sixth with an 85 and William Boyce of Elkton, Md. was seventh with an 87. Will Milligan of Cherry Hill, N.J. finished in eighth place with an 88 and Robert McNelly of Collegeville was ninth with a 96.

   I’ll bet Jake Milewski of Broomall was glad he showed up at Buena Vista Saturday. Not only did he claim a win in the 13-to-15 division with his 6-over 76, but Milewski picked up his first career hole-in-one when his tee shot at the 138-yard seventh hole found the bottom of the cup.

   Milewski also had two birdies to offset 3 bogeys, two double bogeys and a triple bogey.

   Connor Toussaint of Lansdale was the runnerup with a 77 and two more entries from Team Boyce in Elkton, Md., Mike Boyce and Jacob Boyce, finished in a tie for third placed, each posting an 81.

   Sachin Blake of Berwyn finished in fifth place with an 83, Jonathan Seifarth of Schwenksville was sixth with a 94, Ryan Horenci of Lansdale was seventh with a 95 and James Ciesielka of Woolwich Township, N.J. was eighth with a 100.

   Erica Honadel of Bel Air, N.J. captured top honors in the girls 13-to-15 division with a solid 84 that featured a pair of birdies and five pars. Sophia DeSantis of Glen Mills was the runnerup with a 124.

   Hank Kancher of Philadelphia, whose game is really starting to make strides, bested the field of nine-holers with a 37 that included a birdie at the fifth hole and six pars. Matthew Sanderson of Newtown was the runnerup with a 42.