Vince Kwon and Troy Vannucci authored one of the highlights
of 2019 on the Golf Association of Philadelphia scene, even though they were a
couple of thousand miles away at the Bandon Dunes Resort in Oregon.
The U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship was staged at Bandon
Dunes’ Old Macdonald Course, an event that started over the Memorial Day
weekend. And Kwon, who plays out of Huntingdon Valley Country Club, and
Vannucci, part of the deep stable of talent at Little Mill Country Club, made
it all the way to the semifinals before falling to eventual champions Scott
Harvey, winner of the 2014 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Saucon Valley Country Club, and
his partner Todd Mitchell.
In reaching the semifinals, the Marlton, N.J. golfing
buddies were exempt from qualifying for the 2020 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball. And
they won’t have nearly as far to travel to get to next year’s edition of the
USGA’s youngest and quite popular championship since it will be held at
Philadelphia Cricket Club, where, reportedly, Kwon has caught a couple of loops
over the years.
In an attempt to keep their competitive juices set on high,
Kwon and Vannucci headed to South Florida this week for the Men’s Dixie
Amateur, held at Eagle Trace Golf Club, once one of the more challenging stops
on the PGA Tour when it played host to the Honda Classic in Coral Springs, Fla.
And if you thought Kwon’s solid play throughout 2019 was
some kind of fluke, when the 72-hole event was over Friday, there he was with a
share of second place at 6-over-par 294.
Kwon never really threatened the champion, Middle Tennessee
State redshirt freshman Michael Barnard of Gallatin, Tenn., whose 1-over 289
total was really impressive as the same harsh wind that ushered in some
stinging cold to the Philadelphia area made it all the way to South Florida and
made a tough Eagle Trace layout play even tougher.
Kwon, a product of Cherry Hill East High, birdied three of
the last four holes, 15, 16 and 18, around a bogey at the 17th hole
in Friday’s final round to match par with a 72 as he shared second place at 294
with Canadian Bennett Ruby.
Kwon and Vannucci were both in the hunt at the halfway point
as both stood at 2-over 146. Kwon opened with a 2-over 74 before matching par
in Wednesday’s second round with a 72. After opening with a 76, Vannucci turned
in a sparkling 2-under 70 in the second round.
While Vannucci struggled to an 80 in Thursday’s third round
after rain and wind was replaced by chilly temperatures and a lot of wind, Kwon
held it together with a 4-over 76 that left him five shots behind Ruby, who
held the 54-hole lead at 1-over 217.
Vannucci finished up with a 4-over 76 Friday to land among
the group tied for 15th place at 14-over 302.
After opening with a 3-over 75, Barnard was solid the rest
of the week. He carded a 1-under 71 in the second round and matched par in the
third round with a 72. Barnard trailed Ruby by a shot heading into Friday’s
final round.
Barnard had a bogey early, at the third hole, and a bogey
late, at the 16th hole, but in between he had birdies at the eighth,
10th and 12th holes on his way to another 1-under 71 that
enabled him to cruise to a five-shot victory over Kwon and Ruby, who closed
with a 5-over 77.
Noah Connor of Reidsville, N.C. closed fast with a 1-under
71 to finish alone in fourth place at 8-over 296, two shots behind Kwon and
Ruby.
Canadians seemed to have found Eagle Trace to their liking
as two more entries from north of the border, Zack Mason and Phil Arci, a top
Canadian mid-amateur, shared fifth place at 9-over 297.
Mason owned the lead at the halfway point at 1-under 143
after adding a second-round 73 to his opening round of 2-under 70 and still
only trailed his countryman Ruby by a shot after posting a 75 in the third
round. But Mason struggled a little with a final-round 79. Arci finished
strong, closing with a solid 1-over 73.
The Women’s Dixie Amateur was contested concurrently this
week at the Woodlands Country Club’s East Course in Tamarac, Fla. and
16-year-old Katherine Schuster, a high school hotshot in North Carolina from
Kill Devil Hills on the Outer Banks, captured the title when Auburn junior
Mychael O’Berry of Hoover, Ala. couldn’t hang around for a playoff.
O’Berry had a flight to catch Friday and petitioned
tournament officials to send her out early. Playing in the first group off,
O’Berry, who helped the Tigers advance out of the Auburn Regional they hosted
to the NCAA Championship last spring, put up a sparkling three-birdie, no-bogey
3-under 69 that left her at 8-under 280. The bar was set and it was set pretty
darn high.
But Schuster, winner of the Girls’ Junior North & South
Championship at the Pinehurst Country Club & Resort’s No. 6 Course last
summer, was able to match O’Berry with a 3-under 69 of her own, albeit a little
more adventurous than O’Berry’s loop at Woodlands’ East Course, to also finish
at 8-under 280.
Schuster offset two bogeys on the outgoing nine with a pair
of birdies. She twice went back-to-back on the back nine, making birdies at the
11th and 12th holes and the 15th and 16th
holes around a bogey at the 13th hole to get it to 8-under.
Schuster was the winner of the Girls 14-15 division in the
2018 Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals at Augusta National Golf Club the
Sunday of Masters week and this fall earned her third straight high school
state championship in North Carolina. I’m sure the First Flight High junior is
high on several college recruiting lists.
She had jumped out to a big lead at the halfway point at
Woodlands East, adding a sparkling 5-under 67 to her opening-round 71 that left
her at 6-under 138 through 36 holes.
But while Schuster fell back a little with a 1-over 73 in
tough conditions in Thursday’s third round, O’Berry, with a 4-under 68, and
Canada’s Emily Zhu, with a scintillating 6-under 66 that featured six birdies
in a seven-hole stretch, caught Schuster, each landing on 5-under 211 after
three rounds.
Zhu, winner of the Canadian Junior Girls Championship last
summer, posted a final round of 1-over 73 to finish alone in third place, four
shots behind the top two at 4-under 284.
Jieming Yang, a talented junior player from China who is
based in Orlando, Fla., closed strong with a 4-under 69 to finish a shot behind
Zhu in fourth place at 3-under 285.
Casey Weidenfeld of Pembroke Pines, Fla. shared fifth place
with Paris Hilinski of La Quinta, Calif. at 2-under 286.
Weidenfeld teamed with Jillian Bourdage, a U.S. Girls’
Junior Championship finalist at SentryWorld in the summer, to reach the final
of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship at Timuquana Country Club in
Jacksonville, Fla. last spring. Weidenfeld closed fast at Woodlands East with a
3-under 69.
Hilinski teed it up in last spring’s U.S. Women’s Open at
the Country Club of Charleston at age 15 and earned a spot in the match-play
bracket in the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point,
Miss. in the summer. The California Kid finished up with a 2-under 70 to get
her share of fifth place with Weidenfeld.
Speaking of teen phenoms, the defending champion in the
Women’s Dixie Amateur, 15-year-old Alexa Pano of Lake Worth, Fla. and No. 26 in
the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking, made a run at a repeat with a 4-under
68 in the third round, but closed with a 75 to finish alone in seventh place at
1-under 287.
It was a busy week for Pano, who was one of 12 players
invited to participate in a practice session for candidates for the team that
will represent the United States in the Curtis Cup Match against Great Britain
& Ireland June 12 to 14 at Conwy Golf Club in Caernarvonshire, Wales.
U.S. captain Sarah Ingram, a three-time U.S. Mid-Amateur
champion, got a look at some potential members of her side at Loblolly in Hobe
Sound, Fla. The practice session was scheduled for Sunday through Tuesday, but
Pano might have been given an excused absence to go defend her title in the
Women’s Dixie Amateur, which, like the Men’s Dixie Amateur, teed off Tuesday.
The Dixie Women’s Amateur is the opener of the Orange
Blossom Tour, an unofficial series of women’s amateur tournaments in South Florida
that will continue after the holidays. Pano has built quite a competitive base
at a young age by competing in many of the Orange Blossom Tour events in the
last four winters.
While Pano, the 2018 runnerup to Yealimi Noh in the 2018
U.S. Girls’ Junior at foggy Poppy Hills, was the youngest invitee to the
Loblolly practice session, the oldest was 2015 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur
champion Lauren Greenlief of Ashburn, Va.
The 29-year-old Greenlief also teed it up at Woodlands’ East
Course – looks like she was paired with Pano for the first two rounds – and had
a solid showing, finishing among the group tied for 23rd place at
5-over 293. Greenlief, who reached the semifinals in last summer’s U.S. Women’s
Mid-Am at Forest Highlands Golf Club’s Meadow Course in Flagstaff, Ariz.,
rattled off three straight rounds of even-par 72 before struggling a little in
Friday’s final round with a 5-over 77.
Reigning Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur champion Jackie
Rogowicz finished among the group tied for 31st place at 8-over 296.
A scholastic standout at Pennsbury, Rogowicz completed an outstanding four-year
career at Penn State last spring.
Rogowicz struggled in the opening round at Woodlands East
with a 77, but flashed her considerable talent with a sparkling 3-under 69 in
the second round. She finished up with back-to-back 3-over 75s.
Allison Cooper, who played college golf at Penn State
Harrisburg after an outstanding scholastic career at Central Dauphin, failed to
make the cut that fell after 54 holes. Cooper posted a solid 1-over 73 in the
second round, but sandwiched that effort with a pair of 81s.
The Dixie Amateur’s Senior, Mid-Master and Super Senior
divisions were contested last week at Eagle Trace with Jeffrey Scott Ray of
Central City, Ky. holding off decorated senior Gene Elliott of West Des Moines,
Iowa to capture the Senior division by a shot.
Ray hasn’t done a whole lot on the national stage, but after
winning two of the last three Kentucky Senior Amateur crowns he’s planning to
branch out with more of a national schedule in 2020.
After opening with an even-par 72 and adding a 2-under 70,
Ray shared the top spot heading into the final round at 2-under 142 with Joe
Shaktman of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Elliott, who has had an outstanding 2019 campaign, was six
shots behind the co-leaders heading into the final round and promptly birdied
the first four holes to surge into contention.
Elliott won his second Canadian Senior Amateur crown last
summer at Cedar Brae Golf Club after falling in a playoff to fellow American
Craig Davis in The Seniors Amateur Championship at North Berwick Golf Club.
Elliott also won the senior division in the Crump Cup at Pine Valley Golf Club.
With Shaktman starting to struggle, Elliott grabbed a
one-shot lead over Ray after making a birdie at the 10th hole that
got him to 5-under for the round. Ray, however, responded with birdies at the
11th and 13th holes to retake the lead and held on for
the title.
Ray closed with a 1-over 73 for a 1-under 215 total. Elliott
finished up with a sparkling 4-under 68 to end up a shot behind Ray at even-par
216. Shaktman signed for a final-round 77, but still finished third at 3-over
219.
Jeff Slagle of Southlake, Texas was another six shots behind
Shaktman in fourth place at 9-over 225. Slagle fired a solid 2-under 70 in the
second round before falling back with a final-round 79. It was another five
shots back to Michael Hughett of Owassa, Okla., who landed at 14-over 230 in
defense of the Dixie Amateur senior crown he won a year ago. Hughett finished
up with a 78.
It was the debut of the Mid-Master division for players ages
40 to 54 and the title went to Chad Branton of Cartersville, Ga., whose 2-under
214 total was 10 shots clear of the rest of the field.
At age 50, Branton was one just three 50-somethings to earn
a spot in the match-play bracket in the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at Colorado
Golf Club last summer, although he fell in the opening round.
After posting back-to-back 2-under 70s in the first two
rounds, Branton closed with a 2-over 74 for his 214 total.
Joseph Crannell of Carmel, Ind. matched par in the final
round with a 72 to earn runnerup honors at 8-over 224. Glenn Przbylski of
Frankfort, Ill. was two shots behind Crannell in third place at 10-over 226
after a final-round 78. Przbylski had opened with an even-par 72.
Jason Coolik of Atlanta and Mike Heffner of Powder Springs,
Ga. shared fourth place, each finishing up a shot behind Przbylski at 11-over
227. Coolik closed with a 4-over 76 and Heffner finished up with a 77.
Edward Turner of Richardson, Texas sandwiched a 1-under 71
with a pair of 3-over 75s to capture top honors in the Super Senior division
with a 5-over 221 total. Turner outdueled Fred Stern of Boca Raton, Fla. by a
shot as Stern posted a final round of 4-over 76 to finish up at 6-over 222.
Stern opened with an even-par 72 and added a 2-over 74 to share the 36-hole
lead with Turner at 2-over 146.
It was another nine shots back to Doug Hopton-Jones of
Mansfield, Texas and Lawrence Culler of Pompano Beach, Fla., who finished in a
tie for third place at 15-over 231. Hopton-Jones carded a final-round 77 while
Culler closed with a 76.
Garland Yates of Asheboro, N.C. was three shots behind
Hopton-Jones and Culler in fifth place at 18-over 234 after a final-round 82.
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