The Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour’s stop at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort has always fallen in an interesting spot on the calendar, a little more than a week before the course in Springettsbury Township, York County plays host to the PIAA Championship.
Some high school players who have competed in both events have told me the golf course plays a lot different for the state championship – particularly when it comes to the speed of the greens – than it does for the Philly Junior Tour stop.
John Bradbeer of Rosemont is a senior at Friends’ Central School and does not compete in the PIAA. His high school golf season is in the spring. Liberty sophomore Matt Vital competed in the PIAA Class AAA Championship as a freshman a year ago. Those two landed atop the leaderboard in the 16-to-18 division, each carding a 1-over-par 72 over the 6.700-yard, par-71 Heritage Hills layout Saturday.
Bradbeer, who plays out of Merion Golf Club, had five birdies on his scorecard. Vital, who shined on a national stage when he won the Boys 12-13 division in the Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals at Augusta National Golf Club in the spring of 2019, had four birdies.
Jacob Haberstumpf of Bethlehem finished two shots behind the top two in third place with a 3-over 74. Tower Hill sophomore Henry Stone, a Kennett Square resident, was a shot behind Haberstumpf in fourth place with a 75. Like Bradbeer, Stone’s scholastic season in Delaware is in the spring. Sean Kelly of Lewisburg took fifth place with a 77.
La Salle junior Darren Nolan and Grey Conta of Hummelstown shared sixth place, each posting a 78. Nolan helped La Salle finish third in the PIAA Class AAA team chase a year ago. Haven’t seen any returns yet from the District 12 Championship, so I’m not sure if Nolan is headed back to Heritage Hills in a little more than a week.
Radnor High senior Tyler Tornoe, Central Bucks South’s Will Locovare and Luke Thompson of Huntingdon rounded out the top 10 in the 16-to-18 division as each carded a 79 to finish in a tie for ninth place. The Central League couldn’t put together a District One qualifier in time in this confusing year of the coronavirus pandemic to allow Tornoe and the rest of the league’s players a chance to compete in the PIAA postseason.
Nick Mahoney of Lewisburg birdied the tough ninth hole at Heritage Hills on his way to a 5-over 76 that gave him a victory in the 13-to-15 division. Noah Moelter of Doylestown got it going early, making three birdies on the front nine on his way to a 77 that earned him runnerup honors.
Maxwell Wager of State College took third place with an 82 and J.D. Mahoney of Ellicott City, Md. and Samuel Feeney of West Chester finished in a tie for fourth place, each signing for an 83. Landry Rohrbaugh of Harrisburg ended up in sixth place with an 87.
Alec Thiele of Philadelphia, Hunter Probst of Bear Creek and Dylan Ramsey of Lebanon finished in a tie for seventh place, each registering an 89. Jesse Shue of Columbia rounded out the top 10 as he finished alone in 10th place with a 90.
The best score among the girls teeing it up at Heritage Hills came out of the 13-to-15 division as North Penn sophomore Hayley Ekert birdied the tough 14th hole on her way to an 80 that earned her the top spot in the division.
Jillian Burks of Paoli was the runnerup to Ekert with an 89 that featured a birdie at the third hole. Burks will represent the Philadelphia area in the Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals next spring after the 2020 event was postponed due to the pandemic. Olivia Kury of York rounded out the 13-to-15 field as she finished in third place with a 118.
Conestoga junior Sophia Brubaker claimed top honors in the 16-to-18 division with an 89 that included seven pars. Brubaker is another Central League golfer who didn’t get the opportunity to compete in the PIAA postseason. Taegan Mills of Montrose made pars on three of the four par-3s at Heritage Hills as she earned runnerup honors with a 96.
Declan Conner of Swarthmore had five pars in a 4-over 40 as he bested the field of nine-holers. Ian Larsen of Glenmoore birdied the fifth hole as he finished a shot behind Conner in second place with a solid 41.
Lawson Leeper of York finished strong, making pars on three of his last four holes, to finish alone in third place with a 43. Luke Fallon of Reading finished in fourth place with a 47 and Callahan Harrell of York and Lily Kochersperger of Kennett Square shared fifth place, each carding a 46.
Alan Evans of Schuylkill Haven took seventh place with a 50, Thomas Carpenter of Bristol was eighth with a 53 and Michael Liu of Garnet Valley and Bryn Krosse of York finished in a tie for ninth place, each posting a 54. Benjamin Mayer of Garnet Valley rounded out the coed 12-and-under field as he finished in 11th place with a 56.
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