Tobiason's eagle chip-in lifts him to title in Connelly Cup Head Professional Championship at Radley Run

    Last summer, Mike Tobiason bested the field to capture the title in the National Car Rental Philadelphia Assistant PGA Professional Championship at St. Davids Golf Club.

   But when the top finishers from the Philadelphia Section PGA event advanced to the National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship in November, Tobiason was not in the field.

   Looks like I got my answer as to why last Monday when Tobiason fired a 2-under-par 70 at Radley Run Country Club in West Chester to capture the title in the Connelly Cup Head Professional Championship.

   Tobiason was an assistant pro at Deerfield Country Club when he won at St. Davids last summer and, obviously, received a promotion to head pro at Deerfield, which made him eligible to compete against his fellow head professionals in the Philly Section in the Connelly Cup.

   A year ago the Connelly Cup was a reason to celebrate as it marked one of the first golf competitions to be staged in the area after 10 weeks of various stages of lockdowns. We had a long way to go in our ongoing battle with the coronavirus pandemic, but just the fact that a golf tournament could be held safely was a hopeful sign.

   Tobiason couldn’t get a putt to fall at Radley Run as he registered 17 pars. But he drove it hole high on the 345-yard, par-4 14^th hole and didn’t need the putter after his pitch from 25 yards away found the bottom of the cup for an eagle that proved to be the difference.

   “Radley Run is a great golf course and it played as difficult today as I’ve personally seen it,” Tobiason told the Philadelphia Section PGA website. “I hit the ball well and even though I could have made more putts, I’m happy with how I played. I give lots of credit to my caddy Jerry, too.”

   Reigning Philadelphia Section PGA Player of the Year Mike Little, who also received a promotion from assistant pro at Lookaway Golf Club to head pro in 2020, headed a group of three players tied for second place, as he posted a 1-under 71.

   Joining Little at 1-under were Dustin Moser of the Toftrees Resort Golf Course outside of State College and Woodcrest Country Club head pro John DiMarco. Peter Clark of Manufacturers Golf & Country Club matched par with a 72 and finished alone in fifth place.

   Radnor Valley Country Club’s ageless George Forster registered a 1-over 73 and shared sixth place with Dave Pagett of Whitemarsh Valley Country Club, Curtis Kirkpatrick of Indian Spring Country Club and Ian Madinger of Plantation Links Country Club.

   Rounding out the top 10 were Eric Kennedy of Overbrook Golf Club, Anthony Malizia of Bidermann Golf Club and Sam Ambrose of Chester Valley Golf Club, all of whom carded a 2-over 74 to finish in a tie for 10^th place.

   DiMarco’s 1-under 71 gave him the top spot in the always competitive senior division by two shots over Forster.

   Hugo Mazzalupi of Patriots Glen National Golf Club and Brian Kelly of Bucknell Golf Club finished in a tie for third place among the senior contingent, each signing for a 3-over 75. Mazzalupi was the overall winner of the Connelly Cup a year ago at North Hills Country Club.

   Tobiason’s eagle on the 14^th hole was good for a Skin and Michael Caldwell of DuPont Country Club had the only other Skin of the day with a birdie at the 11^th.

   DiMarco had a pair of Skins in the senior division with birdies at the sixth and 14^th holes helping him post his 1-under 71. John Cooper of Green Valley Country Club picked up a senior Skin with his birdie at the 10^th hole and Rick Gibney of the Colonial Golf & Tennis Club earned a senior Skin with his birdie at the first hole.

   The Connelly Cup honors longtime Philadelphia Section professional Jack Connelly, who was the president of the Philly Section in 1983 and 1984 and was the president of the PGA of America in 2001 and 2002.

   The Connelly Cup Head Professional Championship was supported by Bridgestone Golf, Hole-In-One U.S.A., Jim Ravina Golf Sales and Scott and Karen Hutchinson.

 

 

Jin in front by two in individual chase, Oklahoma State takes aim at top seed in NCAA Championship at Grayhawk

    Bo Jin, a freshman from China and No. 56 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), will carry a two-shot lead into the final day of the battle for an individual national championship and his Oklahoma State team looks like it will comfortably move into match play as the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. really started to heat up in the desert Southwest Sunday.

   Jin, the runnerup in the 2019 U.S. Junior Amateur at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, carded his third straight sub-70 round, this one a 1-under-par 69, over the 7,289-yard, par-70 Grayhawk layout for a 9-under 201 total through 54 holes.

   Jin will be bidding to become the second straight Oklahoma State player to claim the individual national championship as Matthew Wolff, now a PGA Tour performer, captured the crown the last time the NCAA Championship was contested two springs ago at The Blessing Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark.

   Clemson’s Turk Pettit, a senior from Auburn, Ala., is Jin’s closest pursuer as he carded a solid 2-under 68, like Jin his third sub-70 round of the weekend, for a 7-under 203 total.

   Jin led the Big 12 champion Cowboys, No. 3 in the latest Golfstat rankings, to a second straight 6-under 274 that gave them a 17-shot lead over in-state and Big 12 rival Oklahoma, the top-ranked team in the country, in the battle for the top seed in match play, which gets under way Tuesday.

   Oklahoma State, the defending champion two years ago, won the top seed by a whopping 31 shots at The Blessings, but fell to Big 12 rival Texas in the semifinals.

   The Cowboys’ solid third round left them with a 12-under 828 total. Oklahoma State was an easy winner of the Stillwater Regional on its home course, Karsten Creek Golf Club. The Sooners posted a solid 2-over 282, but couldn’t quite keep pace with Oklahoma State as they landed on 1-over 841.

   No. 10 Arizona State, out of the Pac-12, was a shot behind Oklahoma in third place after the Sun Devils matched par in the third round with a 280 that left them at 2-over 842. It always seemed that Arizona State would feel at home at Grayhawk and the Sun Devils are validating that line of thinking.

   Big Ten champion Illinois made its move with a 2-under 278 that left the eighth-ranked Fighting Illini alone in fourth place, two shots behind Arizona State at 4-over 844.

   No. 2 Florida State, the Atlantic Coast Conference runnerup, also made a big move, matching Oklahoma State’s 6-under 274 and moving into fifth place at 9-over 849, five shots behind Illinois. Florida State was coming off an impressive victory in the Tallahassee Regional at its home course, the Seminole Legacy Golf Club.

   Two more ACC entries, No. 7 Wake Forest and No. 6 North Carolina, and Southeastern Conference champion Vanderbilt, ranked 11^th, all landed on 13-over 853 and were tied for sixth place, four shots behind Florida State. They’ll be in the thick of the battle for the eight berths in the match-play bracket during The Golf Channel’s Memorial Day broadcast. It will be must-see TV if you like a little holiday golf drama.

   The Demon Deacons carded a solid 2-over 282 while their Tobacco Road rivals, the Tar Heels, slipped a little with a 7-over 287. Vanderbilt matched par with a 280.

   West Coast Conference champion Pepperdine, ranked ninth, was a shot behind the trio tied for sixth place, in ninth place at 14-over 854 after the Waves struggled a little with a 9-over 289 in Sunday’s third round. Pepperdine was the top-ranked team in the country when the coronavirus pandemic shut down college golf in the spring of 2020. The Waves have played throughout the 2020-2021 season like a team that feels like something was stolen from it.

   ACC champion Clemson has had the extra motivation of trying to win a second national championship for head coach Larry Penley, who is stepping down after leading the program for 38 years. And the Tigers are right there with a chance to make it into match play as they carded a 5-over 285 Sunday that left them two shots behind Pepperdine in 10^th place with a 16-over 856 total.

   Upstart Sam Houston, the Southland Conference champion that is ranked 31^st, also remained in the hunt for a match-play berth as the BearKats registered an 8-over 288 that left them two shots behind Clemson in 11^th place at 18-over 858.

   No. 26 Georgia Tech will try to give the ACC a sixth team – 27^th-ranked Louisville was in 12^th place, six shots behind Sam Houston at 24-over 864 – among the 15 to survive the cut when the Yellow Jackets square off with the Big 12’s TCU, ranked 37^th, in a playoff Monday morning. Georgia Tech and TCU both landed on 32-over 872 to finish in a tie for 15th place.

   Backing up Jin for Oklahoma State was Eugenio Chacarra, a sophomore from Spain and No. 29 in the WAGR who contributed a 2-under 68 to the Cowboys’ strong team showing and was in a tie for eighth place in the individual standings with a 3-under 207 total.

   Low Cowboy for the day Sunday was veteran Austin Eckroat, a junior from Edmond, Okla. and No. 12 in the WAGR who fired a 3-under 67 that left him among the group tied for 12^th place at even-par 219.

   As a freshman, Eckroat was in the lineup when Oklahoma State rolled to the 2018 national championship with a 5-0 victory over Alabama in the Final Match on the Cowboys’ home course at Karsten Creek. Eckroat was also a member of the winning U.S. side in the Walker Cup Match played at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla. earlier this month.

   Brian Stark, a freshman from Kingsburg, Calif., carded a 4-over 74 that the Cowboys were able to toss and was in the group tied for 34^th place at 5-over 215.

   Rounding out the Oklahoma State lineup was Aman Gupta, a sophomore from Concord, N.C. and No. 98 in the WAGR who matched par with a counting 70 and was among the group tied for 41^st place at 6-over 246.

   The best individual round of the day belonged to Wake Forest’s Parker Gillam, a senior from Cary, N.C. who fired a sparkling 6-under 64 to land in a tie for third place with Oklahoma’s Quade Cummins, a redshirt senior from Weatherford, Okla. and No. 16 in the WAGR, at 5-under 205, two shots behind Clemson’s Pettit. Gillam birdied exactly half of the first 12 holes and then rattled off six straight pars to finish his round.

   Cummins, another member of the winning U.S. Walker Cup team at Seminole, carded his second straight 2-under 68, his third sub-70 round of the weekend, to join Gillam at 5-under.

   Cummins’ Oklahoma teammate, Jonathan Brightwell, a redshirt senior from Charlotte, N.C., headed a trio of players tied for fifth place at 4-under 206. Brightwell, who finished in a tie for second place in the Albuquerque Regional, registered his second straight 1-under 69 and was his third sub-70 round of the tournament.

   Brightwell was joined at that figure by Illinois’ Michael Feagles, a graduate student playing closed to his Scottsdale, Ariz. roots, and Arizona State’s Ryggs Johnston, a sophomore from Libby, Mont. Feagles fired a second straight 3-under 67 to move into contention for the individual title while Johnston signed for a 1-over 71.

   Joining Oklahoma State’s Chacarra in the tie for eighth place at 3-under 207 was Sam Houston’s William Holcomb, a senior from Crockett, Texas who registered a 1-under 69. Holcomb made a nice run to the semifinals of the 2019 U.S. Amateur at the Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina.

   Rounding out the top 10 in the individual standings were Florida State’s John Pak, a senior from Scotch Plains, N.J. and No. 4 in the WAGR, and Illinois’ Jerry Ji, a senior from the Netherlands, both of whom landed on 2-under 208.

   Pak was also part of the winning U.S. Walker Cup team at Seminole two years after representing the Red, White & Blue in a U.S. Walker Cup victory at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, England. Pak carded a 2-under 68 in Sunday’s third round. Ji matched par with a 70 to join Pak at 2-under.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LuLu's goal of a BMW GAP Team Matches title is finally realized

    Had a chance to pay Jon Rusk a visit in the spring of 2018 at LuLu Country Club, the distinctive Donald Ross layout in the Glenside section of Upper Dublin Township, for an article I was doing about the club for Joe Burkhardt’s Tri-State Golfer.

   The new clubhouse, being built to replace the one that had burned to the ground in October of 2015, was nearly complete. The swimming pool was gone. As Rusk, who took over ownership of LuLu with several partners in 2012, explained it, LuLu was going to be about golf.

   At the time, Rusk, one of the best high school golfers ever produced by District One during his career at Council Rock, was still the head pro at LuLu. Three years later, Rusk is a reinstated amateur and the general manager at LuLu. And LuLu’s transformation to a haven dedicated to golf was complete three weekends ago when the club claimed the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s BMW GAP Team Matches Playoff for the first time in the history of a club that dates back to 1912.

   As an amateur golfer now, the 42-year-old Rusk got in on the game as he was the leadoff player on the three-man team that was given the job of protecting the home turf at LuLu. The home team piled up 23 points at home, led by a nine-point sweep by Richard Riva, a former Saint Joseph’s standout who reached the quarterfinals of the BMW Philadelphia Amateur at Lancaster Country Club, not far from his Lancaster roots. Rusk earned six points.

   Like many of golf’s rites of spring, the BMW Team Matches were a casualty of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Teams from all over the Golf Association of Philadelphia participate in the Team Matches on three Sundays each spring.

   The winners of the four groups that comprise Division AA, the top tier, get together for a Playoff. Matches are played at all four courses with three-man teams from each club taking on three players from the other three clubs in singles and partners scoring. Got that? Trust me, the guys involved are keenly aware how important each point is and the sprawling nature of the day with matches all over the place has team captains relentlessly refreshing their laptops amid reports from each site.

   LuLu came up two points short of Huntingdon Valley Country Club -- HVCC has won the thing 33 times, including two separate runs of seven straight titles from 1898 to 1904 and again from 1970 to 1976, which was the heyday of the Hyndmans and David Brookerson and a talent pipeline that seemed to never run dry -- two years ago.

   And LuLu trailed Huntingdon Valley by a couple of points May 9^th with the results all in from LuLu, Huntingdon Valley and Philadelphia Cricket Club, which has dominated the Team Matches in recent years with four titles since 2013. But the matches had started a little later at Tavistock Country Club in South Jersey and the title hung in the balance.

   In addition to the 23 points LuLu’s home team had compiled, LuLu had more than held its own with 17 points at the Cricket Club and 16 at Huntingdon Valley.

   When Michael R. Brown Jr., who captured the Pennsylvania Amateur Championship last summer at Lookaway Golf Club under the LuLu banner, swept 8.5 of a possible nine points at Tavistock, LuLu was on its way. LuLu picked up 18 points at Tavistock to finish with 71 points. Huntingdon Valley was a close second with 66.5 points, the Cricket Club was in third place with 54.5 points and Tavistock finished fourth with 24 points.

   “In total, we had a lot of guys grind out a lot of points,” LuLu captain James Sullivan Jr., who earned six points as part of the LuLu contingent at Huntingdon Valley, told the GAP website. “Dan Charen getting seven points in the two slot at Cricket is phenomenal.

   “Mike Brown is our horse and he got 8.5 in the one slot at Tavistock. Tavistock started a couple of hours later and that made (Brown’s match the) focus. And for Brownie to come in with 8.5 points right away, he’s my personal hero. It was a great day for us and a great day for LuLu as a club.”

And Rusk’s dream of a LuLu where the golf matters most of all, well that seems to be alive and well.