There has been so much golf, I’ve fallen behind on a few things. Never did get back to the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship at the Country Club of North Carolina after the local contingent failed to advance to match play, but congratulations to the winner, Nick Dunlap of Huntsville, Ala. Never did get to the Girls Junior PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky., even though our area had a pretty significant contingent playing there. I’ll likely refer back to each individual player’s results at Valhalla as I run into them elsewhere, as I’ve already done with Angelina Tolentino. But congratulations to Anna Davis of Spring Valley, Calif., who was an impressive seven-shot winner at Valhalla.
As I’ve said before during a busy 2021 golf season, though, there is no such thing as too much golf. After suffering through that 10 weeks or so of no golf from the middle of March to early June in 2020, I’ll take too much golf over no golf anytime. But I can’t turn my back on my core constituency, the kids, and their supportive parents, so I’ll go back a couple of weeks to recap the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Junior-Junior Championship …
Davis Conaway of East Bradford was the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour coed 12-and-under division’s Player of the Year in the wraparound 2019-2020 season, besting the nine-holers 17 times in 30 starts. I haven’t seen Conaway’s name nearly as much this year, although he did team up with Ian Larsen of Honeybrook Golf Club to win the Junior-Junior Division in the Francis X. Hussey Memorial at Rolling Green Golf Club.
But the 13-year-old Conaway, playing out of Fieldstone Golf Club in Delaware, captured the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s 73rd Junior-Junior Championship, needing 20 holes to finally finish off Merion Golf Club’s Andrew Curran in the final July 28th at the Moorestown Field Club in Moorestown, N.J.
Conaway is an eighth-grader at Malvern Prep and the 13-year-old Curran, who fell in the Junior-Junior final in 2019 to Wilmington Country Club’s Jack Homer at Flourtown Country Club, is an eighth-grader at The Haverford School, so the final at Moorestown might have been a preview of some interesting Inter-Ac League battles to come. Both players are working with swing coach John Dunigan, a Golf Digest Top 50 instructor who is hanging his shingle at Applebrook Golf Club these days.
Conaway was the medalist in qualifying for match play July 26th as he fired a 2-under 34, a round that featured two birdies and seven pars. The qualifying and the matches were all nine holes with the final a scheduled 18-hole affair with two loops around the Moorestown Field Club’s nine-hole layout.
Curran was 1-down following nine holes, but quickly turned the match around by winning the 10th hole with a birdie and 12 and 13 with pars to take a 2-up lead with five holes to go.
But Conaway kept battling. He cut his deficit in half as he nearly reached the par-5 16th hole in two, chipped it to four feet with his 58-degree wedge and made the birdie putt. Curran dropped in a 20-footer for par on the 17th hole that enabled him to maintain his 1-up advantage heading to 18.
But Conaway sent the match to extra holes as his approach at the last finished 15 feet from the hole. Curran sent his approach over the green and couldn’t get it up and down for par. Conaway needed just two putts for a par to get back to even.
Both players made bogey at the first extra hole. But Conaway drilled his approach at the second extra hole to 10 feet and saw the difficult birdie putt disappear into the cup, giving him the match and the title.
“It feels amazing,” Conaway told the GAP website. “Sean is a great player and I knew him pretty well before this. He got a little unlucky with some shots. I’m proud to represent Fieldstone. It feels really great.”
Conaway had reached the final on the 10th hole of his semifinal match July 27th against his Hussey partner Larsen. Curran rolled to a 3 and 2 decision over Paul Reilly of Hidden Creek Golf Club in the other semifinal.
In the quarterfinals earlier that day, Conway earned a 3 and 2 victory over Thomas Ploszy of Chester Valley Golf Club, Larsen edged Liam McFadden of Overbrook Golf Club, 1-up, Curran claimed a 3 and 2 decision over Cole Berry, another Overbrook entry, and Reilly reached the semifinals with a 3 and 1 win over Quin Zeigner of Lookaway Golf Club.
Conaway and Curran each had walkover wins in the opening round of match play, which was played July 26th after qualifying for match play in the morning.
Curran was the runnerup to Conaway in qualifying as he made an adventurous even-par tour of the Moorestown Field Club layout that included three birdies, a double bogey, a bogey and four pars. Zuegner finished in third place, two shots behind Curran with a 2-over 38 and Larsen was another shot behind Zuegner in fourth with a 3-over 39.
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