Recent Wissahickon graduate Christian Matt, a two-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier during an outstanding scholastic career with the Trojans, seems to be one of those players who really thrives when he’s part of a team.
Last week, Matt teamed with his dad Kenneth to capture the title in the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s 65th Parent/Child Younger Championship’s Junior Father/Son Division title at LuLu Country Club, repeating the feat they accomplished last summer at Lititz Country Club.
Tuesday, Christian Matt did a lot of the heavy lifting as he teamed with fellow Cedarbrook Country Club member Scott Hughes, a junior at La Salle, to claim the title in the Francis X. Hussey Memorial on the fast and complicated William Flynn green complexes at Rolling Green Golf Club in Springfield, Delaware County.
Matt and Hughes put together a sparkling 5-under-par 66 in the better-ball-of-partners event over the 6,271-yard, par-71 Rolling Green layout. That left them tied with two teams from Wilmington Country Club comprised of the Homer boys and their cousin Anthony Ciconte, or most of the Tatnall School golf team, if you prefer.
More specifically, twin brothers Matt and Jeff Homer, who will be Tatnall seniors in the fall, made up one Wilmington team, and younger brother Jack Homer, who will be a sophomore at Tatnall, and Ciconte, a recent Tatnall graduate, made up the other Wilmington team.
But Team Cedarbrook captured the title in the Junior Division with a birdie on the second playoff hole, the 129-yard, par-3 16th hole at Rolling Green.
Matt shot a sparkling 3-under 68 on his own ball on the tough Rolling Green layout, site of the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship. If you’re playing a better-ball event the right way, when your partner looks like he’s going to safely make a par, you can go for stuff.
That might help explain Matt going off for birdies at the first, fourth, fifth and seventh holes. He capped his round with an eagle on the 17th hole, a very reachable par-5.
Hughes has some pretty nice team credentials as well as he was a sophomore on a La Salle team that claimed Catholic League and District 12 Class AAA team crowns and finished in third place in the PIAA Class AAA team chase at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York County last fall.
Matt is part of a nice haul of local talent headed for Saint Joseph’s later this summer that also includes Malvern Prep standout Keller Mulhern and Matt Zerfass, a three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at Emmaus.
The Homer twins, Matt and Jeff, were a formidable team as they each won one of GAP’s major junior championships a year ago, Matt capturing the Jock MacKenzie Memorial at Sandy Run Country Club and Jeff winning the Christman Cup at Chester Valley Golf Club.
Matt Homer had five birdies on his scorecard, two of them down the stretch at Rolling Green at the 15th and 17th holes, and Jeff Homer made a birdie at the par-5 finishing hole to get the one Wilmington team in at 5-under 66.
Jack Homer and Ciconte really surged late, going 5-under in the last four holes. Jack Homer made birdies at the 15th and 16th holes, Ciconte birdied 17, and Jack Homer put the finishing touch on the closing burst with an eagle at 18.
Downingtown West junior Nick Gross, the reigning PIAA Class AAA champion, teed it up with younger brother Evan and they got a share of fourth place with Springfield senior Danny Flaherty, playing on his home course, and recent Marple Newtown graduate Jake Micewski, representing LuLu Country Club, each pair landing on 4-under 67.
I haven’t done a great job of keeping up with Nick Gross, but he was coming off a run to the semifinals in the American Junior Golf Association’s Polo Golf Junior Classic last week at Bethpage State Park’s Black Course on Long Island. Nick Gross, who is playing out of Kennett Square Golf & Country Club, fell to Luke Haskew, a Baton Rouge, La. resident who will join the program at hometown LSU later this summer, 2 and 1, in the semifinals.
Nick Gross will represent the Philadelphia area in the U.S. Junior Amateur, which tees off July 25 at the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Bandon, Ore.
Nick Gross survived a 5-for-3 playoff in one of the earliest U.S. Junior Amateur qualifiers June 2 at Silver Lake Country Club in Silver Lake, Ohio. The U.S. Junior Amateur just might be the most difficult USGA championship for which to get a starting time these days.
Nick Gross made six birdies at Rolling Green, including three straight to finish his round, to help he and brother Evan, a Philadelphia Junior Tour entry, get their share of fourth place. Might not be a better set of greens on which to prepare oneself for a USGA championship than the slippery surfaces at Rolling Green.
Micewski, who capped his scholastic career by earning a trip to the state championship at Heritage Hills last fall, made eagles at both of Rolling Green’s front-nine par-5s. Eagles at the seventh hole are not that unusual, but they can be hard to come by on the long, uphill climb that is the ninth at Rolling Green.
Flaherty captured the Central League’s individual crown last fall at Turtle Creek Golf Course.
Another Central League standout, Penncrest senior Eli Shah, playing out of Penn Oaks Golf Club, teamed with Cole Berry of Overbrook Golf Club to finish alone in sixth place with a 3-under 68.
Haverford School sophomore J.P. Hoban, playing out of McCall Golf Club, and Merion Golf Club’s Alex Nemo finished two shots behind Shah and Berry in seventh place with a 1-under 70. Hoban captured GAP’s Junior-Junior Championship in 2020 at West Chester Golf & Country Club.
La Salle junior Ethan Martin, playing out of Talamore Country Club, and Steven Fryer of Commonwealth National Golf Club shared eighth place with Wilmington Country Club’s Kristof Kopecky and Unionville senior Win Thomas, another Philly Junior Tour entry, each duo matching par with a 71.
Martin, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier last fall, has been playing some outstanding golf on the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour all season.
The Rolling Green pair of Matthew Buckley and Ben Pintof and the tandem of Ian Larsen of Honeybrook Golf Club and Malvern Prep freshman Davis Conaway, playing out of Fieldstone Golf Club, rounded out the top 10 in the Junior Division, each signing for a 1-over 72 that left them in a tie for 10th place.
Conaway, who earned a spot in the Bert Linton Inter-Ac League individual championship as an eighth-grader last fall, was the winner of the GAP Junior-Junior last summer at the Moorestown Field Club. Larsen and Conaway won the Junior-Junior Division of the Hussey a year ago.
They only play nine holes in the Junior-Junior Division of the Hussey, but apparently Colby Komancheck and Timmy Burns of the RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve and brothers Jack and Henry Sokol of Green Valley Country Club were in the mood for 18 holes.
The two teams finished in a tie for the top spot, each carding a 6-over 42. They proceeded to take part in a sudden-death playoff that proved to be anything but sudden.
The RiverCrest pair finally prevailed with a birdie on the ninth hole of the playoff. Komancheck is the son of the RiverCrest pro shop team of Jamie and Kelly Komancheck.
The Phoenixville Country Club team of Walker Mannan and Jackson Armstrong finished alone in third place with a 45. The Manufacturers’ Golf & Country Club duo of Gregory Kriz and Chase Anthony finished a shot behind Mannan and Armstrong in fourth place with a 46.
Rounding out the Junior-Junior Division field was the Philly Junior Tour tandem of William Thorkelson and Max Davis as they finished in fifth place with a 48.
The Francis X. Hussey Memorial is played in memory of a talented 13-year-old junior player at Rolling Green who suffered from congenital heart disease and died while undergoing heart surgery in December of 1983. Hussey was a student in the Haverford School District and an avid sports fan.
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