Spring Ford's Minter storms into semifinals of GAP Junior Boys' Championship with a pair of wins at LuLu

   Working on your game, particularly for a junior player, can take you pretty far, pretty fast.

   Came across a profile of Spring-Ford’s Jaden Minter authored by Dennis Weller, who’s been covering high school sports for The Mercury in Pottstown for at least 20 years. Minter was The Mercury All-Area Boys Golf Player of the Year last fall after winning the Pioneer Athletic Conference individual crown at Turtle Creek Golf Course.

   Minter was on Spring-Ford’s developmental team as a freshman and was still on the JV team as a junior. But by last fall, by sheer determination and hard work, Minter was the PAC individual champion and a key player in a PAC championship season for the Rams.

   Thursday morning, Minter, playing out of Spring Ford Country Club, will be in the semifinals of the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s 109^th Junior Boys’ Championship at LuLu Country Club, the Donald Ross design in Glenside.

   Minter took out a tough customer in Wednesday’s quarterfinals, Huntsville Golf Club’s Michael Lugiano, who finished in third place in the PIAA Class AA Championship at Penn State last fall and helped Lake Lehman roll to the Class AA state team crown.

   When Lugiano won the 12^th hole, he had Minter 1-down with six holes to play. But Minter promptly ripped off wins at the 14^th, 17^th and 18^th holes to claim a 2-up victory.

   Minter, who began his Wednesday by cruising to a 6 and 4 victory over J.P. Hoban of The 1912 Club in a round-of-16 match, will take on Winston Kelenc-Blank of Saucon Valley Country Club in Thursday morning’s semifinals.

   Kelenc-Blank, who will play college golf at Lafayette, earned his spot in the semifinals with a 3 and 2 victory over Wilmington Country Club’s Jack Homer, the youngest of the talented group of Homer brothers.

   Kelenc-Blank, a Rumson, N.J. resident, was a scholastic standout at Peddie School in Hightstown, N.J. and took a post-grad year at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Conn.

   The other semifinal will pit John Stevenson of host LuLu against Michael Deussing of Jericho National Golf Club.

   Stevenson was the low man for La Salle as a junior as the Explorers finished in fourth place in the PIAA Class AAA team competition at Penn State last fall. He knocked off another Homer, Jeffrey, a recent Tatnall School graduate, 2 and 1, in their quarterfinal match.

   Deussing, a scholastic standout at The Hun School of Princeton, earned a 3 and 1 decision over Stevenson’s La Salle teammate, Ian Natale of Sunnybrook Golf Club.

   The match of the day might very well have been the very first match, which pitted qualifying medalist Davis Conaway of Fieldstone Golf Club against Jack Homer in a round-of-16 showdown.

   Conaway captured the Bert Linton Inter-Ac League individual championship as a freshman at Malvern Prep last fall after leading the Friars to the Inter-Ac team crown. Jack Homer was a sophomore on a Tatnall School team that lost in a playoff to Tower Hill School for the Delaware scholastic team crown at Baywood Greens in Long Neck, Del. last month.

   Conaway got the jump in the match when he took the first hole, but Jack Homer took control with wins at four, six, seven, eight and nine that gave him a 4-up lead after nine holes.

   Conaway got one back with a win at the 10^th hole, but Jack Homer came right back with a win at 11. Conaway got one back by taking the 12^th hole, but Jack Homer again answered with a win at 13. Conaway, 4-down with six holes to go, was running out of holes.

   But Conaway had one more surge left in him and he sent the match to extra holes with wins at the 14^th, 16^th, 17^th and 18^th holes. Jack Homer finally claimed the win, though, by taking the 20^th hole.

   Another Bert Linton Inter-Ac individual champion, Aronimink Golf Club’s Hunter Stetson, who won at Bluestone Country Club as a sophomore at Episcopal Academy in the fall of 2021, was also a round-of-16 casualty as he fell, 3 and 2, to Kelenc-Blank.

   Stevenson’s round-of-16 match was a battle between Catholic League heavyweights as he handed St. Joseph Prep’s Aidan Farkas, playing out of Llanerch Country Club, a 2 and 1 setback. Farkas, who is heading into his senior season, finished in a tie for sixth place in the PIAA Class AAA Championship last fall.

   The winners of Thursday morning’s semifinal matches will battle it out for the title Thursday afternoon.

   There will be one more Homer still alive Thursday morning, although Matt, the twin brother of Jeffrey, will be playing in the first flight.

   Matt Homer, who reached the semifinals of the GAP Junior Boys in each of that last two summers, lost out in a playoff among five players for the final three spots in the championship bracket to little brother Jack, among others.

   Gives you an idea of the kind of talent that is teeing it up at LuLu this week.

   Matt Homer claimed a 2 and 1 triumph over Merion Golf Club’s Nicky Nemo, a sophomore at The Haverford School, to earn a semifinal date with Penn Oaks Golf Club’s Eli Shah, who edged Applecross Country Club’s Ben Saggers, a recent Bishop Shanahan graduate, 1-up, in another first flight quarterfinal match.

   Shah was a two-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier during an outstanding scholastic career at Penncrest.

   The Central League will be very much in the house in the first-flight semifinals as Waynesborough Country Club’s Kyle Mauro, the Central League’s individual champion and a PIAA Class AAA qualifier as a senior at Conestoga last fall, claimed a 1-up verdict over Commonwealth National Golf Club’s Ryan Quinn.

   Mauro’s semifinal opponent will be Philadelphia Country Club’s Harrison Brown, a junior at The Haverford School. Brown reached the semifinals with a 3 and 1 victory over Overbrook Golf Club’s Marshall Kain in a battle of Inter-Ac foes. Kain helped Malvern Prep claim the Inter-Ac team crown last fall.