Biscotti, Johnson come down from Mountain Top to take title in Francis X. Hussey Memorial at Rolling Green

 

   Thomas Biscotti and Derek Johnson came down from Mountain Top, in the Scranton area, on a steamy Monday and captured the title in the 38^th Francis X. Hussey Memorial, the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s really neat better-ball championship for junior golfers.

   Biscotti and Johnson, teammates on the Crestwood golf team, got three straight birdies down the stretch at the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th holes at the underrated William Flynn design in Springfield, Delaware County on their way to a sizzling 6-under-par 65 that gave them a one-shot victory in the Junior Boys division over a typically talented bunch of juniors that comes out for the Hussey.

   Biscotti and Johnson had an adventurous trip from northeastern Pennsylvania down to the heart of Delco with their moms doing the navigating, but I’m not going to step on a typically interesting writeup on the GAP website. It’s a good read and definitely worth a visit to www.gapgolf.org.

   Suffice it to say, Biscotti and Johnson got there and tamed a tough 6,354-yard, par-71 Rolling Green layout that played host to the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship in 2016.

   Johnson, who plays out of Blue Ridge Trail Golf Club, is a recent Crestwood graduate and will be moving on to Western New England University while Biscotti, who plays out of Fox Hill Country Club, has a year left at Crestwood.

   Johnson made five birdies on the outgoing nine at Rolling Green to help the team make the turn at 3-under, but neither player could do better than bogey on the tough par-3 10^th hole that dropped the duo back to 2-under. It was time to buckle down.

   Biscotti started the final surge by driving the green at the 260-yard, par-4 12^th hole and two-putting from 30 feet for a birdie. Trust me, two putts from 30 on those Flynn putting surfaces is anything but routine.

   Johnson stuck his approach at the 121-yard, par-3 16^th hole to three feet and converted the birdie try to get the team back to 3-under.

   Both players birdied Rolling Green’s 516-yard, par-5 17^th hole, Johnson knocking a 5-iron onto the green in two from 205 yards away and two-putting from 30 feet and Biscotti dropping a birdie putt from seven feet.

   Johnson again wielded the 5-iron from 200 yards away at the 522-yard, par-5 finishing hole, knocking it into the left greenside bunker. He blasted it to two feet and rolled in the putt for a closing birdie that proved to be the difference.

   Kennett Square Golf & Country Club’s Jax Puskar and Hartefeld National Golf Club’s Tre Lesperance, teammates on Unionville’s District One Class AAA championship team last fall, earned runnerup honors with a sparkling 5-under 66 that left them a shot behind Biscotti and Johnson.

   Lesperance was not among the five players Unionville sent out to win the district team crown, but he did qualify for the District One Class AAA Championship at Turtle Creek Golf Course individually. Puskar qualified for the PIAA Class AAA Championship at Penn State individually and helped the Longhorns finish third in the team chase in Class AAA at states.

   Tatnall School teammates Joe Ciconte and Jack Homer, pretty sure they’re cousins, and West Chester Rustin teammates Cole Berry and Anestis Kalderemtzis finished in a tie for third place, each landing a shot behind Puskar and Lesperance with a 4-under 67.

   Cinconte and Homer, who play out of Wilmington Country Club, helped Tatnall earn a runnerup finish in the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association Championship at Maple Dale Country Club in May.

   Berry, who plays out of Overbrook Golf Club, and Kalderemtzis, a Penn Oaks Golf Club guy, were both PIAA Class AAA qualifiers last fall.

   The RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve pair of Colby Komancheck, a Malvern Prep sophomore, and Timmy Burns finished alone in fifth place with a 3-under 68. Komancheck finished in third place in the Boys 14-15 division in the Drive, Chip & Putt national finals at Augusta National Golf Club April, topping the field in the driving portion of the competition.

   The Sunnybrook Golf Club duo of Ian Natale and John Stevenson, teammates on La Salle’s PIAA Class AAA runnerup team last fall, headed a group of five tandems tied for sixth place, each landing on 2-under 69. Stevenson was coming off his second straight victory in the GAP Junior Boys’ Championship at The Ridge at Back Brook last month.

   Lower Merion junior Seiji Sako, playing out of McCall Golf Club, and Downingtown sophomore Ian Larsen, playing out of Honeybrook Golf Club, were another of the teams tied for sixth place at 2-under. Sako had the best finish among the District One contingent at the PIAA Class AAA Championship last fall as he ended up in a tie for fourth place.

   Rounding out the teams tied for sixth place at 2-under were the Jericho National Golf Club duo of Michael Deussing and Tyler Jones, Christian Dawley of Philadelphia Country Club and Jack Dare of Riverton Country Club, and Paul Reilly of Galloway National Golf Club and Keller Tannehill of Atlantic City Country Club.

   A couple of Tredyffrin-Easttown Middle School seventh-graders, Eric Cunningham, a GAP Youth on Course entry, and Christian Bottos, playing on his home course at Rolling Green, finished at the top of the leaderboard in the Boys Junior-Junior division with a 3-under 33 on Rolling Green’s front nine.

   Green Valley Country Club’s Sokol twins, Henry and Jack, finished a shot behind Cunningham and Bottos in second place with a 2-under 34.

   The Huntingdon Valley Country Club duo of Baylor Keim and Jack Metroka took third place with a 1-over 37. William Quartermain of Llanerch Country Club and Joe McDonald of Flourtown Country Club were two shots behind Keim and Metroka in fourth place with a 3-over 39.

   The North Hills Country Club pair of Grant Cooper and Samuel Karas finished in fifth place with a 42 and the Llanerch pair of Ryan Comly and Stephen Comly III rounded out the field in the Boys Junior-Junior division as they finished in sixth place with a 45.

   Another member of Rolling Green’s Team Bottos, Nicolette Bottos, teamed with Whitford Country Club’s Corinne McReynolds, a sophomore at Conestoga, to claim the top spot in the Junior Girls division with a 4-over 75.

   McReynolds helped the Pioneers capture the District One Class AAA team crown last fall.

   Agnes Irwin junior Makayla Stone and her pal Sophia DeSantis, a recent West Chester Rustin graduate, rounded out the field in the Junior Girls division as they finished in second place with a 5-over 76. Stone and DeSantis were representing Concord Country Club.

   There was one team in the Mixed division as DuPont Country Club’s Meredith Finger and The Springhaven Club’s Jake Lairdieson, teammates on the Archmere Academy team that captured the team crown in the DIAA Championship at Maple Dale in May, carded a solid 4-under 67.

   Pretty sure Finger is the daughter of DuPont pro Matthew Finger. A junior at Archmere, Finger is coming off a victory in the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia Junior Girls’ Championship last week at Phoenixville Country Club. I’ll get to a post on that at some point this week.

   Lairdieson is a recent Archmere graduate.

   The Francis X. Hussey Memorial celebrates the memory of Hussey, an avid junior golfer at Rolling Green. Hussey suffered from a congenital heart condition and died at age 13 while undergoing major heart surgery in December of 1983. Hussey was a student in the Haverford School District.