Penn captures team title in Big 5 Championship at Aronimink; Villanova's Pamer the individual winner

 

   It had been since 2017 when Penn last teed it up in the Big 5 Championship and since 2014 that the Quakers had last won the team title.

   But with the rebranding of the Big 5 to included Drexel without resorting to the awkward City 6 moniker – hey, the Big Ten has a lot more than 10 teams and it’s still called the Big Ten, right? – maybe Penn figured it was time to rejoin the group of Philadelphia’s six Division I programs in a one-day shootout on the golf course.

   Might have helped that Villanova, as the host, managed to get the event played at Aronimink Golf Club, the Donald Ross masterpiece in Newtown Square that will play host to the PGA Championship in May of 2026.

   With four players finishing in the top eight, Penn captured the team crown with a 24-over-par 304 Thursday over a 7,267-yard, par-70 Aronimink layout that was buffeted by high winds that made it even tougher than usual. I suspect that wind speeded up already fast putting surfaces at Aronimink. And yeah, the greenkeeper might have challenged the college kids with some of the more difficult pin positions at his disposal.

   It was Penn’s first tournament victory since it won the Ivy League Championship in 2015.

   Max Fonseca, a sophomore from Miami, Fla., and Hayden Adams, a sophomore from Lexington, Ky., were two of the three players who finished in a tie for third place at 5-over 75 to lead the way for the Quakers.

   Teams were allowed six players with the top four counting toward the team score.

   Ben Scott, a sophomore from Manhattan Beach, Calif, backed up Fonseca and Adams for Penn as he finished in a tie for sixth place a 6-over 76. The final counter for the Quakers was an 8-over 78 turned in by Wesley Hu, a freshman from Suwanee, Ga., that left him among a group of five players tied for eighth place.

   Penn’s West Philadelphia neighbor Drexel, which captured the team crown a year ago at Sunnybrook Golf Club, finished four shots behind the Quakers in second place with a 28-over 308 total. The Dragons are in their final year in the Coastal Athletic Association.

   Villanova, behind individual champion Ryan Pamer, a junior from Hudson, Ohio, was another five shots behind Drexel in third place with a 33-over 313 total. Villanova plays out of the Big East Conference.

   It was a bookend individual title for Pamer during Villanova’s fall schedule as he had opened the Wildcats’ season by earning his first collegiate individual title in the Alex Lagowitz Memorial Invitational at Seven Oaks Golf Course in Hamilton, N.Y. over the Labor Day weekend.

   Pamer overcame the challenging Aronimink layout with a 1-over 71 that was three shots clear of runnerup Armand Loscalzo, a junior at La Salle from Tampa, Fla. Looks like Pamer had three birdies on his scorecard to claim the individual crown in the tough conditions at Aronimink.

   I had yet to start digging into the Big 5 Championship Saturday morning when I drew Pamer’s former Villanova teammate Peter Weaver for my looping assignment at Stonewall’s Old Course. Weaver tipped me off that his buddy “Coop,” Pamer’s nickname, had won the individual title two days earlier at Aronimink.

   Weaver and Pamer had helped Villanova snap a four-year victory drought when the Wildcats captured the title in the Golden Horseshoe Intercollegiate in Williamsburg, Va. in the spring of 2023. Weaver’s a good guy and a very good player.

   Temple, out of the American Athletic Conference, was another shot behind Villanova in fourth place at Aronimink with a 34-over 314 total.

   La Salle, out of the Atlantic Ten, was just a shot behind Temple in fifth place with a 35-over 315 total. The Explorers were led by Loscalzo, whose 4-over 74 left him alone in second place, four shots behind Pamer.

   La Salle’s Atlantic Ten rival Saint Joseph’s, behind a 78 from junior Christian Matt, a two-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at Wissahickon, was another 10 shots behind the Explorers in sixth place with a 45-over 325 total.

   Rounding out the Penn lineup were George Roessler, a senior from North Palm Beach, Fla. who finished among the trio tied for 24^th place with an 82, and Owen Hayes, a junior from Beford Hills, N.Y. who finished in the trio tied for 29^th place with an 84.

   Joining Penn’s Fonseca and Adams in the trio tied for third place in the individual standings, a shot behind La Salle’s Loscalzo, was Drexel’s Drue Nicholas, a graduate student from Egg Harbor Township, N.J.

   Nicholas was coming off a runnerup finish two days earlier in the ODU/OBX Intercollegiate at Kilmarlic Golf Club in Powell’s Point, N.C. Kilmarlic seems to fit Nicholas’ game as he has won the individual title there twice and was runnerup last week for the second time.

   Joining Penn’s Scott in the tie for sixth place at 6-over was Drexel junior Kevin Lydon, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier in 2021 as a senior at Central Bucks West.

   Joining Penn’s Hu and St. Joe’s Matt in the quintet tied for eighth place at 8-over were a pair of Temple players in Michael Walsh, a senior from Shelburne, Vt., and Ethan Whitney, a senior from Westminster, Mass., and Drexel’s Caleb Taylor, a junior from Woodbine, Md.

   The final counter for Drexel was a 79 posted by Griffin Mitchell, a graduate student from New Albany, Ohio, that left him in the group tied for 13^th place.

   Rounding out the Drexel lineup were sophomore John Keba, who starred scholastically at Allentown Central Catholic and finished among the trio tied for 29^th place with an 84, and graduate student Andrew Wallace, a two-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at Harriton who finished in 35^th place with an 88.

   While it hasn’t been quite the fall of 2023 for Drexel, when the Dragons swept to team titles in all four events they entered, it hasn’t been bad for head coach Ben Feld’s team.

   I did manage to sneak a post in Drexel’s victory in the Temple Invitational at The 1912 Club in September, the second straight year the Dragons have won the title in that event. Nicholas lost in a playoff for the title in that event.

   And Nicholas’ runnerup finish in last week’s ODU/OBX Intercollegiate led Drexel to a third-place finish in the team standings.

   Backing up Pamer for Villanova was junior Matt Zerfass, a three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at Emmaus who moved from City Line Avenue after two years at Saint Joseph’s to the Main Line to join the Wildcats this season. Zerfass finished in the group tied for 16^th place with an 80.

   Nathan Marion, a sophomore from San Antonio, Texas, and Joshua Lavely, a junior from Kewadin, Mich., rounded out the counters for Villanova as each recorded an 81 to finish among the group tied for 20^th place.

   Rounding out the Villanova lineup was Vibhav Alokim, a freshman from Ypsilanti, Mich. who finished among the trio tied for 24^th place with an 82.

   I haven’t been able to get to any of Villanova’s tournament results this fall, but head coach James Wilkes Wildcats have played well, particularly Pamer.

   Led by Pamer’s individual title, Villanova finished in fourth place out of 15 teams in the Alex Lagowitz.

   Pamer finished in a tie for seventh place at Bethpage State Park’s Red and Black courses to help the Wildcats finish in ninth place in The Doc Gimmler.

   The freshman Alokim finished in 11^th place individually to help Villanova end up in a tie for sixth place in the UConn Invitational, hosted by the Wildcats’ Big East rival at GreatHorse Golf Course in Hampden, Mass.

   Pamer finished in a tie for 10^th place with a 7-over 220 total at Echo Lake Country Club in Westfield, N.J. as Villanova ended up in 12^th place in the Georgetown Intercollegiate, hosted by another of the Wildcats’ Big East rivals.

   Two days before the Big 5 Championship, Pamer wrapped up a tie for sixth place with a 7-over 217 total as Villanova concluded a trip to Long Island and Nassau Country Club by finishing in a tie for sixth in the team standings in the Nassau Intercollegiate.

   Backing up Walsh and Whitney for Temple were the Owls’ final two counters, Jake Naese, a senior from Bradenton, Fla., and senior Joey Morganti, who was a scholastic standout at St. Joseph’s Prep, as they both landed among the group tied for 13^th place with a 79.

   Morganti was the defending individual champion in the Big 5 Championship, having defeated Nicholas in a playoff a year ago at Sunnybrook.

   Rounding out the Temple lineup were Aidan Emmerich, a senior from Swampscott, Mass. who finished among the group tied for 16^th place with an 80, and sophomore Ben Saggers, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier as a senior at Bishop Shanahan in 2021 who finished in a tie for 27^th place with an 83.

   The highlight of the fall campaign for head coach Brian Quinn’s Owls was the final round of the Ironwood Collegiate Classic, which wrapped up Oct. 1^st at Ironwood Country Club in Greenville, N.C. The tournament was hosted by Temple’s AAC rival East Carolina.

   Whitney tied his personal-best college round with a sizzling 7-under 65 as he finished in a tie for fifth place individually at 8-under.

   Whitney helped Temple establish a single-round program record as the Owls put together a 14-under 274 to finish in seventh place.

   As I put this post together, Temple is wrapping up its fall campaign at the FAU Invitational in Boca Raton, Fla.

   Backing up Loscalzo for La Salle were Gavin Dosch, a sophomore from Draper, Utah, and Payton Hawke, a freshman from Canada, both of whom finished among the group tied for 16^th place with an 80.

   Senior Alex Gekas, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier in 2018 as a junior at Central York, was the final counter for La Salle as he finished in the group tied for 20^th place with an 81.

   Rounding out the La Salle lineup were graduate student Matt Lafond, a product of the program of Catholic League power La Salle who finished in 33^rd place with an 86, and Ryan Smiley, a senior from The Woodlands, Texas who finished 36^th with an 89.

   La Salle, under first-year head coach Avery Papalia, was coming off an 11^th-place finish in the ODU/OBX Intercollegiate with a 37-over 889 total. The Explorers were led by another solid showing by Loscalzo as he finished in a tie for 15^th place at Kilmarlic with a 1-over 214 total.

   Backing up Matt for Saint Joseph’s was senior Tommy Larkin, who starred scholastically at Cardinal O’Hara, as he finished among the trio tied for 20^th place with an 81.

   Rounding out the counters for the Hawks were sophomore Noah Moelter, who finished in a tie for sixth place in the PIAA Class AAA Championship as a senior at Central Bucks South in 2022 and was part of the trio tied for 24^th at Aronimink with an 82, and graduate student Steve Lorenzo, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier in 2018 as a junior at La Salle who was among the group tied for 29^th place with an 84.

   Rounding out the Saint Joseph’s lineup were sophomore Tyler Leyden, who finished in a tie for 10^th place in the PIAA Class AAA Championship as a senior at La Salle in 2022 and was 32^nd at Aronimink with an 85, and junior Keller Mulhern, the Inter-Ac League’s regular-season points leader as a senior at Malvern Prep in 2021 who finished 34^th with an 87.

   Terry Scollin has taken over at Saint Joseph’s after Bob Lynch stepped down last spring after 35 years at Hawk Hill. The St. Joe’s program has done a nice job mining the considerable talent from the local scholastic scene.

   Saint Joseph’s was coming off a solid fourth-place finish in the ODU/OBX Intercollegiate as the Hawks ended up with a 3-over 855 total at Kilmarlic.

   Mulhern finished in a tie for fifth place in the individual standings with a 4-under 209 and Matt landed in a tie for seventh with a 3-under 210 total.