Sean Curran and Nicky Nemo were juniors on an Inter-Ac League championship team with The Haverford School last fall. They are both members at Merion Golf Club.
So, it wasn’t a total shock to see the two Fords storm into the semifinals of the 111th Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Junior Boys’ Championship Tuesday, each winning two matches at Merion’s West Course in the Ardmore section of Haverford Township.
They were particularly impressive winners in Tuesday afternoon’s quarterfinals, both cruising past a couple of Tatnall School teammates.
Curran rolled to a 7 and 6 victory over Wilmington Country Club’s Beckett Chipman, who just wrapped up his sophomore season at Tatnall, while Nemo claimed a 6 and 4 decision over Jack Homer, also a Wilmington member who just completed a standout scholastic career at Tatnall.
Curran went birdie, birdie, birdie on the first three holes of the 5,856-yard, par-70 Merion West layout on his way to winning the first six holes of his quarterfinal match with Chipman.
Curran reached the quarterfinals with a 3 and 2 victory over Saucon Valley Country Club’s Colin McAskin, a Blair Academy sophomore.
Curran’s semifinal opponent will be Baywood Greens’ Jake Hollerback, who wrapped up his sophomore season at Sussex Central by capturing the title in the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association (DIAA) Championship last month at the St. Anne’s Golf Links in Middletown, Del.
Hollerback claimed a 5 and 3 decision over Overbrook Golf Club’s Lannon Boyd, a senior at Radnor and one of the Central League's top returning players, in his quarterfinal match.
Hollerback and Boyd were tied through five holes, but Hollerback won the seventh and eighth holes with back-to-back birdies, took the tough par-4 11th with a par and then finished off Boyd by winning the 14th and 15th holes with pars.
Hollerback’s day began with a 3 and 2 verdict over White Manor Country Club’s Logan Turner in a round-of-16 match.
It will be an interesting matchup between a couple of champions as Curran claimed individual crowns in both the Bert Linton Invitational for the Inter-Ac’s individual championship at Whitemarsh Valley Country Club and the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association (PAISAA) Championship at Radley Run Country Club last fall and Hollerback captured the state title in Delaware.
Homer and his older twin brothers, Matt and Jeff, have been a force on the GAP junior scene for the last few summers. Jack Homer was the runnerup to Hollerback in the DIAA Championship at St. Anne’s last month to cap his senior season. But he was no match for Nemo in the quarterfinals.
Nemo jumped in front of Homer with wins at the first and second holes. Homer got one back by taking the tough fifth hole with a par, but it would be only hole he would win in the match.
Nemo won the downhill, par-3 sixth hole with a par, the eighth with a birdie, the ninth with a par and the 11th with a par before closing out Homer by taking the 14th with a birdie.
Nemo began his day with a 4 and 3 victory over Honeybrook Golf Club’s Ian Larsen, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier as a sophomore at Downingtown West last fall, in a round-of-16 match.
Nemo’s semifinal opponent might be a surprise to some people, but Luke McGraw finished in a tie for 19th place in the PIAA Class AAA Championship at Penn State to cap his sophomore season at State College last fall.
McGraw took out The Springhaven Club’s Luca Kleinschmidt, a senior on the Strath Haven golf team and the top seed in the match-play bracket after claiming medalist honors with a 1-under 69 Monday, with a decisive 5 and 4 win.
McGraw rattled off wins on six straight holes from the second through the seventh holes to take control of the match.
McGraw rolled to an 8 and 6 victory over Kennett Square Golf & Country Club’s Grant Burkhart, a junior on the Salesianum golf team, in a round-of-16 match Tuesday morning.
Kleinschmidt had survived a challenge in the opening round from his Springhaven clubmate Jason DiRita, who had wrapped up his scholastic career at Archbishop Carroll by finishing in a tie for ninth place in last fall’s PIAA Class AA Championship at Penn State.
DiRita sent the match to extra holes by winning the 18th hole with a par, but Kleinschmidt birdied the short, par-4 first hole to win the match in 19 holes.
Most of the drama in the afternoon came in the First Flight quarterfinals as three of the four matches went to extra holes.
LedgeRock Golf Club’s Nathan Radwanski, who finished in a tie for fifth place in the PIAA Class AAA Championship at Penn State to cap his scholastic career at Governor Mifflin, needed 19 holes to finish off Saucon Valley’s David Baumeister, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier as a senior at Southern Lehigh last fall.
Radwanski’s First Flight semifinal opponent will be the Country Club of Scranton’s Brendan Bell Jr., a freshman on Scranton Prep’s PIAA Class AA championship team last fall who knocked off Concord Country Club’s Nicolas Gaughan, a senior at Unionville and a two-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier, with a 4 and 3 decision.
Nick Belgrade, a GAP Youth on Course representative and a senior on the Salesianum golf team, needed 20 holes to pull out a victory over Logan McGinn, a talented youngster from Williamsport Country Club.
Belgrade’s semifinal opponent will be Waynesborough Country Club’s Chris Sung, a senior on the Conestoga golf team who had to go three extra holes to get past Galloway National Golf Club’s Paul Reilly on the 21st hole.
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