Bell goes low at Huntsville to claim a Philly Junior Tour victory

 

   Brendan Bell, a sophomore on the Scranton Prep golf team, put together a sparkling 2-under-par 70 at Huntsville Golf Club to capture a Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour victory in the 16-to-18 division Aug. 25^th.

   With a lot of the Philadelphia area schools already playing high school matches, the fields were small at Huntsville, one of the top courses in the northeastern Pennsylvania region in Dallas, north of Wilkes-Barre. Huntsville was the site of this summer’s Pennsylvania Amateur Championship.

   It was the last of the weekday stops on the Philly Junior Tour’s summer schedule.

   Some of the top returning scholastic players in that part of the state didn’t pass up the chance to play at Huntsville, led by Bell, a Dickson City resident who was a member of Scranton Prep’s PIAA Class AA championship team last fall.

   Bell got off to a solid start with birdies at the first, fifth and ninth holes on Huntsville’s outgoing nine. He then made an eagle on the par-5 12^th hole before adding another birdie at 14. He had nine pars on his scorecard.

   Abington Heights junior Phillip Matthews, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier a year ago, made a birdie on the 14^th hole and had 12 pars on his card, including four straight pars to open his round and four straight pars to close out his round, as he earned runnerup honors with an 80.

   One of Bell’s teammates on Scranton Prep’s Class AA state championship team a year ago, Jack Pavuk, a junior from Clarks Summit, finished a shot behind Matthews in third place with an 81. Pavuk made birdies on the first, ninth and 12^th holes and had six pars on his card.

   One of Matthews’ teammates on the Abington Heights golf team, sophomore Sebastian Meyer, took fourth place with an 82 and Seth Fisher, who took a road trip from Millville, N.J. to Huntsville, rounded out the field in the 16-to-18 division as he finished fifth with a 97.

   Jack Oliver of Shavertown made birdies at the first, ninth and 10^th holes, added an eagle at the par-5 12^th and had nine pars on his scorecard as he finished at the top of the leaderboard in the 13-to-15 division with a 5-over 77.

   Luca Borgio of Glen Mills had five pars on his card as he earned runnerup honors with a 93.

   Michael Corrigan of Huntingdon Valley made pars on the 10^th and 16^th holes as he finished in third place with a 111.

   Damien Dollard of Cinnaminson, N.J. rattled off three straight pars at the third, fourth and fifth holes as he bested the field of boys 12-and-under nine-holers with a 6-over 42.

   It was the 11^th Philly Junior Tour victory of the season for Dollard in what has been a very competitive boys 12-and-under division.

   Andrew DElia of Clarks Summit made pars on the fourth and fifth holes as he finished in second place with a 48.

   Andrew Conway of Hatboro had three pars on his scorecard as he finished a shot behind DElia in third place with a 49.

   Mark Westfall of Medford, N.J. rounded out the field in the boys 12-and-under division as he finished in fourth place with a 54.

   Team Brillman of Elkins Park accounted for the only two entries in the girls 12-and-under division with Evelyn Brillman capturing a Philly Junior Tour victory with a 46 and Eleanor Brillman finishing five shots behind Evelyn Brillman in second place with a 51.

   Evelyn Brillman made pars on the second and ninth holes and Eleanor Brillman recorded back-to-back pars at two and three.