Salesianum's Rittereiser puts together steady round at Medford Lakes to claim Philly Junior Tour victory

 

   Robert Rittereiser, coming off his freshman season on the Salesianum golf team in the spring, carded a solid 1-over-par 72 at Medford Lakes Country Club to claim a Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour victory in the 16-to-18 division July 8^th.

   Rittereiser made birdies at the fifth and eighth holes and had 13 pars on his scorecard, twice rattling off four straight pars from one through four and again from 10 through 13. He toured the outgoing nine at Medford Lakes in 1-under 34.

   Ravi Gohel of Mount Laurel, N.J. finished up his round with a birdie at the 18^th hole and had 13 pars on his card, including a string of eight straight pars from eight through 15, as he earned runnerup honors with a 3-over 74.

   David Watts of Haddonfield, N.J. made a birdie on the seventh hole and had 11 pars on his card, including a run of five straight pars from 11 through 15, as he finished in third place with a 5-over 76.

   Benjamin Perticari of West Deptford, N.J. took fourth place with a 77, Vaughn Smartt of Bryn Mawr and John Hoffman of Marlton, N.J. shared fifth, each tallying a 79, and Connor Holland of Churchville was seventh with an 80.

   Max Petrakis, another Marlton, N.J. guy, and Sy Kavitsky, a junior on the Neshaminy golf team, shared eighth place, each signing for an 81, and Jack Forstein of Moorestown, N.J. rounded out the top 10 in the 16-to-18 division as he finished 10^th with an 83.

   Bobby Stefanski of Newtown Square and Rayan Shah, a Newtown resident who helped George School capture the Friends Schools League crown as a sophomore in the spring, shared the top spot in the 13-to-15 division, each registering a 2-over 73.

   Stefanski made back-to-back birdies at the 12^th and 13^th holes and had 12 pars on his scorecard, stringing together eight straight pars from four through 11. Shah made a birdie at the 12^th hole and had 14 pars in his steady round, including a run of seven straight pars from three through nine.

   Sam Whitehouse of Pottstown and Lucas Solano of Vineland, N.J. finished two shots behind Stefanski and Shah in a tie for third place, each posting a 4-over 75.

   Whitehouse made birdies at the first, third, ninth and 18^th holes and had seven pars on his card. After making a birdie at the eighth hole, Lucas Solano went back-to-back with birdies at 11 and 12 and had eight pars on his card with a pair of streaks of four straight pars from four through seven and again from 14 through 17.

   Jack Gilbert of Bryn Mawr took fifth place with a 76, Brooks Buerhaus of Bel Air, Md. and Gavin McLane of Wyncote shared sixth, each carding a 77, and David Padgett of Barnegat, N.J. and Parker Kriews of Manahawkin, N.J. finished in a tie for eighth, each recording a 79.

   Rounding out the top 10 in the 13-to-15 division was Dean Matta of West Grove as he finished in 10^th place with an 80.

   The best score of the day among the girls came out of the 13-to-15 division as Emma Cowan of Moorestown, N.J. had nine pars on her scorecard on her way to a Philly Junior Tour victory with an 86.

   Hailey Cousins of Port Republic, N.J. went back-to-back with birdies at the 15^th and 16^th holes and had six pars on her card as she finished a shot behind Cowan in second place with an 87.

   Naaya Patel, another Moorestown, N.J. entry, made pars on the third and 11^th holes as she finished in third place with a 99.

   Gigi Lake of Newtown took fourth place with a 103, Mackenzie Lim of Harleysville was fifth with a 108, and Kyla Fuente of Medford, N.J. and Sonia Rosenman, another Moorestown, N.J. entry, rounded out the field in the 13-to-15 division as they finished in a tie for sixth, each tallying a 112.

   Morgan Tyhanic of Little Egg Harbor, N.J. finished at the top of the leaderboard in the 16-to-18 division as she had nine pars on her scorecard on her way to an 87.

   Madison Gibson of Cinnaminson, N.J. and Christina St. Pierre, who wrapped up her scholastic career at Pennsbury last fall, finished in a tie for second place, each signing for a 97.

   Gibson made a birdie on the 17^th hole and had three pars on her card. St. Pierre made a birdie on the sixth hole and a par at 13.

   Rounding out the field in the 16-to-18 division was Emily Renouf, another Cinnaminson, N.J. gal, as she finished in fourth place with a 106.

   Kash Gray of Eagleville, coming off a victory in a Nine-Hole Series event two days earlier at DuPont Country Club’s Montchanin nine, made birdies at the fourth, sixth and seventh holes and had four pars on his scorecard as he bested the field of 12-and-under nine-holers with a sparkling 1-under 34.

   Chase Venne of Moorestown, N.J. had six pars on his card, including three straight pars at the first, second and third holes to open his round, as he earned runnerup honors with a 3-over 38.

   Damien Dollard of Cinnaminson, N.J., the Philly Junior Tour’s Player of the Year in the boys 12-and-under division in 2025, had five pars on his card as he finished in third place, a shot behind Venne with a 39.

   Caleb Solano, another member of Team Solano out of Vineland, N.J., took fourth place with a 44, Crew Schiemer of Ocean View, N.J. was fifth with a 49 and Kamran Patel, another member of Team Patel out of Moorestown, N.J., rounded out the field in the boys 12-and-under division as he finished in sixth place with a 52.

   Sydney Lim, another member of Harleysville’s Team Lim, was the lone entry in the girls 12-and-under division and posted a 58.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brexler, Moyer team up to finish strong and capture title in Francis X. Hussey at Rolling Green

 

   Andy Brexler, a senior on the Central Bucks West golf team, willed his 20-foot birdie putt at Rolling Green Golf Club’s 501-yard, par-5 18^th hole into the bottom of the cup Monday to lift him and John Moyer, a senior on the Central Bucks South golf team, to victory in the 40th Francis X. Hussey Memorial, a Golf Association of Philadelphia better-ball tournament for junior players.

   The two 17-year-olds had played in the Hussey a year ago and left feeling like they had left a lot on the golf course in carding a 3-under-par 68.

   They were back with a purpose this year and Brexler’s birdie putt completed a 7-under 64 tour of the 6,860-yard, par-71 William Flynn gem in the heart of Springfield, Delaware County that gave them a one-shot victory over Ryan McNett, a USGA/GAP entry and Kingston Davis of Kings Creek Country Club.

   Brexler, a Doylestown resident, plays out of Commonwealth National Golf Club in Horsham and Moyer, a Warrington resident, was representing Greate Bay Country Club at the Jersey Shore. Both were District One Class AAA qualifiers as juniors a year ago with Brexler advancing out of districts to the state tournament at Penn State.

   Francis X. Hussey, in whose memory the tournament is played, was an active junior golfer at Rolling Green and a student in the Haverford Township school district who suffered from congenital heart disease and died at age 13 while undergoing major heart surgery in December of 1983.

   It has become a very popular event among the region’s junior players with nearly 70 teams comprising the Junior Boys’ division this year.

   Brexler got his team off to a good start at Rolling Green’s 432-yard, par-4 first hole when he stuck an 8-iron from 165 yards to six feet and rolled in his birdie try.

   Moyer made a birdie at the fourth hole and then went back-to-back at the tough 248-yard, par-3 10^th and the 356-yard, par-4 11^th.

   Moyer hit a 6-iron to 10 feet at the 10^th hole and drained the birdie putt and dropped an eight-footer for birdie at 11.

   Brexler started the team’s closing kick when his 50-footer for birdie at the 146-yard, par-3 16^th hole fell to get Brexler and Moyer to 5-under for the round.

   It was Moyer doing the honors at the 510-yard, par-5 17^th hole as he holed a 20-footer for birdie.

   It was left to Brexler to finish the job by dropping his 20-foot birdie putt at the last.

   “We definitely made a lot of putts,” Moyer told the GAP website. “I felt like we didn’t hit the ball extraordinarily well. Our short games were working really well and being able to convert a lot of putts helped us feel confident when we had some pressure.”

   McNett and Davis finished a shot behind Brexler and Moyer in second place with a sparkling 6-under 65.

   Three teams finished two shots behind McNett and Davis in a tie for third place at 4-under 67, including Calvin Pace of Whitford Country Club and Ian Larsen of Honeybrook Golf Club and a senior on the Downingtown West golf team, Cedarbrook Country Club’s John Gavaghan and Tristan Smith, who were seniors on a La Salle team that finished in fifth place in the PIAA Class AAA team chase last fall, and the Haverford High duo of Kieran Gillespie, a GAP Youth on Course entry, and Charlie Robinson, a USGA/GAP entry and a District One Class AAA qualifier last fall.

   The Radnor High duo of Sebastian Leone, playing out of Radnor Valley Country Club, and Gavin Reger, a Waynesborough Country Club entry, headed a group of four teams tied for sixth place at 3-under 68.

   Leone and Reger were freshmen on a Radnor team that finished in a tie for second place in the PIAA Class AAA team standings last fall, a shot behind state champion Unionville.

   The duo of White Manor Country Club’s Logan Turner and Overbrook Golf Club’s Lannon Boyd were also among the four teams tied at 3-under.

   Turner finished in a tie for 15^th place in the PIAA Class AA Championship as a freshman at Devon Prep last fall. Boyd, who will join the program at Saint Joseph’s later this summer, was the co-medalist in the Central League Championship last fall for the second time in his career with the Raptors and was a PIAA Class AAA qualifier as a senior.

   RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve’s Colby Komancheck teamed with The Springhaven Club’s Luca Kleinschmidt to join the group at 3-under.

   Komancheck, whose parents Jamie and Kelly are the husband-wife team of PGA professionals in charge of the pro shop at RiverCrest, capped his junior season at Malvern Prep last fall by capturing the individual title in the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association Championship at Radley Run Country Club.

   Kleinschmidt, a recent graduate of Strath Haven who will join the program at PSAC power Millersville later this summer, reached the final of the GAP Junior Boys’ Championship at Chester Valley Golf Club earlier this summer before falling to Riverton Country Club’s Jackson Lane.

   Rounding out the group of four duos tied at 3-under was the Jersey Shore pair of Keller Tannehill of Atlantic City Country Club and Paul Reilly, who plays out of Galloway National Golf Club.

   Christos Bottos of host Rolling Green partnered with Eric Cunningham of St. Davids Golf Club as they headed a trio of players tied for 10^th place at 2-under 69.

   Logan Cassidy of the Union League Golf Club Torresdale, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier as a junior at Holy Ghost Prep last fall, and his fellow Firebird Jake Smaron, playing out of the John F. Byrne Golf Club, were also in the group at 2-under.

   Rounding out the trio tied at 2-under was the tandem of Huntingdon Valley Country Club’s Jake Yerkes and Philmont Country Club’s Ben Robbins, teammates on Catholic League power La Salle.

   The Brookside Country Club pair of Rayna Maguire and Anastasia Schell was the only entry in the Junior Girls’ division and recorded a 116.

   The team of Helmut Dang of White Manor Country Club, a fixture on the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour boys 13-to-15 division leaderboards this year, and Jack Gilbert of Gulph Mills Golf Club captured the title in the Junior-Junior Boys’ division on the second hole of a playoff.

   Dang and Gilbert, the son of Gulph Mills head pro Tom Gilbert, had finished in a tie atop the leaderboard with the Waynesborough Country Club pair of Jackson Ehrlich and Jack Kolmer, each touring the outgoing nine at Rolling Green in 1-over 37.

   The duo of Llanerch Country Club’s Ryan Comly and Overbrook’s Bobby Stefanski shared third place with the North Hills pair of Samuel Karas and Jackson Jones, each ending up with a 2-over 38.

   Three teams finished in a tie for fifth place at 5-over 41, including the Overbrook duo of Nolan English and Ryan Stefanski, the Whitemarsh Valley Country Club pair of Finnegan Kelly and Finn Funston and the Aronimink Golf Club tandem of Luke McDermott and Brendan McDermott.

 

 

 

 

 

Nicholas prevails in a playoff with Ryan at Lancaster to repeat as Philadelphia Open champion

 

   Drue Nicholas, who starred at Drexel, quickly established himself as the region’s top amateur player when he captured titles in a pair of Golf Association of Philadelphia major championships in the summer of 2025, the BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship and GAP’s Open Championship.

   Tuesday at Lancaster Country Club, Nicholas, playing out of Merion Golf Club, buttressed that resume by becoming the first player to repeat as the Philadelphia Open winner since Andrew Mason achieved the feat in 2011 and 2012 by defeating Norristown native Josh Ryan in a four-hole aggregate playoff.

   A bogey on the final hole of regulation, the 18^th at the William Flynn gem that is LCC, dropped Nicholas into a tie with Ryan, winner of the GAP Junior Boys’ Championship three straight times from 2020 to 2022, each ending up with a 3-under 137 total.

   The four-hole aggregate playoff was contested on the 15^th through the 18^th holes and the 320-yard par-4 16^th decided the outcome in Nicholas’ favor.

   A poor approach by Ryan left him with an impossible chip and ultimately led to a double bogey.

   Nicholas, who had birdied the 16^th hole in regulation when he dropped a big left-to-right breaker from 15 feet, did it again, knocking a 50-degree wedge to six feet and was once again able to curl in a right-to-left slider for birdie.

   The three-shot swing gave Nicholas a two-shot lead, which he maintained, winning the aggregate playoff by a margin of 16 to 18.

   “I didn’t have high expectations (coming in here),” the 24-year-old Nicholas told the GAP website. “Not because I didn’t think I could do it, but defending is really hard. It’s a big sigh of relief being able to defend.

   “I don’t know why, but I felt getting that fourth major really puts me in a pretty elite class.”

   Ryan had grabbed a share of the lead with his 2-under 68 in Monday’s opening round and he got off to a great start in Tuesday’s second round with birdies at the first and second holes.

   Ryan gave a shot back with a bogey at the third hole, but got it right back with a birdie at four.

   The par-5 seventh hole was Ryan’s nemesis at Lancaster and a disastrous double bogey there dropped him back to 2-under for the tournament.

   Ryan bounced back with a birdie at the eighth hole, but again fell back to 2-under with a bogey at nine. Ryan settled down the rest of the way with a birdie at the 12^th hole giving him a 1-under 69 and leaving him tied at the top of the leaderboard with Nicholas following the regulation 36 holes at 2-under.

   Nicholas, an Egg Harbor Township, N.J. native who was a scholastic standout at St. Augustine Prep, had opened with a solid 1-under 69 Monday and made birdies at the fifth and 10^th holes to get it to 3-under for the tournament.

   Nicholas dropped a shot with a bogey at the 13^th hole, but seemed to have one arm wrapped around the John J. McDermott Trophy when he dropped the big breaker for birdie at 16 and then drilled a 6-iron to 10 feet at the 176-yard, par-3 17^th and converted the birdie try to get it to 4-under.

   Nicholas’ closing bogey, though, left him with a 2-under 68 for the round and dropped him back to 3-under, sending him and Ryan to the 15^th tee for the start of the aggregate playoff.

   Ryan told the GAP website that he will turn pro before the end of the summer.

   I first ran into him when he qualified for the PIAA Class AAA Championship as a freshman, representing Norristown High on the golf course while doing his schoolwork with Commonwealth Connections Academy, in the fall of 2017.

   Following my exit from the newspaper business early in 2016 I had expanded this blog’s original mission as a supplement to my golf coverage at the Delaware County Daily Times to the entire region with a particular emphasis on the junior and high school scenes.

   And Ryan has always been right in the middle of all of it. Denied a chance to become a four-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier – which he most assuredly would have been – by the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, Ryan took a gap year and then became a steady addition to the program at Liberty.

   Wishing Ryan nothing but good luck – a little luck goes a long way in the sport of golf – as a pro. His focus and passion for the game make me think we’ll be hearing more from Josh Ryan at the next level.

   Aronimink Golf Club’s Hunter Stetson – saw him win the Bert Linton Invitational for the Inter-Ac League’s individual title as a sophomore at Episcopal Academy in the fall of 2021 at Bluestone Country Club – finished a shot out of the playoff as he added a 2-under 68 to his opening-round 70 for a 2-under 138 total.

   A junior at North Carolina State, Stetson earned himself a ticket to next month’s U.S. Amateur at Merion by defeating Evan Barbin in a marathon seven-hole, sudden-death playoff to capture the title in the Delaware Amateur Championship last month at Rehoboth Beach Country Club.

   Stetson defeated Nicholas in a playoff last summer to capture the title in the Joseph H. Patterson Cup at Waynesborough Country Club, denying Nicholas what would have been an unprecedented third GAP major championship in a single season.

   The best round of the tournament belonged to the Philadelphia Section PGA’s reigning four-time Rolex / Haverford Trust Company Player of the Year Braden Shattuck, the head of instruction at Rolling Green Golf Club who ripped off a sizzling 5-under 65 Tuesday to finish a shot behind Stetson in fourth place with a 1-under 139 total and pocket the low-pro prize of $8,000.

   It was reminiscent of Shattuck’s final-round rally in the PGA Professional Championship at the Bandon Dunes Resort on Oregon’s rugged coastline in April that earned him a spot on the Corebridge Financial Team in the PGA Championship at Aronimink in May.

   The Delco native – covered his scholastic career at Sun Valley when I was still at the Daily Times – struck the opening tee shot when the PGA Championship returned to Aronimink and Delaware County for the first time in 64 years in May.

   Shattuck, the 2023 Philly Open champion at Lookaway Golf Club, was coming off a victory in the Philly Section’s GALV Lehigh Valley / Reading Open last week at Berkleigh Golf Club and Moselem Springs Golf Club, but struggled a little in Monday’s opening round at Lancaster with a 4-over 74.

   But he got it going early in Tuesday’s second round with birdies at the first, third, fourth and seventh holes.

   A bogey at the eighth hole and a costly double bogey at nine slowed Shattuck’s roll a little, but he got it going on the incoming nine again, rattling off consecutive birdies at 11, 12 and 13 before adding another birdie at 16, his eighth birdie of the day, to secure the nice payday that goes to the low pro.

   Radley Run Country Club’s Charlie Barrickman, one of the top players in District One throughout his scholastic career at Unionville, added a sparkling 3-under 67 in Tuesday’s second round to his opening round of 3-over 73 to finish in fifth place with an even-par 140 total.

   It was the second straight strong showing in the Philly Open for Barrickman, who finished in a tie for third place a year ago at Bidermann Golf Course. Barrickman will join the program at Bucknell in the Patriot League later this summer.

   Brian Bergstol, the head of instruction at the Shawnee Inn & Golf Resort and one of the Philly Section’s most consistent performers, and Dave Quinn, one of the Philly Section’s top senior players who works out of the pro shop at Laurel Creek Country Club, headed a trio of players tied for sixth place at 2-over 142.

   Bergstol carded a 2-over 72 in Tuesday’s second round after matching par in the opening round with a 70. Quinn, winner of the Philly Open two decades ago in 2006, posted a second straight 1-over 71.

   Joining the two pros at 2-over was Huntingdon Valley Country Club’s Stephen Cerbara, the PIAA Class AAA champion as a senior at Holy Ghost Prep in 2015 who finished up his college career at Drexel.

   Cerbara tallied a 1-under 69 in Tuesday’s second round after opening with a 3-over 73.

   Rounding out the top 10 was a group of five players tied for ninth place at 3-over 143, including a trio of the Philly Section’s top pros, Riley Wheeldon, an instructor at Aronimink, Anthony Sebastianelli, an assistant pro at Whitford Country Club, and Zac Oakley, an instructor at Bidermann.

   Wheeldon, the runnerup to Shattuck last week in the GALV Lehigh Valley / Reading Open, bounced back from an opening round of 4-over 74 with a solid 1-under 69 in Tuesday’s second round.

   Sebastianelli, winner of last month’s Philadelphia Assistant PGA Professional Championship at Laurel Creek, added a 2-over 72 in Tuesday’s second round to his opening-round 71.

   Oakley, who has been one of the Philly Section’s top performers for a while now, matched par in the opening round with a 70 before adding a 3-over 73 in Tuesday’s second round.

   Rounding out the quintet tied at 2-over were Philadelphia Cricket Club veteran Mark Miller and Wilmington Country Club youngster Jack Homer.

   Miller, who reached the second round of match play in last month’s Philly Am at Sunnybrook Golf Club, and Homer, who starred scholastically at The Tatnall School and capped his GAP junior career with a Christman Cup victory last summer at Saucon Valley Country Club’s Grace Course, had identical splits, each matching par in the opening round with a 70 before adding a 3-over 73 in Tuesday’s second round.