Family feud

   Neither team's road squad will have far to travel when Merion Golf Club's top team squares off with Llanerch Country Club's A squad in a Golf Association of Philadelphia Division AA Section 4 showdown this weekend.
   And nobody will be pulled in more different directions than Merion captain Michael McDermott, who became the top player in the Philadelphia area in the first decade of the new millennium with a game he honed at Llanerch. McDermott, five times the winner of the William Hyndman III Award that goes to the GAP Player of the Year, will be teeing it up against younger brothers Brian and Kevin, who like Michael, starred scholastically at Haverford High and collegiately at Saint Joseph's.
    Merion is coming off a 27-27 tie with Philadelphia Cricket Club, a pretty good effort for a Cricket Club squad against a Merion team that includes McDermott and Buddy Marcucci, the 2008 U.S. Senior Amateur champion and captain of the winning U.S. Walker Cup teams in 2007 and 2009, the second of those coming at the historic East Course at Merion.
  Llanerch is coming off a victory over Laurel Creek after dropping an opening-week decision to the Cricket Club. A big win over Merion, combined with a Cricket Club loss could vault Llanerch to the Section 4 crown and into the Division AA playoffs.
   "My family is on the team and a lot of my closest friends play on the team,"  Michael McDermott said on the GAP webiste as  he anticipated the Delco battle royalee with Llanerch. "Now, we're going head-to-head. It's a predicament. They're a great team. They may be the best team in our division. They just happened to lose the first week, so we really have our hands full against them."
   In a little bit of suprise in Section 2, Overbrook, a six-time champion at the top level of the team matches, dropped a 29.5-24.5 decision to Little Mill.
Big finish for Villanova
   Michael Kania, the two-time Inter-Ac League champion and two-time All-Delco at The Haverford School, picked a great week to have his best week as a Villanova golfer.
    Kania transferred to Villanova following his freshman year at the University of Kentucky and big things were expected of him on the Main Line. The Overbrook member delivered in a big way this week in the Big East Championship tournament at the 7,340-yard, par-71 Coopperhead Course at the Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Fla.
   Kania had rounds of 73, 73 and 76 and finished tied with Wildcat teammates Brendan Kelly and Conor Casey, both seniors, in 10th place at 9-over 222. Spurred by that trio of high finishes, Villanova finished third in the team standings.
   Kelly followed an opening round 78 with a pair of 72s and Casey sandwiched an even-par 71 in the middle round with a 74 and a 77. Junior Brian Colbert matched par on the final day to gain a tie for 20th at 1-over 224 and sophomore Steve Skurla kept getting better all week, going 85, 79 and 76 for a 27-over 240 total.
   It all added up to a 37-over 889 team total for the Wildcats, 13 shots behind Big East team champion Notre Dame.
   Last week's post on Villanova golf called it Will Reilly's team, but somewhere between the fall and spring portions of the Villanova golf campaign, James Wilkes took over the program. Congratulations to both men as Reilly assembled a strong group of players and Wilkes got the most out of that group this week at Innisbrook.