Managed to sneak a story in Wednesday’s Daily Times print edition concerning two-time Haverford School All-Delco Scott Jaster’s decision to commit to continue his academic and golf pursuits at Dartmouth College.
What there wasn’t room for on the printed page was a mention of an outstanding effort by Jaster over the Thanksgiving Day weekend in the American Junior Golf Association’s Polo Golf Invitational played at the PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., site of the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic.
Jaster qualified for the Polo after being named an HP Scholastic Junior All-American as was reported on your favorite golf blog earlier this fall. Academics played a big part in that honor, but Jaster showed once again at PGA National that he can play a little, too. Jaster will be fully exempt to play the AJGA circuit in 2013 and he added to that resume at the Polo.
“It was 36 holes of medal play and I finished in a tie for 12th and the top 32 got into match play,” Jaster said. “I won two matches and the lost on the 18th hole to the eventual champion (Adam Wood). I’ll pick up a lot of (AJGA) points for that.”
Jaster was the lowest-seeded player to advance to the quarterfinals and he gave Wood all he wanted in the match. Jaster had the Zionsville, Ind. resident 1-down with three to play before Wood won the next two holes and got a half with a par on the 18th for a 1-up victory.
Along the way, Jaster certainly earned Wood’s respect.
“He (Jaster) was similar to my first match against Jacob Solomon,” Wood told the AJGA website. “Like Jacob, he hit nothing but straight shots. He played really quality golf and never opened any doors, so I was feeling the pressure a little bit. That kind of pressure was really similar (to the first round), so I guess that gave me a little more confidence that I could pull it out late like I did in the quarterfinals.”
Wood, who reached the semifinals a year ago, went on to take the title as he made six birdies in a 3-and-1 victory over Scott Scheffler of Dallas. Scheffler was the qualifying medalist and beat four Rolex Junior All-Americans on his way to the final.
I haven’t been able to track down the exact score, but Jaster said Haverford School beat Episcopal Academy “by about 12 shots” as the teams squared off on the front nine at Merion Golf Club’s East Course, site of the 2013 U.S. Open, as part of Haverford-EA Day last month.
“I hit it OB on seven – way OB – and I think ended up with a 39,” Jaster said. “We’ve played there twice now for Haverford-EA Day and a couple of other times, but I think it’s my favorite course.”
Join the club. And for those of you who are counting the days until the 2013 U.S. Open tees off right here in Delaware County, on this December Monday morning, the countdown is at 186 days.
One other thing that there wasn’t quite room for in the story on Jaster that appeared in Wednesday’s Daily Times is how Dartmouth has really mined Delaware County for some top talent this fall.
Joining Jaster in the recruiting class for the Big Green men’s team is Episcopal Academy senior Sean Fahey. Coming off a monstrous summer during which he advanced out of the first round of U.S. Open qualifying, qualified for the Philadelphia Open at the famed Pine Valley Golf Club, and teamed up with his Episcopal Academy teammate Alex Dupre to win the Hussey Memorial at Rolling Green Golf Club, Fahey’s scholastic season was interrupted by a spill he took on a bicycle. But Dartmouth is getting two of the best players in the state’s most talented golf league.
Another big name headed for the Dartmouth women’s program is Radnor senior Jamie Susanin, the PIAA East Regional champion who led the Red Raiders to the PIAA Class AAA team title. Fahey and Susanin are both members at Overbrook Golf Club.
It’s been quite a year
Seems like just yesterday I almost fell off the couch when Louie Oosthuizen holed out his second shot on the par-5 second hole at Augusta for a double eagle in the final round of The Masters.
And it took an equally great shot by Bubba Watson out of the woods in the playoff to beat the sweet-swinging South African in the first major of 2012.
Did somebody say Woods? It’s been just more than three years since the wheels fell off of Tiger’s marriage and he hasn’t added to his total of major professional championships since winning the 2008 U.S. Open on one leg at Torrey Pines for number 14.
Woods had some fast starts in majors this year, but the third-round fades are starting to look as inevitable as the victories used to be.
Having said that, he is a threat to win anytime he tees it up. Four years ago, as Woods rehabbed his surgically repaired leg, you might have thought he’d be approaching, if to ready to surpass, Jack Nicklaus’ record 18 majors by the time he arrived in Delaware County for the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course.
It is pretty amazing how much golf history has been writ at Merion East. Maybe it was just meant to be that Woods will finally end his majorless streak there and join the roster of champions that includes Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Nicklaus and Lee Trevino in the process.
Meanwhile back in 2012, Webb Simpson showed true grit and talent in winning the Open at Olympic. And probably hastened the process of the slow ban that is now under way on his weapon of choice on the greens, the suddenly sort-of outlawed belly putter.
And Ernie Els added a little to a resume that had already earned him a spot in golf’s Hall of Fame by winning the British. In this case, the belly putter couldn’t prevent the meltdown over the final holes that cost Adam Scott a first major that seemed to be his.
But the real fun in 2012 started when Rory McIlroy took over the game with another major romp, this time in the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island.
By time the smoke cleared at year’s end, McIlroy had won the money titles on both the PGA and European tours, matching Luke Donald’s feat of a year ago, and was the unquestioned No. 1 player in the world.
He got a little help along the way from his new girlfriend, Caroline Wozniacki, the attractive and talented tennis star who spent quite a bit of time as the No. 1-ranked player in the world with nary a Grand Slam title to show for it. She got there by outworking everybody while Serena Williams was hurt and her work ethic has worn off on a noticeably fitter and stronger McIlroy.
Which brings us to the Ryder Cup.
The meltdown at Medinah was three days of incredible golf, even if U.S. fans felt like they got punched in the gut at the end. McIlroy certainly added to the intrigue of the final day by nearly missing his tee time for his singles match. Central time, Eastern time. Whatever? It’s the middle of the next day in Malaysia.
For two days, it was an American lovefest – and the fans in Chicago were as much a part of the show as the players – as the U.S. built a seemingly insurmountable lead.
Nobody had more to do with the European comeback than that quirky Brit Ian Poulter. He talked a little Ryder Cup last week with Doug Ferguson, who covers golf for The Associated Press.
For all the angst about how U.S. captain Davis Love III set up the singles pairings and the spirit of Seve Ballesteros and whatever else you want to attribute the U.S. defeat to, Poulter, who had recently seen the Ryder Cup highlights for the first time, said you could narrow it down to two shots – Steve Stricker’s poor chip shot on the 17th hole that enabled Martin Kaymer to get the clinching point on the 18th hole and Justin Rose’s 35-foot bomb of a birdie putt, also on the 17th hole, that squared his match with Phil Mickelson.
If Poulter faults DL3 for anything, it was the pin placement on 17. Poulter thinks a pin on the left side would have aided the American players, most of whom favor a right-to-left shot.
For those of us who enjoy the women’s game just as much as the men, it was nice to see an American woman – and a gritty, talented American woman at that – finish the year as the LPGA’s best player in 2012 as Stacy Lewis had a rock-solid campaign.
Yani Tseng, who appeared on her way to dominating the women’s game the way Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa once did, stalled in 2012 and Lewis, among others, was there to fill the void.
Na Yeon Choi, one of my personal favorites among the many great South Korean players, won the Women’s U.S. Open in dominant fashion. I expect there are more major championships in the future for a player who just goes about the business of trying to beat the golf course every time she tees it up.
Scott wasn’t the only player to let a major get away in 2012. The major season began with another of the talented South Korean women, I.K. Kim, needing just a tap-in to win the Kraft-Nabisco Championship.
Her horrified expression when the one-footer caught the edge of the cup and spun out is one the average golfer knows all too well. Kim would lose the title in a playoff to countrywoman Sun Young Yoo and put a scare into television commentators everywhere who routinely “concede” short putts to the best players in the world.
Here’s hoping I.K. can get that major that so rudely eluded her sometime soon, maybe in 2013.
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