Billy Stewart, who honed his game as a junior golfer at
Llanerch Country Club, pocketed the biggest prize on the Philadelphia Section
PGA schedule – it is believed to be the largest top prize for any PGA section
event in the country – when he dropped a 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th
hole at Sunnybrook Golf Club, the first hole of a four-man sudden-death playoff
Tuesday.
Earlier this summer, the 29-year-old Stewart, who is back in
the area as a pro at Golf Galaxy in Devon after toiling on the Florida
mini-tours for six years, grabbed the top pro prize at the Philadelphia Open,
although he lost out for the title in a playoff with talented Temple sophomore
Brandon Matthews.
The top section pros teed it up Sunnybrook in the Drexel
Morgan & Co. Classic, which was originally scheduled to be played in June,
but was postponed by rain. Starting on the back nine, Stewart had four birdies
and two bogeys to make the turn at 2-under and then added a bogey-free 2-under
on Sunnybrook’s outward nine to get him to 4-under 68 for the day.
He was tied at that figure at the end of the morning wave by
Stu Ingraham, the reigning section Player of the Year and the head of
instruction at the M Golf Range in Newtown Square, and Ryan Breidegam of
Brookside Country Club.
Ingraham offset three bogeys with seven birdies, including a
chip-in for two at the par-3 eighth hole.
It didn’t look like 4-under was going to be good enough to
grab the lucrative top prize of $75,000 as Bill Sautter of Philadelphia Cricket
Club took the lead during the afternoon wave. But Sautter faltered down the
stretch and joined the three others for a playoff.
In the playoff, Breidegam’s birdie chip rattled the pin, but
stayed out and Ingraham and Sautter left their birdie chances short before
Stewart made his birdie putt count.
“This was such an exciting day for me,” said Stewart, who
had left the course after the morning wave. “After finishing I wasn’t sure what to do with myself. I went home and
tried to keep busy to stay distracted, but I found myself checking the
leaderboard every 10 minutes. I hope this win will help me further my career as
a professional in the Philadelphia Section.”
It was the first Philadelphia Section win for Stewart and
there are 75,000 reasons why this one is better than any to make your first
victory.
Thompson comes up short in playoff
Overbrook Golf Club’s Ray Thompson just missed adding a third
Golf Association of Philadelphia Senior Championship to his resume Wednesday at
Huntingdon Valley Country Club, but a third Senior Silver Cross award was a
nice consolation prize.
Thompson fired a 1-under 69 over the difficult 6,480-yard,
par-70 Huntingdon Valley layout in Wednesday’s second round for a 4-over 144
total. But Thomas Bartolacci Jr. of Saucon Valley Country Club added a 72 to
his opening-round 72 and caught Thompson at 4-over.
Bartolacci then birdied the 374-yard, par-4 first hole,
sinking a 15-foot putt, to claim the title. It was the second Senior Amateur
victory for Bartolacci, who won at The Springhaven Club in 2008.
“I figured with the 1-under on the front, I had a shot,”
Thompson told the GAP website. “The course was playing hard, I thought. The
wind was blowing. I figured 3- or 4-over was going to be close. I figured I’d
be right there. I was grinding hard.”
Still, Thompson’s Senior Amateur score, combined with his
Warner Cup and Chapman Cup scores earlier this summer, gave him a 287 total,
five shots clear of reigning three-time GAP senior Player of the Year Chip
Lutz, in the battle for the Silver Cross. It was the 61-year-old Thompson’s third
senior Silver Cross, having taken it previously in 2007 and 2011.
“That was important to me,” said Thompson, who is headed for
the U.S. Senior Amateur in North Carolina later this month. “That was my goal
today. I didn’t think I had a chance starting out to win the tournament. I said if I could win
the Silver Cross, that was really my goal.”
As usual, Overbrook was well-represented at the top of the leaderboard
as Thompson’s brother and fellow Overbrook member Andy (72-75) finished tied
for fourth at 147 and Frank McFadden (77-74) was in a large group tied for 10th
at 151.
Rolling Green Golf Club’s Robert Billings (79-74) was at
153, Mike Owsik (79-76), the proprietor of the M Golf Range in Newtown Square,
and Michael Quinn (75-80) of Edgmont Country Club were at 155, J. Kirk Luntey (80-76)
of Merion Golf Club was a 156, Andrew Harmer (75-82) of The Springhaven Club
and Jon Lavin (79-78) of Rolling Green Golf Club were at 157, and Rich Thon
(77-81) of Springhaven was at 158.
No comments:
Post a Comment