A big week in high school golf is on tap

   It’s a big week on the high school golf scene as league tournaments begin the postseason and a huge dual match looms in the Central League.

   First, the top Central League players will gather Monday at Turtle Creek Golf Club for the league tournament. The battle among the boys for those valuable tickets to the District One Tournament, back at the Turtle a week later, is always interesting and, inevitably, a player or two who nobody thought wouldn’t be teeing it up at districts sees his season, at least individually, come to an end.

   Among the top contenders for individual honors at the Central tournament will likely be defending champion Erik Reisner of Harriton, Conestoga’s Andrew Wilner, who ended up with a silver medal in Class AAA at the PIAA Tournament a year ago, Penncrest’s Griffin Colvin, who finished in a tie for second at Centrals a year ago, and Radnor’s Paul Yun, who has gone low at the Turtle a couple of times in his career.

   Among the girls, Radnor junior All-Delco Brynn Walker, a North Carolina commit, always seems to play well at Turtle Creek. Walker fired a 2-under 70 at Centrals last year and went to a runnerup finish at districts and a share of fifth place at the PIAA Tournament.  A couple of her Radnor teammates, Julia Curley and Gabby Kim, also figure to be among the top finishers as does Garnet Valley’s Annika Vandayar, who has been one of the league’s top female players throughout her career with the Jaguars.

   Wednesday at Waynesborough Country Club, Radnor and Conestoga will meet with – I’m fairly certain – the Central League title on the line. I’m pretty sure neither has lost a league match this fall. Conestoga had a long match win streak snapped by Episcopal Academy this season and Radnor’s only dual-match loss came at the hands of another Inter-Ac League power, Haverford School.

   With Radnor not fielding a girls team this season, the Raiders get a powerful addition to their lineup in Walker, who qualified for the U.S. Girls Junior and U.S. Women’s Amateur and won a pair of AJGA titles this summer.

   In the Catholic League, Bonner-Prendie All-Delco Quinn Dolan  will defend the title he won a year ago back at LuLu Country Club Tuesday. Jack Glacken’s Friars will also be involved in the team chase at LuLu, although St. Joseph’s Prep looks like it might be tough to beat. And don’t be surprised if Cardinal O’Hara’s Alec Kerr shows up on the leaderboard at LuLu.

   As I mentioned in my last post while updating goings-on in the Inter-Ac League, two of the league’s mini-tournaments are scheduled on back-to-back days this week, Tuesday at Huntingdon Valley Country Club and Wednesday at Sunnybrook Golf Club.

Havertown’s Smith second at Hidden Creek

   With  most of the high school players gearing up for the postseason, the nine-holers took center stage in a Philadelphia PGA Junior Tour stop on a picture-perfect day for golf Saturday at Hidden Creek Golf Club in Egg Harbor Township, N.J.

   Hayden Smith of Havertown carded a 46 to finish second among the nine-holers, a shot back of division winner Win Thomas of Coatesville.

   Roy Anderson of Chadds Ford finished in a tie for third with a 47, Owen Harvey of Havertown finished in a tie for sixth with a 51 and Ryan Harvey of Havertown finished ninth with a 60.

Jack Hirsh of Villanova finished third in the 16-to-18 division with an 86. Alexander Covelli of Cherry Hill, N.J. took top honors with a 76.

   David Hurley of Newtown Square fired an 86 to finish in a tie for fifth in the 13-to-15 age group. Top honors in that division went to Shravann Raja of  Moorestown, N.J. with a 79.

   Also in the division, Aj Aivazoglou of Glen Mills finished 12^th with an 88, Matthew Barkann of Newtown Square was 13^th with a 91 and Alec Stern of Bryn Mawr finished 21^st with a 110.