Philadelphia Cricket Club comes out on top in Team Matches

   It’s been a busy weekend of golf and the remarkable performance by the duo of PIAA Class AAA champion Brynn Walker and her partner Madelein Herr of Council Rock North in qualifying at the inaugural U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship at the Bandon Dunes Resort in Bandon, Ore. merited a spot in Monday’s Daily Times print edition and on the delcotimes.com website.

   Meanwhile, at three courses in Delaware County and at Philadelphia Cricket Club Saturday, the BMW Golf Association of Philadelphia Team Matches Division AA champion was crowned with some of the very best amateur players in this area battling it out.

   The Cricket Club, which has really amassed some talent in recent years and won the title two years ago, prevailed again Saturday, piling up 74.5 points. Llanerch Country Club finished second at 55.5, Aronimink Golf Club was third at 49, and defending champion Overbrook Golf Club finished fourth at 37.

   Each club had three golfers at each course and it’s basically everybody against everybody in each match. I can’t pretend to know how each match shook out, but I can figure out some highlights from the scoring on the GAP website.

   The Cricket Club sent out Cole Berman, the two-time Daily Times Player of the Year at The Haverford School who is coming off an outstanding freshman season at Georgetown, Andy Latkowski and Robert Savarese Jr. to defend its home turf and that trio piled up 23 points.

   Llanerch sent a pretty talented threesome to the Cricket Club in Stephen Seiden, a Strath Haven All-Delco and two-time U.S. Amateur qualifier, and two members of Delco’s No. 1 golfing family, brothers Brian and Kevin McDermott, and they managed to pick up 16.5 points.

   The most tightly contested match of the day was at Llanerch as the Cricket Club trio of Sean Semenetz, John Brennan and Joe April  and the Aronmink threesome of 2010 Pennsylvania Amateur champion Cory Seigfried, Joseph Fabrizio Jr. and Charles Bernard each picked up 15 points.  Joe Kerrigan Jr., Carlo Fitti and Brandon Murdock stayed home for Llanerch and earned 13 points.

   At Aronimink, the Cricket Club trio of Brendan Borst, Philip Bartholomew and Jack Wallace picked up 18.5 points with Borst going for what looks like a clean sweep with nine points. The home team group of Dan Bernard, a former Malvern Prep and Bucknell standout, Paul LIebezeit and Jeff Fialko earned 16.5 points.

   At Overbrook, the Cricket Club trio of Marc Mandel, Ryan Gelrod and Kevin Kelly picked up 18 points, with Kelly, like Borst at Aronimink, maxing out with nine points.  Overbrook kept the old guys home and brothers Andy and Ray Thomspon didn’t let their home course down as they teamed with Pat Melvin to give Overbrook 16 points. It looks like Ray Thompson, who made a spirited run to the Philadelphia Amateur semifinals at age 62 last summer, also earned the maximum nine points.

Charlesworth, Donatoni Warner Cup winners

   Speaking of old guys, GAP staged one of its senior major event, the Warner Cup (Gross) Thursday at Little Mill Country Club in New Jersey.

   The close location is the main reason 56-year-old Norman Charlesworth decided to enter and the
Running Deer Golf Club member blitzed the field with a 3-under 68 to win the title by six shots. Ray Pyontek of Mercer Oaks Golf Club was the runnerup with a 74.

   Overbrook Golf Club’s Ray Thompson (there’s that name again) and Robert Billings of Rolling Green Golf Club were among three players who shared third place at 5-over 76. A couple of other players from Overbrook’s deep stable of senior standouts, Chris Lange and Oscar Mestre, who captains Overbrook’s Team Matches entry, were among a large group of players at 77.

   Michael Quinn of Edgmont Country Club was another shot back with a 78.

   In the Super-Senior division, Don Donatoni of White Manor Country Club, the reigning two-time GAP Super-Senior Player of the Year, needed to survive a four-hole playoff to take the Warner Cup title and continue his dominance of the Super-Senior division. 

   Donatoni’s 4-over 75 was matched by Huntingdon Valley Country Club’s David Brookerson, one of the top GAP performers over the years. I seem to recall a GAP match breaking out at the 1989 U.S. Amateur at Merion with Brookerson squaring off against Jay Sigel with hundreds of local golf fans following along while the college kids who usually dominate the U.S. Amateur were trying to figure out what the big deal was.

   Donatoni finally prevailed when Brookerson’s approach to the par-4 eighth hole just trickled off the green into some deep grass. The lie was so gnarly that Brookerson double-hit his chip trying to extricate the ball with a wedge, opening the door for Brookerson to take the playoff.

   Merion Golf Club’s Carl Everett finished fourth with a 77 and Edward Pappas of Rolling Green was one of three players another shot back in a tie for fifth at 78.