Lots of leftovers from a busy week of junior golf that I
couldn’t jam into the Golf Notebook that appeared in the Daily Times print
edition of Saturday, June 27. And OK, I did go a little overboard on the
National Club Pro preview, but it’s a neat event and if you want to see a
couple of cool golf courses, try to sneak over to the Cricket Club Sunday or
Monday. And by all means, if you’ve taken a lesson from guys like Stu Ingraham
or Mike Moses or George Forster or Mark Sheftic, get out there and lend them some
support.
Kevin Smith, Wallingford’s rising junior standout, took a
trip to Dothan, Ala., this week to tee it up in the Future Masters, an event he
won at nine holes when he was 10-years old. Smith had rounds of 77, 72 and 68
to finish alone in 10th place.
Haverford School All-Delco Max Siegfried’s run to the Golf
Association of Philadelphia Junior Championship final was fairly well covered
in the Golf Notebook, but there were a lot of locals who teed it up in
qualifying that deserve mention. I’ll also take a closer look at Thursday’s
qualifier for the U.S. Junior Amateur at Concord Country Club.
While Siegfried was the only Delco player to make match play
in the championship flight at Indian Valley Country Club, several made the first
flight.
Overbrook Golf Club’s Trey Croney, a recent Episcopal
Academy graduate, just missed the championship flight with a 76. Radnor Valley
Country Club’s Billy Civitella had a 77, Erik Reisner, the two-time Central
League champion from Harriton, had a 77, and Rolling Green Golf Club’s Jake
Calamaro also had a 77.
I mentioned in the
Notebook that Calamaro was knocked out in the quarterfinals by Daniel Rieger of
Sunnybrook Golf Club and Rieger then ousted Civitella in the semifinals. Civitella
reached the semifinals with a 3 and 2 win over Jack Quirk of Huntingdon Valley
Country Club in the first round and a 6 and 4 victory over Adam Lowe of host
Indian Valley in the quarterfinals.
Some other notables who teed it up in qualifying included:
Waynesborough Country Club’s Jon Nolan Perry (78), a sophomore at Episcopal
Academy; Inter-Ac League champion Brian Isztwan (79), a member at Huntingdon
Valley and a sophomore at Penn Charter; Aronimink Golf Club’s John Updike (79);
two-time Bonner-Prendie All-Delco Quinn Dolan (79) of Rolling Green;
Overbrook’s Michael Burns Jr. (82); Gulph Mills Golf Club’s Otis Baker (82), a
Haverford School All-Delco; Overbrook’s D.J. Colleran (83); Merion Golf Club’s
Mac Costin (84), who, I’m guessing, is the son of Haverford School golf coach
Gui Costin; Rolling Green’s Ryan Brennan (87); Llanerch Country Club’s Francis
McEveigh III (88) of Haverford High; and Overbrook’s Gavin Sims (92).
A GAP Junior team champion was also crowned at the qualifier
with Spring-Ford Country Club claiming a three-shot victory over Jericho
National Golf Club and Whitford Country Club.
Spring-Ford’s counters included John Foley (75), JT Spina
(75) and Connor Boham (77) for a 227 total. Jericho National was led by Roland
Massimino, yes, the grandson of Rollie who led New Hope-Solebury to the PIAA
Class AA team title last fall, with a 72, Lukas Clark (78) and Drew Petri (80)
and Whitford was paced by Bishop Shanahan standout Kevin Conners Jr. (74),
Nicky Marrollo (77), and Wills Montgomer (79) as both finished with 230 totals.
Delco’s top finisher was Aronimink in sixth place with
Siegfried leading the way with a 75, Matthew Davis adding a 78 and Updike
chipping in with his 79 for a 232 total. Unlike some of the entrants that had
four players with an option to throw a score out, Aronimink had just three
players and all three responded with solid under-80 scores.
At the U.S. Junior Amateur qualifier at Concord, John Pak
invaded from Scotch Plains, N.J. to take medalist honors with a pair of 1-under
70s over the 6,777-yard, par-71 layout for a 2-under 140 total.
Evan Brown, a junior at Kennett, finished second with rounds
of 73 and 69 for an even-par 142 total.
Upper Dublin senior Jack Melville, coming off a run to the
semifinals at the GAP Junior before falling to Siegfried, earned the final
ticket to the Colleton River Plantation Club in Bluffton, S.C. for the U.S.
Junior Amateur after emerging from a three way playoff.
Melville had rounds of 71 and 74 and was joined at 3-over
145 by Radnor Valley’s Billy Civitella (72-73) and Spencer Shih (74-71) of
Saddle River, N.J.
As I mentioned in the Notebook, Siegfried got off to a tough
start with a 77 and bounced back with a 71, but it wasn’t enough to earn one of
the three Bluffton berths.
Among some of the others taking a shot at the U.S. Junior
Amateur included: Episcopal’s Nolan Perry (78-72—150); Aronimink’s Davis (77-78—155);
Cardinal O’Hara senior Alec Kerr (79-77—156); Penncrest All-Delco Griffin
Colvin (78-80—158); Penn Charter’s Isztwan (82-85—167); Marple Newtown senior
Joey DelFranco (84-87—171); Upper Darby’s Michael Wolf (87-95—182); and Media’s
Ryan Brennan (93-93—186).
