HAVERFORD – Michael McDermott has a lot of fond memories of
growing up and developing into a standout amateur golfer at Llanerch Country
Club.
But there are other Llanerch memories that are not so good.
Chief among them was standing on the tee at the 492-yard, par-5 ninth hole in a
2005 U.S. Amateur qualifier, a U.S. Amateur that was being played at
McDermott’s future home course, the East Course at Merion Golf Club, hitting
his tee shot out of bounds to the right that cost him a spot in the field.
“I’m on the ninth tee and I’m in and I hit it out of bounds
and I don’t get in,” McDermott said after carding a 1-under 70 at Llanerch
Monday to punch his ticket to next month’s U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship being
staged locally at Stonewall, the Tom Doak design in Chester County. “I couldn’t
help but think about it today. I was in the exact same position.
“I’ve heard it a lot over the years, even in a weekend round
here, ‘Mike, what was it you did here in that 2005 U.S. Amateur qualifying?’ I
missed only two fairways today, but one of them was intentionally at nine. I
had made it out of 10 straight USGA qualifiers and the Amateur was at Merion. It
broke my heart.”
Hey, you learn to expect a hard time like that growing up in
Delco. “Especially here,” McDermott added.
McDermott started his round on the back nine of the
6,770-yard, par-71 Llanerch layout and he finished on the ninth. He had just
made birdie on the tough 221-yard, par-3, hitting a brilliant 5-iron to the
left front of the green and getting a perfect roll off the slope to two feet.
After making the delicate little slider he was left with, he headed to the ninth
tee 1-under for the round.
“It’s the hardest par-3 on the golf course, might be the
hardest hole on the golf course,” said McDermott, who reached the U.S. Mid-Am
for the eighth time in his career. “It meant I could hit it even farther left off
the tee at nine.”
With his “demons” very much on his mind, McDermott crushed
his drive left of the tree line, 20 yards wide of the fairway. He punched is
second shot into the fairway and knocked his approach 10 feet from the hole. His
putt just slid by, but it was mission accomplished as his 1-under 70 gave him a
share of medalist honors with Matthew Mattare, the 2016 Golf Association of
Philadelphia Middle-Amateur champion who plays out of Saucon Valley Country
Club.
While it might be natural to think that McDermott’s
home-course advantage would be enough to put him over the top, it just hasn’t
worked out that way for him at Llanerch.
“When I saw the field for this, I thought this was going to
be tough, even some of the out-of-town guys who were coming in that I’ve played
with in the Crump Cup (at Pine Valley Golf Club) are good players,” said
McDermott, who won his third BMW Philadelphia Amateur title at Merion earlier
this summer. “Llanerch hasn’t been a big help for me. I grew up here and I love
Llanerch, but there was that 2005 qualifier, I had a near-miss in the (2009) Patterson Cup, I didn’t win the Philadelphia Amateur here last year.
“This was a big hurdle for me to get over, to come here and
get through.”
It was a good day for the McDermott family as younger
brother Brian, playing earlier in the day, carded a 1-over 72 and saw that
score hold up and earn him a ticket to Stonewall. Brian McDermott, a proud
Llanerch member, made it to the U.S. Mid-Am on his first try.
Eric Lefante, a former Rider standout out of Florham Park,
N.J., and Tavistock Country Club’s Adam Warner finished in a tie for third at
even-par 71. Brian McDermott was joined at 1-over 72 by Aronimink Golf Club’s
Dan Bernard, the former Bucknell standout who, at age 25, is in his first year
of eligibility for the Mid-Am.
Five players ended up in a tie for the seventh and final
berth to Stonewall at 2-over 73. It came down to a battle between a pair of
Huntingdon Valley Country Club members with Sean Seese, like Michael and Brian
McDermott a former Saint Joseph’s standout, outlasting Jeff Osberg for the
final berth.
Osberg, who has had a big summer with wins in the Philadelphia
Open and the Patterson Cup, settled for first alternate and the USGA might give
some consideration to a local alternate should a spot come free. There were 129 players vying for seven spots and two alternates.
Playing early in the day and starting on the 10th,
Mattare, a Notre Dame product, had a pretty wild first nine holes with birdies
at 10, 12, 13, 17 and 18 and bogeys at 11 and 15. The bottom line was a 3-under
32 on Llanerch’s back nine.
On the front nine, Mattare had a lone birdie on the par-5
fifth hole while making bogeys at four, eight and nine to end up at 1-under for
the round.
Michael McDermott also started his round on the par-4 10th
and it didn’t begin well as he three-putted when he couldn’t get a
foot-and-a-half par putt to fall.
“I just missed it,” he said. “But I didn’t let it get to me.
I hit a good drive, got it on the green, hit a good putt that didn’t go in and
just missed an 18-incher.”
He got that shot back with a birdie at the par-4 13th.
A so-so tee shot at the short par-4 18th left him with an approach
blocked by a tree. He punched it into a front bunker and couldn’t get his par
putt to fall.
“If you told me before the round I’d shoot 70, I would guess
it would be 37 on the front and 33 on the back,” Michael McDermott said.
“Turned out it was 1-over (36) on the back and 2-under (34) on the front.”
After burning the edge of the cup with good birdie looks at
one, two and three, Michael McDermott played safely to the middle of the green
at the 205-yard, par-3 fourth and promptly rolled in the 35-footer for birdie
to get back to even. It even prompted a little bit of a fist pump from him.
“That was big,” Michael McDermott said. “I had all those
near-misses. I know this course well enough, I still had the two par-5s to
come. That was really important. I really thought it would take 3-under to get
in, but I figured 1-over could be dicey.”
His birdie putts continued to burn the edges until he got
that tricky two-footer to fall at eight and then conquered his demons at the
ninth.
Brian McDermott birdied the second hole and then got on the
bogey train with bogeys at three, four, five, six and eight. But he righted the
ship with birdies at nine, 13 and 16 the rest of the way to get in at 1-over.
Aronimink’s Bernard started at 10 and got under par with
birdies at 15 and 17 to make the turn at 2-under 33. Bogeys at four, seven and
eight dropped him back to 1-over.
It’s on to Stonewall, where qualifying for match play
commences Sept. 10. Michael McDermott has some memories there, too. The
five-time William Hyndman III Player of the Year was still making a name for
himself in 2000 when he lost a wild Philadelphia Amateur final to Little Mill Country
Club’s Michael Hyland on the 38th hole.
“I hadn’t really done much, so getting to that final, even
though I lost in that crazy 38-hole match, really kind of got me started,” he
said. “I think there will be a little home-course advantage for the locals
there. It will be tough for somebody who’s never played there before. I’ve played
it 15 to 20 times, at least, over the years.”
You can contact me at chaseufan@gmail.com
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