Vince Covello, who grew up playing at Llanerch Country Club
and is an Episcopal Academy product, has been beating the bushes playing
mini-tours for years. At 34, he has full-time status on the Web.com Tour this
year.
But the Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. resident comes home every
year around this time to visit family and friends … and play in the local U.S.
Open qualifier administered by the Golf Association of Philadelphia. It only
seems like he wins the thing every year, but for the third time in four years,
he earned a share of medalist honors at a raw and rainy Country Club of York
Thursday.
Covello advanced to sectional qualifying, “golf’s longest
day,” for the sixth time with a 1-under-par 69 over the 6,664-yard, par-70
Donald Ross design at the Country Club of York. Three other players shared
medalist honors with Covello, including Hugh Leon, a native of Santiago, Chile
whom Covello befriended in Florida nearly a decade ago. The 32-year-old Leon,
who plays on the PGA Tour Canada, joined Covello for his annual visit home this
week and some of Covello’s local U.S. Open qualifying luck seemed to rub off.
Leon made it out of local qualifying and ultimately advanced
to the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.
Also sharing medalist honors was Joe Parrini, a Country Club
of York member who is a junior at Central York High School and an Arizona
commit. Parrini finished tied for 11th place in the PIAA Class AAA
Championship at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort last fall.
The fourth member of the foursome that shared the qualifying
medal was Mike Tremps, who plays on the SwingThought Tour and is from
Williamsburg, Va.
Only five tickets were available to sectional qualifying and
the last one went to one of the feel-good stories of last year’s qualifying
process, former Drexel standout Christopher Crawford.
Crawford matched par at York with a 70, which left him in a
tie for fifth with Mark Kriston Jr., a pro from Winston-Salem, N.C. A par on
the second hole of a playoff gave Crawford a berth in sectional qualifying,
which will be held June 5 at 10 sites around the country.
Crawford’s first choice is to return to Canoe Brook Country
Club in Summit, N.J., where the Holy Ghost Prep product reached the 2016 U.S.
Open at Oakmont Country Club by dropping in a 40-foot birdie putt on the last
hole of Canoe Brook’s North Course to cap the 36-hole test.
His former Drexel teammate Ben Feld was on the bag that day.
Feld has since become the head coach at Drexel and Crawford, probably the best
player in the history of the program, helped out with the team this year as a
volunteer assistant while completing the last year of his five-year program of
study at Drexel.
A couple of the near misses at the Country Club of York
included P.J. Acierno, who recently completed an outstanding career at La
Salle, and Michael Davis, who capped his junior season at Princeton by
finishing tied for sixth at the Ivy League Championship. Both carded a 2-over
72.
Another shot back at 73 was Penn State junior Cole Miller,
the former Northwestern Lehigh standout and reigning Pennsylvania Amateur
champion. Miller finished tied for sixth at the Big Ten Championship and will
lead the Nittany Lions as they tee it up in the NCAA regional at Aldarra Golf
Club in Sammamish, Wash. beginning Wednesday.
Another local Open qualifier was held Wednesday at Green
Brook Country Club in Caldwell, N.J. and one of the co-medalists there was Kyle
Sterbinsky, the former Peddie School standout who plays out of Huntingdon
Valley Country Club.
Sterbinsky fired a 4-under 67 at Green Brook. He is a
sophomore at Wake Forest, but did not make the starting lineup for the ACC
Championship. The Demon Deacons are seeded second in the NCAA regional being
held at the University of Texas Golf Club in Austin, Texas.
Not sure if earning a share of medalist honors at a U.S.
Open local qualifier will be factored into the decision as to whether
Sterbinsky will make the lineup for the regionals. But if he doesn’t make it,
it certainly gives you an idea of the talent level in Division I college golf
whereby a program like Wake Forest has five players better than Sterbinsky to
fill its lineup for a postseason tournament.
Sterbinsky was also the medalist in the U.S. Amateur
qualifier administered by GAP last summer at White Manor Country Club and
Aronimink Golf Club.
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