You could argue that Jay Sigel is the second greatest
American amateur golfer behind only the legendary Bobby Jones.
You really only need to check a Walker Cup fact sheet and
see Sigel, a Lower Merion product whose home base has always been Aronimink
Golf Club, as the leading point-getter among United States golfers in the
series with 18 points to validate that opinion.
Which is why it means so much to western Pennsylvania’s
Nathan Smith to play well in the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s R. Jay Sigel
Match Play Championship. The 38-year-old Smith is doing a pretty fair imitation
of following in Sigel’s considerably large footprints in his amateur career.
He owns a record four U.S. Mid-Amateur titles, surpassing Sigel’s
old record of three. And he has played on three U.S. Walker Cup teams, including a winning U.S. side in his first try at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course
in 2009. The guy knows match play.
Smith, playing out of Wildwood Golf Club, proved it again
last week, capturing the R. Jay Sigel Match Play Championship title for the
fifth time with a 3 and 1 victory over Dave Brown of Champion Lakes Golf Club
Wednesday at the Country Club of Scranton in Clarks Summit. It is easily the
most victories in the event since it was renamed in Sigel’s honor in 2004.
“I am honored to have my name associated with anything that
has Jay Sigel’s name on it,” Smith told the PAGA website. “He was a great
amateur and champion and it means a lot to me to win his tournament for the fifth time.”
Smith grabbed a 2-up lead by holing a 15-foot birdie putt on
the first hole and getting up and down from a greenside bunker for par at the
fifth. The first of a couple of drenching rainstorms halted play after six
holes.
Brown cut his deficit in half by winning the seventh hole, but
Smith restored his 2-up lead by winning the ninth with a birdie and extended
his advantage to 3-up with an 8-iron to six feet that led to a birdie at the 11th.
The 55-year-old Brown, who captured the PAGA Senior Amateur
in May at Lebanon Country Club, got one back by winning the 13th.
But Smith stubbornly held onto his 2-up lead by holing tough par-saving putts
at 15 and 16, the latter of which came with rain again pelting the Country Club
of Scranton.
Smith had one more big putt left in him at the par-3 17th.
Both players found bunkers off the tee, but Smith blasted to 15 feet and made
the par putt to finish off the 3 and 1 victory.
Earlier Wednesday, Smith claimed a 3 and 2 victory over Sean
Knapp of Pittsburgh National Golf Club in a semifinal match. The 55-year-old
Knapp has been a friend and rival of Smith’s in western Pennsylvania for many
years.
Brown had to get past the youngster in the final four as he
claimed a 2 and 1 win over Furman sophomore Steve Cerbara, a scholastic
standout at Holy Ghost Prep, in the other semifinal.
It was a pretty good week for the Temple contingent at the
Country Club of Scranton with three of Brian Quinn’s Owls earning spots in the
16-man match-play bracket.
Marty McGuckin, the former Malvern Prep standout, fell to Knapp,
4 and 3, in the opening round. McGuckin, a sophomore, was highly complimentary
of the conditions at the Country Club of Scranton when he was my caddy
colleague for a day at the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Christman Cup
last week at Stonewall’s North Course.
It was an all-Temple opening-round match in which junior
Gary McCabe Jr., a Collegeville resident and former La Salle standout, edged
redshirt junior John Barone, 1-up. Barone plays out of Glenmaura National Golf
Club and was right at home at the Country Club of Scranton.
McCabe gave Knapp all he wanted in the second round before
falling on the 19th hole.
Former Conestoga standout Michael Cook, a junior at Drexel,
reached the second round of match play before falling to Brown, 5 and 4.
Cook joined up with Drexel teammate Brendan Bacskai, a
former Malvern Prep standout, to help Applebrook Golf Club to a runnerup finish
in the team competition based on scores compiled during the stroke-play
qualifying.
Cook had a pair of 71s and Bacskai had rounds of 79 and 78
to give Applebrook an 11-over 299 total.
Barone helped Glenmaura National claim the team title with a
10-over 298 total. He had qualifying rounds of 76 and 73 while Patrick Mitchell
had rounds of 71 and 78 as Glenmaura National went 147-151 in the team scoring.
The third member of the Glenmaura National team in the
3-score-2 format was Marywood’s Nicholas Biondi, who captured the Central
States Athletic Conference title this spring at Bellewood Golf & Country
Club near Pottstown. Biondi had rounds of 79 and 78.
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