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Sunday, August 27, 2017

Lutz takes his road show to Minikahda and opens with solid 72



   When Reading’s Chip Lutz started winning the Seniors Amateur Championship, a trip across the pond became his little summer sojourn.
   The 62-year-old has been so remarkable in winning the British title three times, the Canadian Senior Amateur title twice and the 2015 U.S. Senior Amateur in 2015 – heck, he only had to go to the Jersey Shore for that one at Hidden Creek Golf Club in Egg Harbor Township, N.J. – that Global Golf Post named him its male amateur Player of the Year in 2016, as in the top male amateur player in the world.
   OK, maybe Lutz would have a hard time keeping up with some of the college bombers who are still technically amateurs, but are often headed for professional careers. But the reality is that he not just playing good golf for an old guy, he’s playing good golf, period.
   Lutz, the reigning seven-time Golf Association of Philadelphia Senior Player of the Year, opened his bid for another U.S. Senior Amateur title Saturday with a surgical even-par 72 in the opening round of qualifying at The Minikahda Club in Minneapolis, Minn. that had him tied for ninth on the Donald Ross classic.
   He is in very good shape as he tries to earn a spot among the top 64 who will advance to match play following Sunday’s second round of qualifying.
   And it comes after another triumphant tour of the British Isles. I have a feeling that Lutz is more well-known among the golf-mad Brits than he is to the vast majority of American golf fans. They appreciate the Americans who are willing to take on the challenge of playing a different kind of game in the wind and the rain on courses that feature all kinds of hazards you don’t always see in this country.
   Think Watson, Tom. You know the guy who was one unlucky bounce from the winning The Open Championship for a sixth time at age 59 in 2009.
   Lutz battled rain and sustained 25 mph winds in the second round of the Senior Open Championship last month at Royal Porthcawl in Wales to shoot a 3-over 74 that enabled him to make the cut and play the weekend.
   He matched par in third round with a 71 and finished up with a 79 for a 301 total that enabled him to win low-amateur honors by four shots over fellow American Randy Haag, the only other amateur to make the cut.
   Lutz arrived at Sunningdale Golf Club’s Old Course less than two weeks later to defend his Seniors Amateur Championship title, a crown he won for the third time a year ago at the Formby Golf Club in England.
   He had rounds of 73, 72 and 73 and finished tied for eighth at 8-over 218. The opening round apparently featured the kind of horrific weather that most Americans wouldn’t dare go out and play in, but which Lutz seems to relish.
   Englishman Bryan Hughes snapped a string of seven straight wins by Americans in The Seniors Championship – including Lutz’s three – by firing a 3-under 67 in the final round for a 4-over 214 total.
   Saturday at The Minikhada Club, Lutz birdied the first, bogeyed the second and birdied the seventh to make the turn at 1-under. He proceeded to par 10 of the last 11 holes, matching the card with the exception of a bogey at the 16th to come in at even par. It’s the kind of golf that will make him a tough customer when match play gets under way.
   There was some rain and a little chill in the air in Minnesota Saturday to make Lutz feel right at home.
   Lutz was not low Pennsylvanian Saturday at Minikhada however. That honor went to David Brown of Ligonier, who was the co-medalist in a qualifier held, somewhat ironically, at Lutz’s home track, LedgeRock Golf Club in Mohnton.
   Brown has been playing great golf all summer, including a trip to the final of the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s R. Jay Sigel Match Play Championship. He lost in the final to four-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Nathan Smith, who won the Sigel Match Play for a fifth time.
   The 57-year-old carded a 2-under 70 at a tough LedgeRock layout to earn his first trip to the U.S. Senior Amateur.
   Then he went out and shot a sparkling 4-under 68 to share the opening-round lead with Matt Sughrue of Arlington, Va., the runnerup to Dave Ryan in last year’s U.S. Senior Amateur at Old Warson Country Club in St. Louis. Brown started his round at 10 and rattled off three straight birdies at 16, 17 and 18 in the middle of his round.
   Sughrue was at Sunningdale, too, and appeared to be ready to make it eight straight American winners of The Seniors Amateur Championship before he was derailed by a disastrous triple-bogey 7 on the 17th hole.  He finished tied for fifth, a shot better than Lutz.
   Merion Golf Club’s two entries in the field both landed on the same number, 2-over 74, and have a very good shot of advancing to match play.
   One of them is Buddy Marucci, who won the 2008 U.S. Senior Amateur in between captaining the U.S. to Walker Cup wins in 2007 and 2009, that second victory coming, quite memorably, on Merion’s East Course. Marucci’s a member, but that was only part of the story as the East was literally in the back yard of the home he grew up in on Golf View Road.
   Joining Marucci in the group tied for 23rd at 74 was clubmate William Charpek of Red Bank, N.J. Charpek shared medalist honors with Brown in the qualifier at LedgeRock.
   Scott Mayne of Harrisburg, who emerged from a 3-for-2 playoff at LedgeRock, is tied for 67th after a 77. Don Donatoni, GAP’s reigning four-time Super-Senior Player of the Year, carded a 79 and is tied for 99th. At 69, Donatoni of White Manor Country Club, is one of the oldest players in the field and has been playing fantastic golf all summer.
   Legendary western Pennsylvania amateur Sean Knapp, who has played in more than 39 USGA championships, is tied for 55th with a 76.
   Christopher Clauson of Philadelphia, the other survivor of the playoff at LedgeRock, carded an 81 and Roc Irey of Furlong, Pa. and a longtime GAP campaigner, posted an 84.








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