The Golf Association of Philadelphia will have two
representatives in the bracket when match play in the U.S. Mid-Amateur
Championship commences Tuesday morning at the Capital City Club’s Crabapple
Course in Atlanta.
Michael R. Brown Jr., a Maple Shade, N.J. resident who plays
out of Lu Lu Country Club, carded a steady even-par 71 over the 6,784-yard,
par-71 Atlanta National Golf Club, the second course utilized for qualifying,
Monday to finish at 3-over 144, solidly inside the cut line of 5-over 146.
A bulky group of 25 players, including Scott Harvey of
Greensboro, N.C., the runnerup in last year’s dramatic final at Stonewall’s Old
Course, will battle it out Tuesday morning for the final 16 berths in match
play. The 25 players all landed at 5-over 146.
GAP will also be represented by Gregor Orlando, who captured
the BMW Philadelphia Amateur crown on his home course at Philadelphia Cricket
Club this summer. Orlando added a 3-over 73 at the 7,207-yard, par-70 Crabapple
Course to the 1-over 72 he shot Saturday at Atlanta National for a 4-over 145
total.
The second round of qualifying was originally scheduled for
Sunday, but the USGA postponed the round as the remnants of Hurricane Nate
dropped two inches of rain on the Atlanta area.
Brown will open match play Tuesday against David Lang of
Canada. Orlando, who reached the second round of match play last year at
Stonewall, will square off against Philip Lee of White Bluff, Tenn. in another
opening-round match.
Brown offset bogeys at one, nine and 17 with birdies at six,
11 and 13 at Atlanta National to make match play in a competitive field of
players at least 25 years of age, many of them reinstated amateurs who gave the
pro game a shot.
The key to Tuesday’s round for Orlando, the 2007 PIAA
champion at Erie Cathedral Prep who played collegiately at Virginia, was an
eagle at the par-5 12th that got him to even-par overall. It gave
him enough of a cushion to survive a shaky last five holes at the Crabapple
Course as he made bogey at 14 and 16 and finished up with a double bogey at the
18th.
It was a near miss for another Cricket Club entry, 2009 BMW
Philadelphia Amateur champion and former Strath Haven standout Conrad Von
Borsig. It looked like Von Borsig was in as he arrived at the par-4 ninth hole at
Atlanta National, his last hole of the day, at 3-over par. But a triple bogey 7
left him with a 2-over 73 and one shot out of the playoff at 6-over 147.
Merion Golf Club’s Michael McDermott, a quarterfinalist a
year ago at Stonewall, made a run at it, but his 2-over 73 at Atlanta National
left him at 7-over 148. Playing in his ninth U.S. Mid-Amateur, McDermott, a
Haverford High and Saint Joseph’s University standout, left himself a little
too much to do after an opening round of 5-over 75 at the Crabapple Course.
McDermott’s friend and rival, Huntingdon Valley Country
Club’s Jeff Osberg, was another shot behind McDermott at 8-over 149 after also
posting a 2-over 73 at Atlanta National. Osberg, the 2014 BMW Philadelphia
Amateur champion, also struggled Saturday at the Crabapple Course, carding a
6-over 76.
A third Cricket Club entry, Ryan Gelrod, bounced back from
an opening-round 79 at Atlanta National with a solid 2-over 72 at the Crabapple
Course Monday for a 10-over 151 total.
DuPont Country Club’s Matthew Finger, who had been the
medalist in the GAP-administered U.S. Mid-Am qualifier at White Manor Country
Club, struggled to a 7-over 78 at Atlanta National in the second round to
finish at 11-over 152.
Finger was joined at that figure by John Sawin, a San
Francisco resident who grew up playing at Merion and is a Haverford School
product. Sawin added a 76 at Atlanta National to the 76 he shot Saturday at the
Crabapple Course.
Llanerch Country Club’s Joseph Kerrigan Jr., the baseball
coach at Radnor High, added an 86 at the Crabapple Course to the 81 he shot at
Atlanta National for a 167 total. Stone Harbor Golf & Country Club’s Peter
Barron III withdrew after posting an 80 Saturday at the Crabapple Course.
Medalist honors went to 34-year-old Bradford Tilley, a
reinstated amateur from Easton, Conn. who fired a 3-under 67 at the Crabapple
Course to post a 5-under 136 total. Tilley, who had opened with a 2-under 69 at
Atlanta National, made four birdies against a lone bogey Monday. He regained
his amateur status a little over a year ago after eight years as a
professional.
Tilley finished a shot ahead of three players, one of whom
was defending champion Stewart Hagestad,
the 26-year-old from Newport Beach, Calif.
Hagestad put together the kind of breathtaking burst that
enabled him to rally from 4-down with five holes to play in the final with
Harvey a year ago to win on the 37th hole at Stonewall’s Old Course.
After parring the first six holes, Hagestad birdied six of the next 10 holes,
rattling off birdies at seven, eight, 10, 11, 13 and 16 for a spectacular
6-under 64 on the Crabapple Course.
Hagestad, a member of the winning U.S. team in last month’s
Walker Cup Match on his home course at Los Angeles Country Club, had opened
with a 2-over 73 at Atlanta National, but his birdie barrage Monday got him to
4-under 137.
Pittsburgh’s Nathan Smith, a four-time U.S. Mid-Amateur
champion, added a 2-over 73 at Atlanta National to his opening-round 72 at the
Crabapple Course to join Orlando at 4-over 145, making match play for the 12th
time in 13 tries at the Mid-Am.
A three-time Walker Cupper and five-time winner of the
Pennsylvania Golf Association’s R. Jay Sigel Match Play Championship, Smith
will be a tough out in match play.
His longtime western Pennsylvania rival and friend Sean
Knapp, coming off a victory in last month’s U.S. Senior Amateur, will be up
early Tuesday trying to nab one of those remaining 16 berths in match play.
Knapp had a 3-over 74 at Atlanta National Monday after a 2-over 72 at the
Crabapple Course to join the fun at 5-over 146. Well, it’s fun if you make it
through.
I was obviously rooting hard for my bag in last fall’s Fall
Scramble at Stonewall, Jeff Frazier of Mechanicsburg. Much like Von Borsig,
Frazier was looking good at 4-over with the last two holes on the front nine at
Atlanta National left. Two pars and he’s in. But he bogeyed eight and nine for
a 4-over 75 that left him a shot of the playoff at 6-over 147.
It was heartbreak for Von Borsig and Frazier, a talented
left-hander who is one of the top mid-ams in the Harrisburg area. But as I
found out at Stonewall a year ago, the U.S. Mid-Am is filled with great players
and making match play is a feat in itself.
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