Terms and conditions

Terms and Conditions of www.http://tmacteesoff.blogspot.com/ Below are the Terms and Conditions for use of www.http://tmacteesoff.blogspot.com/. Please read these carefully. If you need to contact us regarding any aspect of the following terms of use of our website, please contact us on the following email address - tmacgolf13@gmail.com. By accessing the content of www.http://tmacteesoff.blogspot.com/ ( hereafter referred to as website ) you agree to the terms and conditions set out herein and also accept our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to any of the terms and conditions you should not continue to use the Website and leave immediately. You agree that you shall not use the website for any illegal purposes, and that you will respect all applicable laws and regulations. You agree not to use the website in a way that may impair the performance, corrupt or manipulate the content or information available on the website or reduce the overall functionality of the website. You agree not to compromise the security of the website or attempt to gain access to secured areas of the website or attempt to access any sensitive information you may believe exist on the website or server where it is hosted. You agree to be fully responsible for any claim, expense, losses, liability, costs including legal fees incurred by us arising from any infringement of the terms and conditions in this agreement and to which you will have agreed if you continue to use the website. The reproduction, distribution in any method whether online or offline is strictly prohibited. The work on the website and the images, logos, text and other such information is the property of www.http://tmacteesoff.blogspot.com/ ( unless otherwise stated ). Disclaimer Though we strive to be completely accurate in the information that is presented on our site, and attempt to keep it as up to date as possible, in some cases, some of the information you find on the website may be slightly outdated. www.http://tmacteesoff.blogspot.com/ reserves the right to make any modifications or corrections to the information you find on the website at any time without notice. Change to the Terms and Conditions of Use We reserve the right to make changes and to revise the above mentioned Terms and Conditions of use. Last Revised: 03-17-2017

Thursday, October 5, 2017

McDermott appears to be ready for another U.S. Mid-Amateur run


    Michael McDermott, fresh off a dramatic Crump Cup victory at Pine Valley Golf Club, heads a strong Golf Association of Philadelphia contingent that will compete in the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship, which tees off Saturday at the Capital City Club’s Crabapple Course in Atlanta and the nearby Atlanta National Golf Club in Milton, Ga.
   The U.S. Mid-Am is a month later than last year when it was staged in our area at Stonewall, Tom Doak’s twin gems where East Nantmeal Township meets Warwick Township in northwestern Chester County.
   As a first-year looper at Stonewall at age 61, it was a thrill to get a bag in a USGA event, my first since what I had thought was my caddying swan song in the 1981 U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club’s East Course in the Ardmore section of Haverford Township.
   When my man, Michael Mitani of Irvine, Calif., failed to make match play (hey, I didn’t say he had the best caddy at Stonewall), I grabbed my clipboard and reported on several of the matches for this blog. I watched two of McDermott’s matches as he battled his way to the quarterfinals, earning an exemption from qualifying for this year’s Mid-Am at the Capital City Club. And I watched Stewart Hagestad’s dramatic comeback from 4-down with five holes to play to defeat Scott Harvey on the 37th hole of the final.
   It was great golf at a great venue.
   As usual, I’ll be paying special attention to the GAP group when qualifying gets under way Saturday. But there will be a lot of familiar names from a year ago, I’ll be watching, too.
   Hagestad earned a ticket to the Masters and made the most of it, becoming the first mid-am to make the cut at Augusta National and getting a seat in Butler Cabin for Sergio Garcia’s green jacket ceremony as the low amateur.
   Hagestad also played on the U.S. team at the course he played growing up, Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course, in a resounding Walker Cup victory over Great Britain & Ireland.
   Hagestad and Harvey both grinded it out to earn berths in the U.S. Open at Erin Hills in sectional qualifying.
   I spent the first two days of match play at Stonewall watching McDermott manage to make his way past three reinstated amateurs, guys who were once pro golfers.
   He gutted out a 20-hole win over Joseph Ida in the first round, and held off Joe Alfieri of Lutz, Fla., 1-up. Then McDermott pulled out a 1-up win over Derek Busby of Ruston, La., as good a ball-striker as you’ll see anywhere, when Busby missed a two-footer for par on the 18th hole.
   Bottom line is, if McDermott, a 42-year-old investment adviser, is still alive when the U.S. Mid-Am shifts to match play beginning Monday at the Capital City Club, he will be a tough customer.  It is the ninth U.S. Mid-Am for the Haverford High and Saint Joseph’s University product. He has won three BMW Philadelphia Amateur championships, including an epic victory over his good friend Jeff Osberg on the 36th hole at Merion’s famed East Course in 2016.
   He proved it again a couple of weekends ago when he won the Crump Cup for a second time at the legendary Pine Valley layout carved out of the pine barrens of South Jersey.
   McDermott earned a spot in the final with a 2 and 1 victory over Jamie Miller of Silver Creek, N.Y. in the semifinals.
   McDermott’s opponent in the final, Bill Williamson of Cincinnati, had survived a murderer’s row of Hagestad (4 and 2) in the opening round, defending champion Jeff Knox (6 and 5) of Atlanta in the second round and two-time Crump Cup winner Michael Muehr (2-up) of Potomac Falls, Va., one of the three qualifying co-medalists in the Mid-Am at Stonewall last year, in the semifinals to reach the final.
   McDermott was 1-down heading to the par-4 17th hole. He needed something special. Is a hole-out for eagle from 125 yards away with a gap wedge special enough for you? I thought so. He closed it out by winning the 18th with a par.
   Osberg, the 2014 BMW Philadelphia Amateur champion, was a frustrated alternate at Stonewall when a spot in the field never opened for him. But he survived a 5-for-4 playoff at White Manor Country Club in late August to earn a ticket to the Capital City Club.
   If you asked McDermott, he’d tell you Osberg is the best mid-am player in the Philadelphia area. Much like McDermott, if Osberg, an Owen J. Roberts product who was part of an NCAA Division III championship team at Guilford, can work his way into match play, he will be a very tough out.
   The rest of the group that qualified at White Manor is capable of making some noise in Atlanta. 
    Gregor Orlando won the BMW Philadelphia Amateur this summer on his home course at Philadelphia Cricket Club. I watched his 2 and 1 win over McDermott in the semifinals and it's never an easy task to take out McDermott in the Philly Amateur.
   The 2007 PIAA champion at Erie Cathedral Prep, Orlando reached the second round of match play at Stonewall last year before falling, 2 and 1, to Muehr.
   Matthew Finger of DuPont Country Club was the qualifying medalist at White Manor. Peter Barron III of Stone Harbor Golf Club has been a consistent GAP player for a while.
   The other survivors of the playoff along with Osberg were Llanerch Country Club’s Joseph Kerrigan Jr., Michael R. Brown of Lu Lu Country Club and Ryan Gelrod, Orlando's clubmate at the Cricket Club.
   Another Cricket Club member got into the U.S. Mid-Am in a qualifier at Arcola Country Club in Paramus, N.J. That would be 2009 BMW Philadelphia Amateur champion Conrad Von Borsig. I chronicled Von Borsig’s scholastic career at Strath Haven a decade or  so ago during my days at  the Delco Daily Times, including a runnerup finish in the PIAA Championship. I can’t help but root for Conrad a little.
   The western part of the state is certainly well-represented by Nathan Smith, a  four-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion. Smith won the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s R. Jay Sigel Match Play championship for the fifth time this summer. He’s represented in the United States in the Walker Cup Match three times. Guy gets the match-play thing.
   Smith will be joined in the field by his buddy and rival Sean Knapp, who credited all his match-play confrontations with Smith with helping him capture the U.S. Senior Amateur championship at The Minikahda Club in late August.  
   There is one more player I’ll be keeping an eye on at the Capital City Club. That would be Jeff Frazier, a left-hander from Carlisle.
   I had never heard of the guy when I drew him and his partner Brett Will for the Fall Scramble, an annual event at Stonewall. Frazier is as good an amateur player as I’ve ever seen. He can move the ball right to left, left to right. He loves hitting driver off the deck. Will always putted first and when Frazier got the line, he was deadly.
   He said that weekend he has played in six Mid-Ams, but was disappointed not to make it to Stonewall. Well, he made it this year. If he gets it going in Atlanta, I’m sure it will be a surprise to a lot of people. I will not be surprised a little bit.
   So yeah, I’m looking forward to this year’s U.S. Mid-Am … almost as much as last year’s Mid-Am.





No comments:

Post a Comment