There’s so many options for junior golfers in the
summertime, it’s surprising this type of thing doesn’t happen more often.
Matthew Hanzel of Running Deer Golf Club found out over the
weekend that his partner for the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Francis X.
Hussey Memorial Monday at Rolling Green Golf Club was double-booked and
wouldn’t be able to make it.
Practicing at Valleybrook Country Club Sunday, Hanzel ran
into Dan Murphy, a pal of his older brother who is a cart guy, among other
duties, at Valleybrook. Hanzel wondered if Murphy might be available to tee it
up at Rolling Green Monday.
After fighting some tough traffic conditions to get to Delaware
County Monday morning – the pair arrived 12 minutes before their tee time –
Hanzel and Murphy could do no better than a hurried bogey on Rolling Green’s
first in the better-ball-of-partners event.
The rest, though, is Francis X. Hussey Memorial history. The
pair ripped off six birdies over the 6,281-yard, par-71 William Flynn gem, site
of the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur, for a 5-under 66 that gave them a three-shot
victory over the pair of Greg DeLuca of Makefield Highlands Golf Club and Chris
Benvenuto, a Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour entry, in the Junior Boys
division.
Hanzel, a 16-year-old from Washington Township, N.J.,
immediately got that shot back as he knocked his 50-degree wedge from 120 yards
away to three feet at the second and the duo was even-par. Hanzel used
that 50-degree wedge again to get his approach to the eighth hole to 12 feet
and he then converted the birdie try to enable the Jersey boys to make the turn
at 1-under.
When Hanzel buried a 35-footer from the fringe at the tough
par-3 10th for birdie, the team was on its way.
Murphy, an 18-year from Sicklerville, N.J. and a recent
Timber Creek graduate, stiffed his approach at the par-4 13th hole
with a wedge and tapped in the two-foot birdie putt and they were 2-under.
That 50-degree wedge came in handy again for Hanzel as he
used it to drop his tee shot at the short, par-3 16th to four feet
and made the putt.
Murphy drilled a 3-iron just in front of the par-5 17th
hole in two and chipped it to tap-in range for a birdie and Hanzel used that
trusty 50-degree wedge one more time at the par-5 18th to get his
approach to 20 feet and then watched his uphill birdie putt just tumble in the
cup.
“On the back nine, we were putting a lot of wedges close,
making putts and hitting a lot of fairways,” Murphy, who will attend Cabrini
later this summer, told the GAP website.
DeLuca, a Neshaminy standout who finished third in the
District One Class AAA Championship and went on to qualify for the PIAA
Championship last fall, and Benvenuto had the early lead with a 2-under 69
before Hanzel and Murphy surged past them. Still, DeLuca and Benvenuto were the
only other tandem to better par and finished a solid second.
Jack Habeeb of the Country Club of Scranton and Daniel
Hinton of Elmhurst Country Club matched par with a 71 to finish alone in third.
Dan Curran of Merion Golf Club and Jack Fialko of Aronimink
Golf Club and Henry Fish of Chester Valley Golf Club and Jack Davis of
Aronimink finished tied for fourth at 1-over 72.
Christopher Buysse of Waynesborough Country Club and James
Gradisek of Philadelphia Country Club finished alone in sixth at 2-over 73 and
the pair of August Blatney of Philadelphia Cricket Club and Mark Ventresca of
Cedarbrook Country Club took seventh with a 3-over 74.
Three teams – the Stonewall pair of Jack Murray and Will
Blatchford, the Spring-Ford Country Club duo of John Straub and Andrew Fuhrman
and the Whitford Country Club tandem of Keller Mulhern and Dylan Kochis – all
landed on 4-over 75 and finished tied for eighth.
David Mester of The Springhaven Club and Matthew Quirk of
Huntingdon Valley Country Club finished alone in 11th place at
5-over 76.
Andrew Damico of McCall Golf & Country Club and Jack
Farkas of Llanerch Country Club and Drew Stern of Yardley Country Club and
Andrew Gallagher of Laurel Creek Country Club shared 12th place,
each pair carding a 6-over 77.
Only one Junior Girls team teed it up in the Hussey with
Llanerch’s Riley Quartermain and Rolling Green’s Kathleen Mark posting a 77.
Both were coming off solid freshman high school seasons with Quartermain making
it to the District One Class AAA Championship in her first season at Haverford
last fall and Mark playing a key role in helping Episcopal Academy capture the
Inter-Ac League crown this spring.
Three teams posted a 1-over 37 in the Junior-Junior division
– the nine holes measured 2,939 yards – with Nicholas Gross of Applecross
Country Club and Harry Stone of Bidermann Golf Club emerging from the playoff
with the victory.
Gross, an 11-year-old from Downingtown and a standout among
the nine-holers on the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour, drilled a 5-iron
from 163 yards away on the first hole of the playoff to 15 feet and needed just
a two-putt to deliver the title to him and Stone, a 13-year-old Kennett Square
resident.
The other two teams that were involved in the playoff
included Riverton Country Club’s Matthew Normand, the Junior Tour’s Sam
Penecale Scoring Average Leader among the nine-holers during the 2016-’17
season, and Nathan Guertler of Tavistock Country Club and the Aronimink tandem
of Grant Snyder and Nicholas Ciocca.
The McCall pair of Libby Fleisher and J.P. Hoban finished
fourth with a 45.
The Hussey, in its 33rd year, honors the memory
of Francis X. Hussey, a junior member at Rolling Green who suffered from a
congenital heart condition. An avid sports fan, Hussey, who attended Haverford
School District schools, died during major heart surgery at age 13 in December 1983.
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