So you’re Glenn Smeraglio, coming off a year in which you
swept the Pennsylvania Golf Association (PAGA) Senior Amateur and Golf
Association of Philadelphia (GAP) Senior Amateur championships.
You’re defending your PAGA Senior title a few miles from
your home course of LuLu Country Club at Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Militia
Hill Course. So, you have to be a big favorite, right?
One little problem, though, the presence in the field of one
Sean Knapp, the reigning U.S. Senior Amateur champion. Knapp, who took up the
game seriously as a looper at Oakmont Country Club after playing college
basketball at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, has been one of
Pennsylvania’s top amateurs for years.
Last summer, in his first year of eligibility at age 55,
Knapp captured the U.S. Senior Amateur title at The Minikahda Club in
Minneapolis. It just reinforced a point I often make in this blog that the
level of competition among the old guys, amateurs and club professionals, in
this area is as high as anywhere in the country.
Knapp is the third Pennsylvania guy to win the U.S. Senior
Amateur in the last dozen years. George “Buddy” Marucci, twice a winning U.S.
Walker Cup captain from Merion Golf Club, captured the title in 2008 and
Reading legend Chip Lutz, a three-time winner of The Seniors Amateur
Championship across the pond, was the winner in 2015.
Knapp was seeing the Militia Hill Course for the first time.
It is not the classic A.W. Tillinghast Wissahickon Course next door, but it is
a pretty neat course and a challenge in its own right. Knapp fired a
5-under-par 67 in the opening round and fought off challenges from Smeraglio
and one of his western Pa. pals, David Brown of St. Clair Country Club, to take
the title with a final-round 70 last Wednesday that gave him a 5-under 139
total.
The win in the Pennsylvania Senior Amateur, presented by
LECOM, was the 16th career PAGA victory for Knap.
No shame for Smerglio, who opened with a solid 2-under 70
and matched par in the second round with a 72 that left him alone in second
place at 2-under 142, three shots behind Knapp.
Overbrook Golf Club’s Oscar Mestre was the only other player
to finish under par as he finished alone in third at 1-under 143 after adding
an even-par 72 to his opening-round 71.
Brown had opened with a 1-under 71 and got it to 4-under
when he birdied three of his first four holes to open the second round. But he
fell back and finished with a 1-over 73 to end up with a share of fourth with
Michael Anderson of the host club at even-par 144. Anderson, part of the
seemingly endless supply of good players at the Cricket Club, fired a 2-under
70 in Wednesday’s final round after opening with a 74.
After briefly trailing Brown early in the second round, Knapp
took back control of the tournament with back-to-back birdies at the fifth and
sixth holes and back-to-back huge par saves at the eighth and ninth holes.
Smerglio made birdies at 11 and 14 to creep within two shots
of Knapp, but Knapp birdied the par-5 17th to take a three-shot lead
to the final hole. Knapp played the par-5s at the Militia Hill Course in
6-under for the two rounds.
Another Cricket Club member, Frank Brigidi III, finished
alone in sixth at 1-over 145 after adding a 73 to the even-par 72 he shot in
the opening round.
David West, playing out of the Philadelphia Publinks Golf
Associaton, finished alone in seventh at 2-over 146. West, who earned a trip to
U.S. Senior Amateur at Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Ore. in a local qualifier
at Tavistock Country Club, opened with an even-par 72 and finished up with a
74.
Four players finished tied for eighth at 3-over 147, led by
Duke Delcher, who seems to be calling Sunnehanna Golf Club in Johnstown home
these days, but has deep roots in the Philadelphia area. Delcher matched par in
the second round with a 72 after opening with a 75.
Christopher Fieger Sr., a pretty good scholastic golfer at
Strath Haven back in the day, was also in the group at 147, adding a 74 to his
opening-round 73. Fieger migrated from Delco to Denver, Lancaster County, but
has been showing up on GAP/PAGA leaderboards quite a bit this summer.
Rounding out the foursome at 3-over were Michael Vassil of
the Country Club of Scranton, who added a 74 to his opening-round 73, and
Kenneth Phillips, a really good player out of Lancaster Country Club who opened
with a 74 and finished up with a 73.
The Militia Hill Course was good preparation for Knapp as
headed to northern California’s Monterey Peninsula to tee it up in the U.S.
Amateur, which he earned a ticket to with his U.S. Senior Amateur victory.
As I wrote this blog post, Knapp was finishing up a 4-over
76 over the Pebble Beach Golf Links in the opening round of qualifying for
match play in the U.S. Amateur. He’ll have some work to do in Tuesday’s second
round at Spyglass Hill Golf Course to make match play.
Then he’ll be headed for Eugene Country Club to defend his
U.S. Senior Amateur title later this month.
Smeraglio did get to take the PAGA Senior Amateur team
trophy back to LuLu. Combined with Smerglio’s two rounds, John Robinson’s
opening-round 72 and Christopher Clauson’s second-round 74 gave LuLu an
even-par 288, one shot better than the Cricket Club’s 289 total.
Robinson, with an 80 in the second round, and Clauson, who
opened with a 78, both landed in the group tied for 23rd at 152. The
team scoring was the best two scores of three.
Knapp wasn’t the only western Pa. guy who had never laid
eyes on the Militia Hill Course who left Whitemarsh Township with a trophy.
Paul Schlachter, 69 years young from Bridgeville, shot his
age or better for the 19th time with a spectacular final round of
6-under 66 to cruise to an eight-shot victory in the Super-Senior division.
Schlachter opened with a 2-under 70 and actually trailed
Whitemarsh Valley Country Club’s Frank Polizzi by a shot after Polizzi posted a
3-under 69.
Schlachter’s 66,
though, gave him an 8-under 136 total as he became the first player to have won
a Pennsylvania Amateur title and both Senior and Super-Senior crowns at the
Pennsylvania Senior Amateur. He birdied three of the first five holes to
jump-start his second-round surge. Like Knapp, it was Schlachter’s 16th
career PAGA title.
Polizzi fell back with a 3-over 75 in the second round, but
still finished a solid second at even-par 144. Vincent Scarpetta Jr., a PAGA
individual member, was another two shots behind Polizzi in third at 146 after
opening with a 72 and finishing up with a 74.
Don Erickson III of Indiana Country Club and the ageless Roc
Irey of Lookaway Golf Club finished in a tie for fourth at 4-over 148. Erickson
fired a 1-under 71 in the opening round before backing off with a 77 while Irey
added a 1-over 73 to his opening-round 75.
Rolling Green Golf Club’s two-man team of Bennett Meyer and
Robert Billings took the Super-Senior team trophy back to Delaware County with
a one-shot victory over a Polizzi-led Whitemarsh Valley team.
Billings matched par in the second round with a 72 that
probably made the difference for the Rolling Green pair. Billings, who opened
with a 79, and Meyer, who added a 76 to his opening-round 75, both landed in
the group tied for 10th at 151. That gave Rolling Green a 302 team
total, one shot better than Whitemarsh Valley’s 303.
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