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Monday, August 13, 2018

Knapp just too tough in Pennsylvania Senior Amateur at Cricket Club's Militia Hill Course


   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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