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Monday, August 27, 2018

Marucci, Lutz advance with first-round wins in U.S. Senior Amateur Championship


   At 66, Buddy Marucci has nothing to prove to anyone on the golf course.
   The Haverford High and University of Maryland product followed the lead of his mentor Jay Sigel and has been one of the top figures in amateur golf for more than 40 years.
   But he showed Monday that the competitive juices are still flowing with a dramatic victory in 21 holes over a formidable opponent in Randy Haag of Orinda, Calif. in the opening round of match play in the U.S. Senior Amateur at Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Ore.
   Marucci had a memorable three-year stretch beginning in 2007 when he captained the U.S. Walker Cup team to a dramatic victory over Great Britain & Ireland at Royal County Down in Northern Ireland. He followed that up by taking the 2008 U.S. Senior Amateur at Shady Oaks Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.
   He capped it on his home course, the famed East Course at Merion Golf Club -- the seventh hole of which was literally in his backyard as a youngster – by once again captaining the U.S. Walker Cup team to a resounding victory over GB&I in 2009.
   He could have ridden off in the sunset after that, but there he was Sunday, grinding out a 1-over 73 over the 6,869-yard, par-72 Eugene layout to earn a spot in match play.
   His reward was a tough draw in Haag in the first round. Haag was the runnerup in The Seniors Amateur Championship earlier this summer at Royal Porthcawl in Wales. He was a quarterfinalist in the 1993 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at Eugene, so he was familiar with the golf course.
   Marucci won the sixth and seventh holes with birdies and the eighth and 10th holes with pars to turn a 2-down deficit into a 2-up advantage. Haag won 12 with a birdie and 13 with a par to draw even.
Haag won the 17th with a par, but Marucci answered by taking the 18th with a par to send the match to extra holes.
   When Haag pulled his approach to the 21st hole, the par-4 third at Eugene, Marucci had his opening. Marucci lagged his birdie putt to two feet while Haag was left with a 30-footer for par after his approach left him no shot to chip it close. When Haag missed his par putt, he conceded Marucci’s par putt and the match.
   “It’s been a while,” Marucci told the USGA website. “Normally, I get beaten before that. We didn’t play our best. Randy is a lot better player than he showed today. I’m a little over the hill, but he was kind of nice to me. Every once in a while, you get a break.”
   Marucci was one of three former U.S. Senior Amateur champions from Pennsylvania in the match-play bracket to advance Monday.
   Chip Lutz, the Reading native who plays out of LedgeRock Golf Club, cruised to a 4 and 2 victory over Thomas Immenschuh of San Antonio, Texas.
   The 63-year-old Lutz, winner of the 2015 U.S. Senior Amateur at Hidden Creek Golf Club in Egg Harbor Township, N.J. and the best senior amateur on the planet for nearly a decade, had a narrow 1-up lead after 12 holes before pulling away by winning three of the next four holes. He made birdie on the par-5 13th to take that hole and finished off the match by winning the par-5 16th with a birdie.
   Sean Knapp, the longtime western Pennsylvania amateur standout and the defending U.S. Senior Amateur champion, withstood a tough challenge from Tom Brandes of Bellevue, Wash. before advancing with a 2 and 1 victory. Brandes, a Eugene native, was the runnerup to Lutz in 2015 at Hidden Creek.
   David Blichar, the Lehigh Valley’s top senior amateur and the medalist in the Golf Association of Philadelphia-administered qualifier at Tavistock Country Club, advanced with a 3 and 2 victory over Timothy Sheppard of East Peoria, Ill. The 55-year-old Blichar is in his first year of eligibility for the U.S. Senior Amateur.
   Edward Armogast is technically playing out of the RiverWinds Golf & Tennis Club in West Deptford, N.J. He is listed as being from Jupiter, Fla. But it is at the caddyshack at the iconic Pine Valley Golf Club where I’m guessing his progress in the U.S. Senior Amateur is being followed the most closely.
   The Pine Valley looper also emerged from the Tavistock qualifier. He winters at the Seminole Golf Club, the legendary Donald Ross layout where I suspect he also knows the greens pretty well.
   Armogast advanced to the second round with a 3 and 2 win over Richard Kerper of Orlando, Fla. Wonder if he took one of his fellow Pine Valley loopers with him or grabbed a local caddy?
   The only GAP player who failed to advance was David West. He’s listed as being from Oxford, but he was an Exton guy and a Whitford Country Club guy most of his life. West dropped a 3 and 2 decision to Joe Palmer of West Des Moines, Iowa.
   The qualifying co-medalists, Greg Condon of Monte Vista, Colo. and Jeff Wilson of Fairfield, Calif. reached the second round.
   Condon, a man of modest golf means and considerable golf talent, claimed a 4 and 3 victory over Kirk Wright, a firefighter from Oklahoma City, Okla. Wilson, the low amateur in last month’s U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor’s East Course in Colorado Springs, Colo., earned a 3 and 2 win over Richard Jeffers of Mobile, Ala.
   Only eight senior standouts will still be standing if the two rounds of match play scheduled for Tuesday are completed.



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