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Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Mattare's best shot earns him a ticket to U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship


   Matthew Mattare of Jersey City, N.J. and Saucon Valley Country Club hasn’t had quite the year in 2018 that he did in 2017.
   Of course, he gave himself a tough act to follow when he won both the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Open Championship at Philadelphia Country Club and the Metropolitan Golf Association’s Amateur Championship at Laurel Lakes Country Club on Long Island. Taking those two titles went a long way toward earning the 32-year-old Allentown Central Catholic product GAP’s William Hyndman III Player of the Year honors.
   But Mattare’s season got a lot better with one swing Monday. He was one of 12 players locked in a playoff for the final two berths in next month’s U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at Charlotte, N.C. in a GAP-administered qualifier at Cedarbrook Country Club.
   With 115 yards into the 398-yard, par-4 first hole at Cedarbrook, Mattare fired a gap wedge at the hole and isn’t that exactly where his ball ended up, in the cup for a hole-out eagle. The first survivor of the playoff would be Mattare.
   Mattare has a pretty good track record at the U.S. Mid-Am. He reached the quarterfinals in 2012 at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, Ill. Exempt from qualifying as a result of that quarterfinal run in 2012, Mattare proceeded to take medalist honors in qualifying for match in the 2013 U.S. Mid-Am at the Country Club of Birmingham in Birmingham, Ala.
   Mattare was involved in a similar playoff – this one  was 14-for-1 – to get into the match-play bracket when the U.S. Mid-Am was staged at Stonewall two years ago, but was unable to secure that precious ticket.
   But he’ll be there giving it another shot when this year’s U.S. Mid-Am tees off Sept. 22.
   A Charlotte home boy, 44-year-old Brett Boner, came to Cedarbrook looking for a berth in his hometown U.S. Mid-Am and went home with the qualifying medal with a sparkling 3-under 67 over the 7,044-yard, par-70 Cedarbrook layout that he had never laid eyes on before a Sunday practice round.
   Like many mid-ams, Boner, who played collegiately at Auburn, was reinstated as an amateur in 2008 after years of chasing his professional dream on mini-tours. He hit 17 greens in regulation Monday, a sure-fire recipe for success on any golf course.
   Jeff Osberg, one of this area’s top amateur players, has struggled with a nagging rib injury and a perpetually balky back this summer, but he was at his best with a 1-under 69 at Cedarbrook to share second place with another southern invader, Nick Biesecker of Staunton, Va.
   The 34-year-old Osberg, who plays out of Huntingdon Valley Country Club, bombs it and when he gets locked in is as good as any mid-am anywhere. Like Boner, he reached all but one green in regulation.
   It will be Osberg’s fifth U.S. Mid-Am. A frustrated alternate who waited fruitlessly by the first tee at Stonewall two years ago, he made it to last year’s edition at the Capital City Club’s Crabapple Course in Atlanta, but failed to make it to match play.
   Osberg lost in a playoff in last month’s Philadelphia Open at St. Davids Golf Club, hinting that he was starting to find his best form again.
   Chris Lange Jr. of Overbrook Golf Club holed a clutch 20-footer for par at the final hole to match par with a 70, which left him alone in fourth place with the final assured ticket to Charlotte. The 34-year-old Lange will be playing in his first USGA championship.
   Then there were those 12 guys at 1-over 71, all battling for the final two guaranteed spots in the field at Charlotte. Mattare, of course, got the first one with his heroics on the first hole of the playoff.
The other went to Harvin Groft of Dover, N.H. Merion Golf Club’s Patrick Knott is the first alternate and David Mecca of Philadelphia is the second alternate.
   Included among the other eight players involved in the playoff who failed to secure a ticket to the U.S. Mid-Amateur were Huntingdon Valley’s Sean Seese, a former Saint Joseph’s standout, Philadelphia Cricket Club’s John Brennan and LuLu Country Club’s Michael R. Brown Jr., who is coming off a victory in GAP’s final major of the year, the Patterson Cup, a couple of weeks ago at Gulph Mills Golf Club.
   Brennan earned a spot in match play in the U.S. Mid-Am at Stonewall two years ago. Seese was also in the field at Stonewall, but failed to reach match play. Brown qualified for match play a year ago in Atlanta.
   Rounding out the group at 1-over 71 were 2004 BMW Philadelphia Amateur champion Scott Ehrlich of Berwyn, W. Jay Degenhart of Savannah, Ga., Frank Kohute of Newfield, N.J., Parker Williams of Bethesda, Md. and Jason Wilson of Orefield.
   You think it’s competitive to get into a U.S. Mid-Amateur? Nine more players finished at 2-over 72, led by 2017 BMW Philadelphia Amateur champion Gregor Orlando, who won that title on his home course at Philadelphia Cricket Club. Orlando made it to match play in the U.S. Mid-Am at Stonewall two years ago and again last year in Atlanta.
   Merion’s Michael McDermott, a three-time BMW Philadelphia Amateur champion, had it going early, getting it to 3-under on the front side, but struggled on the back nine at Cedarbrook and carded a 75. McDermott quite memorably reached the quarterfinals at Stonewall two years ago.



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