Della Penna prevails in scorecard playoff to claim a Junior Tour victory at Mainland

   Three guys from the Upper Montco-western Bucks County area, all playing not far from home, put together solid rounds before Dominic Della Penna took top honors in the 13-to-15 division in a match of cards in a Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour stop at a chilly Mainland Golf Club in Harleysville Sunday.

   Your favorite golf blogger actually got a few balls airborne in something that resembled golf Sunday. It  was cold at the start, but if you were dressed for it, it wasn’t too bad.

   Della Penna, Luke Corcoran of Lansdale and Blake Stewart of Perkasie each posted a 7-over-par 77 over the 6,146-yard, par-70 Mainland layout.

   The first tiebreaker was the back-nine score and Stewart’s 40 left him in third place. Della Penna and Corcoran both shot 37 on the back nine and their identical 24s on the last six still didn’t break the tie. Della Penna’s 10 strokes on the final three holes finally gave him the victory as Corcoran’s 11 left him with runnerup honors.

   Della Penna had two birdies in his round and Corcoran and Stewart each had one.

   Jake Shmonov of Harrisburg finished fourth with an 80, Benjamin Saggers of West Chester, the winner of the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Junior-Junior Championship over the summer, was fifth with an 84 and Michael Romano Jr. of Eagleville was sixth with an 88.

   Darren Nolan of Glenside and Keith Nelton of Malvern finished in a tie for seventh, each posting a 90. Kenneth Kreitz of Harleysville took ninth with a 91 and Robert McNelly of Collegeville rounded out the top 10 as he finished 10^th with a 92.

   Luke Connors of Garnet Valley had a birdie on his way to an 81 that gave him the top spot in the 16-to-18 division. Evan Drummond of Exton had a pair of birdies as he secured runnerup honors with an 83.

   Colin Hoy of Harleysville had three birdies on his way to an 84 that left him alone in third place. Giles Elliott of St. Davids finished fourth with an 87, Tyler Kipp of Reading was fifth with an 88, Kyle Bartholomew of Westampton, N.J. was sixth with a 90 and Clay Breidenstine of Hummelstown was seventh with a 96.

   Christina Carroll of Bear, Del. had a pair of birdies on her way to an 83 as she captured top honors in the girls 16-to-18 division. Kiera Bartholomew of Team Bartholomew of Westampton, N.J. was the runnerup with an 85.

   Clare Gimpel, a sophomore on Mount St. Joseph’s District One Class AAA championship team this fall, finished third with a 90. Olivia Schwandt of Wilmington, Del. took fourth with a 91.

   Rachel Panico of Lansdale, making her first career Junior Tour start, was the only entrant in the 13-to-15 division and her 121 gave her the victory.

   Hank Kancher of Philadelphia birdied the ninth hole at Mainland to complete a 7-over 42 that bested the field of nine-holers. It was the first win of the wraparound 2018-’19 season for Kancher.

   Samuel Feeney of West Chester claimed runnerup honors in a scorecard playoff with Hunter Probst of Bear Creek after each posted a 43. Feeney’s 27 on the final six gave him the tiebreaker edge for second. Like Kancher, Probst finished his round with a birdie at the ninth.

   Ethan Martin of North Wales finished fourth with a 46 and the trio of Carson Holmes of North Wales, Nick Linkchorst of Glen Mills and Jolie Pastorick of Rydal shared fifth place, each posting a 47. Pretty good playing by Pastorick, a Class of 2027 entry who was the youngest player in the coed 12-and-under group.