EAST NANTMEAL – Springside Chestnut Hill Academy senior Kara
Kniczewski knew it would be her last shot at winning an Inter-Ac League
individual title.
And with all apologies to the master, Donald Ross,
Kniczewski was glad when she found out that, after a four-year run at Gulph
Mills Golf Club, the Inter-Ac Championship was headed west to the decidedly
more modern Gil Hanse design – early Gil Hanse – at French Creek Golf Club.
French Creek sits on a sprawling piece of land in the
northwest corner of Chester County and it’s certainly a completely different
ballgame than the Ross classic at Gulph Mills.
“When I found out that it was changing from Gulph Mills, I
thought that would be a good thing for me,” Kniczewski said after carding a
3-over-par 38 on the 2,462-yard, par-35 front nine at French Creek to finish
two shots ahead of Episcopal Academy sophomore Lauren Jones. “I don’t know, my
game just didn’t seem to agree with Gulph Mills. It’s certainly a great golf course.”
Kniczewski, who is thrilled to be heading to the Naval
Academy in Annapolis, Md. this summer, admitted that winning an Inter-Ac title
was always a goal, even if it took some prodding from her swing coach, Mike
Davis, who works out of the Spring Mill Country Club pro shop, to make sure it
was something she thought she could attain.
“Ever since freshman year, my swing coach would be like,
‘Come on, you can win the Inter-Ac,’” Kniczewski said. “But there was always
(former Agnes Irwin standout) Kaitlyn Lees and (former Notre Dame and Agnes
Irwin standout) Megan Fahey and a lot of other good players, so that made it
tough. Lees and Fahey were gone, so maybe I had a little better chance.”
Kniczewski knew her playing partner Jones, who helped
Episcopal made a second straight unbeaten run through the Inter-Ac regular
season this spring, was going to be just as tough a competitor as Lees and
Fahey and the rest had been.
And when Jones chipped in for birdie from a tough lie in
deep grass just off the green at the 304-yard, par-4 seventh hole, she had
drawn within a shot of Kniczewski, who was 1-over par. And Kniczewski still had
a testy three-footer left for par.
“That got my heart racing a little,” Kniczewski said. “I had
to do a little scrambling myself on that hole, but I was able to settle down
and make that putt.”
Kniczewski increased her lead to two shots when she made
bogey at the testy, downhill par-3 eighth hole. Jones’ tee shot came up short in
deep rough and she couldn’t get her chip shot out of the swale on the
right-front portion of the green.
It was a tough pin, resting just at the top of the swale and
after Jones three-putted for double bogey, Kniczewski missed a five-foot par
putt of her own.
“I had the line, I just pulled it a little,” Kniczewski
said. “The putter’s actually been pretty good lately.”
Kniczewski’s drive at the 315-yard, par-4 ninth hole found
the bank of a bunker to the right of the fairway. The ball was imbedded,
though, and she was able to take a club length from fescue into the first cut
of rough. Then she hit the shot that clinched the win.
“I had 78 yards and I took a 54-degree wedge and hit a
little fade in there,” Kniczewski said.
The ball settled eight feet from the pin on a tiny green
that almost looks banked. She lagged her birdie putt and tapped in for par and
the win. Kniczewski became just the second Springside Chestnut Hill player to
win the Inter-Ac title, joining Amanda Lownes, who wore the crown a decade ago.
“I was playing pretty solid this spring,” said Kniczewski.
“I had my college choice out of the way, so that helped me relax and I’m a
senior, so I knew what to expect at Inter-Ac Championships. This is probably
the end of competitive golf for me. Maybe I’ll play club golf at the Naval
Academy.”
The rescheduled Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic
Association (PAISAA) Championship will be held Monday at Brookside Country
Club, but Kniczewski got the title she wanted the most.
Jones, though, is just getting started. Her mother Lorraine,
fresh off helping Merion Golf Club win the Philadelphia Cup, the top level of
the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Inter-Club Team Matches, for the
71st time, said Lauren Jones will be playing “a lot of golf” this
summer.
The runnerup to Lees two years ago and a third-place
finisher behind Lees and Fahey as a freshman last spring, Jones is long and her
talent is obvious. She was just off the green in two at the par-5 fourth hole
and chipped it close for a birdie.
She struggled a couple of times around the unfamiliar green
complexes at French Creek. But her 5-over 40 was still four shots better than
the next best score. Kniczewski’s teammate, Emma Schotsch, a sophomore,
finished third with a 44.
Jones is the best player on Kim Farrell’s EA team that ran
its Inter-Ac win streak to 16 matches this spring. Once it was Notre Dame that
was unbeatable in the Inter-Ac, the Irish rattling off nine straight league
titles before EA finally dethroned them a year ago.
Lauren Jones’ older sister Amanda, a junior, and Kathleen
Mark, another sophomore at EA, shared fourth place with Notre Dame sophomore
Stef Bonnini, each carding a 10-over 45. Mark played in the lead group along
with Kniczewski and Lauren Jones.
Baldwin’s Megan Adelman, an eighth-grader, finished seventh
with a 47 and Episcopal Academy senior Gracie Reilly was eighth with a 49. EA
freshman Grace McLaughlin took ninth with a 52 and Agnes Irwin senior Annie
Curran rounded out the top 10 with a 53.
Notre Dame sophomore Heather Styslinger finished 11th
with a 55, EA seniors Minji Cho and Cam Stapleton shared 12th place,
each posting a 56, Notre Dame senior Katie Lennon was 14th with a 60
and Agnes Irwin senior Maura Boyle was 15th with a 61.
Episcopal Academy had seven of the 15 qualifiers for the
Inter-Ac Championship and four of them will be back next spring. It looks like
another dynasty is forming, this time out on Route 252 in Newtown Square.
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