Fieger off to a good start in U.S. Senior Amateur qualifying at Old Chatham

   At 56, Chris Fieger finally made his debut in a USGA championship Saturday and looked like he belonged there all along.

   Fieger lives in Denver, Lancaster County, but he’s a Delco guy originally, part of the golfing Fieger family of Nether Providence/Strath Haven fame. Pretty sure he was contending for District One titles when I was covering high school golf for The Mercury in Pottstown back in the 1980s. He’s always been a good player.

   In the opening round of qualifying for match play in the U.S. Senior Amateur Championship at Old Chatham Golf Club in Durham, N.C. Saturday, Fieger, playing out of Foxchase Golf Club, fired a solid 1-over 73 that left him tied for 15th place.

   The top 64 qualifiers following Sunday’s second round of qualifying will advance to match play, which gets under way Monday.

   Fieger, who emerged from the Golf Association of Philadelphia-administered qualifier at LuLu Country Club last month, heads an impressive Pennsylvania group at Old Chatham that includes three past U.S. Senior Amateur champions.

   And Fieger’s at the head of that class after the opening round.

   Fieger got off to a great start with a birdie on the 10^th hole, his first of the day. He birdied the 16^th hole, but fell back to even-par with a double bogey at the 17^th hole. On the incoming nine, Fieger made bogeys at the fourth and seventh holes around a birdie at the sixth hole to finish at 1-over.

   Fieger’s older brother Gene, who dominated the Philadelphia Section PGA in the 1990s when he was an assistant pro at Overbrook Golf Club, is one of the top senior club pros in the country, having won the 2013 Senior PGA Professional Championship. Gene Fieger is an instructor at Club Pelican Bay in Naples, Fla.

   Also in with a 73 was Edward Armogast of Jupiter, Fla. He was a Pine Valley Golf Club looper when he qualified for the U.S. Senior Amateur and reached the second round of match play a year ago at Eugene Country Club. A one-time mini-tour legend, Armogast is a winter looper at Seminole Golf Club.

   Reading’s Chip Lutz, winner of the U.S. Senior Amateur in 2015 at Hidden Creek Golf Club at the Jersey Shore, is in with a shot at match play after carding a 3-over 75 that left him among the group tied for 37^th place. Lutz plays out of LedgeRock Golf Club.

   The 64-year-old Lutz, the reigning nine-time GAP Senior Player of the Year, reached the semifinals a year ago at Eugene Country Club before falling to eventual champion Jeff Wilson. Lutz is playing in his 10^th U.S. Senior Amateur.

   Lutz always picks up valuable points in the GAP Senior Player of the Year race with his annual trip across the pond for the R&A Senior Amateur Championship, which he has won three times. This year was no different as Lutz finished in a tie for seventh place at North Berwick with a 6-under 210 total in the 54-hole stroke-play event.

   Lutz had three bogeys and a birdie on each side at Old Chatham. He made bogeys at the second and fourth holes, a birdie at the sixth and a bogey at the eighth. He then rattled off seven straight pars before a bogey-birdie-bogey finish at the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th holes.

   Sean Knapp, a western Pennsylvania amateur legend who has played in the final of the U.S. Senior Amateur in each of the last two years, is in with a shot at making it to match play after carding a 4-over 76 that left him in the group tied for 53^rd.

   The 57-year-old Knapp, playing in his 50^th USGA championship, captured the title two years ago at The Minikahda Club in Minneapolis and lost in the final to Wilson, 2 and 1, a year ago in Eugene, coming up just short of a repeat.

   Merion Golf Club’s George “Buddy” Marucci, the 2008 U.S. Senior Amateur champion, landed in the group tied for 83^rd as he posted a 6-over 78. Marucci is playing in his 11^th U.S. Senior Amateur.

   Next month will mark the 10^th anniversary of the 67-year-old Marucci captaining the U.S. team to victory over Great Britain & Ireland in a Walker Cup Match played on his home course, the famed East Course at Merion. Marucci also captained the 2007 U.S. team to a Walker Cup win.

   Another player who emerged from the LuLu qualifier, Overbrook’s Oscar Mestre, was also in the group tied for 83^rd place along with Marucci as Mestre also posted a 6-over 78.

   The third player to come out of the qualifier at his home course at LuLu, 61-year-old John Robinson, struggled to an 89 and was in a tie for 155^th place.

   Dean Channell, a 58-year-old financial adviser for a securities company from Cary, N.C., grabbed the lead following the opening round of qualifying with a 4-under 68.

   A couple of Californians, Gregory Condon of Monte Vista and Kory Frost of Trabuco Canyon, shared second place, each posting a 2-under 70 to trail Channell by two.

   Doug Hanzel of Savannah, Ga., the 2013 U.S. Senior Amateur champion and, it seems, a perennial contender in this championship, headed a group of four players tied for fourth place at 1-under 71. The 62-year-old Hanzel was a quarterfinalist a year ago at Eugene.

   Also in the group at 71 were Chris Hall of Marietta, Ga., Brian Cain of Montpelier, Vt. and Pete Williams of Juno Beach, Fla.

   The U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship also teed off Saturday at Cedar Rapids Country Club in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and 52-year-old Suzi Spotleson of Canton, Ohio, who also plays out of the RiverCrest Golf Club and Preserve, landed among the group tied for 17^th place with a solid 4-over 76.

   Spotleson, a softball standout at Northwestern, captured the title in the 2015 Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia Match Play Championship.

   Noreen Mohler, the 65-year-old Lehigh Valley legend from Bethlehem, is in with a chance for a berth in match play after she carded an 81 in Saturday’s opening round that left her among the group tied for 55^th. The top 64 qualifiers following Sunday’s second round will tee it up in the opening round of match play Monday.

   Mohler, who captained the winning U.S. team in the 2010 Curtis Cup Match, was the medalist out of the GAP-administered qualifier which was held simultaneously with the U.S. Senior Amateur qualifier at LuLu last month.

   Karen Siegel of Maple Glen is also in with a chance for a spot in the match-play bracket as she carded an 82 and is among the group tied for 66^th.  Siegel used to play out of Commonwealth National Golf Club and I’m not sure if that is still the case. She was the first alternate out of the qualifier at LuLu.

   The two other players who emerged from the LuLu qualifier, Sue Sardi of Skillman, N.J. and Donna Young of Ewing, N.J., posted respective rounds of 84 and 88. The 63-year-old Sardi, a fashion designer playing in her third U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, was in the group tied for 92^nd place and the 62-year-old Young, also playing in her third U.S. Senior Women’s Am, landed in the group tied for 120^th.

   Sherry Wright, a physical therapist from Oxnard, Calif. who took up the game less than a decade ago, grabbed the lead after the opening round of qualifying with a 3-under 69, but she has some formidable figures chasing her in the battle for medalist honors.

   Chief among them is the defending champion, Lara Tennant of Portland, Ore., who defeated Australian Sue Wooster, 3 and 2, in the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur final a year ago at the Orchid Island Golf & Beach Club in Vero Beach, Fla.

   Tennant carded a solid 2-under 70 to share second place with 2009 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion Martha Leach of Hebron, Ky., three-time U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur champion Diane Lang of Weston, Fla. and Leigh Klasse of Cumberland, Wis.

   Ellen Port of St. Louis and Corey Weworski of Carlsbad, Calif. are another shot back in a tie for sixth at 1-under 71.

   All the 57-year-old Port has done is win seven USGA titles, four U.S. Women’s Mid-Ams and three U.S. Women’s Senior Amateurs. An eighth USGA championship would tie her with the great JoAnne Carner as the winningest female player ever. It would also tie her on the list of players with the most USGA titles with that Nicklaus guy.

   Weworski is no slouch either. The 57-year-old won the 2004 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur and, it seems, is a perennial contender in the U.S. Women’s Senior Am.