One of the reasons the United States Golf Association added
the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship to its schedule was the organization’s
recognition of the popularity of better-ball events at so many levels.
The Golf Association of Philadelphia had a full field of
two-man teams for its Four-Ball Stroke Championship Thursday at White Manor
Country Club. The art of forming a winning better-ball team is, as always, finding
two guys whose games complement each other and, maybe more importantly, enjoy
playing together.
That was the case at White Manor as the Talamore Country
Club tandem of Michael Fireman, who grew up playing at White Manor, and Kyle
Ginty put together a nine-birdie, two-bogey effort that gave them a 7-under-par
64 and a two-shot victory.
They seem an unlikely pair, the 52-year-old Fireman of North
Wales and the 33-year-old Ginty of Conshohocken. But they started playing
together when Ginty first arrived at Talmore from South Carolina eight years
ago and have struck up a golf friendship. Fireman has won the club championship
five times at Talamore and Ginty has one Talamore club championship on his
resume.
They had something to shoot for after the morning wave,
played in overcast conditions, produced a pair of 5-under 66s authored by David
Robbins and Griffin Smith of Jericho National Golf Club and the Radley Run
Country Club pair of Parker Wine and Philip Potter. Smith, a former Council
Rock South standout, is a junior on the Rider golf team and Wine, who starred
scholastically at Unionville, is a sophomore on the La Salle golf team.
Starting on the back nine, Ginty picked up the first of the
seven birdies he had in the round at the 501-yard, par-5 11th hole.
He chunked a chip after nearly reaching the green in two, but he made up for
the mistake by draining a 45-foot birdie bomb. The sun had broken through the
overcast and things were heating up.
The pair gave a shot away at the 12th, but
Ginty’s putter was starting to warm up along with the temperature as he dropped
a 30-footer for birdie at the 414-yard, par-4 13th hole and a
20-foot birdie try at the 161-yard, par-3 14th hole.
Fireman reached the green in two at the downhill 502-yard,
par-5 17th hole and two-putted for birdie, just missing a 10-footer
for eagle.
Ginty used his 9-iron to hit it to 10 feet at the 407-yard,
par-4 second hole and to four feet from 143 yards away at the 419-yard, par-4
fifth hole and converted both birdie putts. Fireman added his second birdie of
the day, dropping a 25-foot putt at the 551-yard, par-5 sixth hole.
Ginty got his last two birdies at the 330-yard, par-4
seventh hole and at the 101-yard, par-3 eighth hole before a closing bogey at
the ninth hole dropped Fireman and Ginty back to 7-under.
Ginty had a hot round, but he was quick to give credit to
his partner for his steady game and his local knowledge at White Manor.
“It’s so fun to play with him because it’s a stress relief,”
Ginty told the GAP website. “His game is boring because he’s so straight (off
the tee), straight down the middle all day. I really leaned on him for his
course knowledge today and he helped me find the good positions on the course
and where not to end up.”
Joining the Robbins-Smith and Wine-Potter duos in a tie for
second at 5-under 66 was the tandem of Mark Czerniakowski of LuLu Country Club
and Gregory Buliga of Yardley Country Club. Czerniakowski and Buliga were the
net division winners with a 10-under 61.
Four teams shared fifth place, each carding a 4-under 67,
including Luis Diaz of Rancocas Golf Club and Paul Bickford of Wedgewood
Country Club, Eric Settelen, another Talamore member, and his partner, James
McCallum of Heidelberg Country Club, Thomas Lindberg of St. Davids Golf Club
and D.J. Kurz of Merion Golf Club and the Seaview Hotel and Golf Club pair of
Paul Winter and Michael Winter.
Five more teams had top-10 finishes as they ended up in a
tie for ninth at 3-under 68, headed by the host club’s Bruce Cowgill and Owen
Mulhern.
Joining Cowgill and Mulhern at 3-under were the White Clay
Creek Country team of Joe Bianco and Scott Niggli, Michael Sanfrancesco and
Brett Wallace of Kennett Square Golf & Country Club, the Trump National
Golf Club – Philadelphia pair of Kevin Maguire and Joe Zulli and the Honey
Brook Golf Club tandem of Greg Bender and Greg Blackburn.
Green Valley Country Club’s Andrew Wallace, a PIAA Class AAA
qualifier as a junior at Harriton last fall, and Philadelphia Country Club’s
Alec Stern teamed up to card a 2-under 69 and headed a group of five more teams
tied for 14th at that figure.
Joining Wallace and Stern at 2-under were Colin Smith of
Bidermann Golf Club and Sam Pancoast of Radley Run, the Woodcrest Country Club
duo of Dan Close and Ben Keyser, Jim Hughes of Carlisle Country Club and
William Smith of Chambersburg Country Club and the Philadelphia Cricket Club
pair of Dan Agoglia and G. Patrick Dougherty.
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