In the days following the attack on the World Trade Center
Sept. 11, 2001 that took the life of his son, Davis “Deeg” Sezna Jr., Davis
Sezna Sr. kept thinking about what a mentor Deeg had been to his younger
brothers, Teddy and Willy.
Out of the ashes of tragedy and destruction from that
fateful day, much good was born. An example is a little golf tournament, The
Deeg Sezna, dreamed up by Davis Sezna and with the full support of the Golf
Association of Philadelphia, to celebrate mentorship.
Mentors are everywhere in a youngster’s life. Sometimes the
mentor is unaware of the effect he or she is having on the youngster. It can be
older brother/younger brother as it was with the Seznas. Parent and son or
daughter is an obvious one, as are coach and player and teacher and student.
Just simply taking an interest in a kid can be a spark.
The realization of the importance of mentorship has kept The
Deeg Sezna going and Aug. 5 the 18th edition of event, which this
year became part of the GAP Junior Series, presented by Citadel, was held at
Cedarbrook Country Club.
Capturing top honors in the Junior Boys’ Division was the
team of Plymouth-Whitemarsh golf coach Jeff Kavanagh and Doug Hansel, one of
Kavanagh’s former players. They teamed up for the day’s best score, a
2-under-par 70 over the 6,497-yard, par-72 Cedarbrook layout in the select
drive/alternate shot format.
The 34-year-old Kavanagh, a Hatboro resident, knew it was
the final year of eligibility for the 21-year-old Hansel, a 2016 P-W graduate.
For Kavanagh, is in his 11th season at the helm of the P-W program,
The Deeg Sezna seemed like the perfect way to do two of his favorite things:
Play golf and promote junior golf.
“For me, I just love promoting junior golf,” Kavanagh told
the GAP website. “I love playing in events like this. To promote the game and
have fun at the same time is a great experience.”
The Kavanagh-Hansel team got off to a great start when
Hansel bombed his drive on the 377-yard, par-4 third hole, Kavanagh lofted a
wedge from 88 yards six feet from the hole and Hansel dropped the putt for a
birdie.
It was a similar scenario at the 400-yard, par-4 eighth hole
as Kavanagh used his gap wedge to get the team six feet from the hole again and
Hansel again converted the birdie try.
At the 502-yard, par-5 10th hole, Hansel was a
little off-target, but Kavanagh was able to get the second shot to the front of
the green. Hansel chipped it to three feet and Kavanagh made the putt.
The Kavanagh-Hansel team had just a tap-in for birdie at the
497-yard, par-5 12th hole and Kavanagh knocked in an eight-footer
for birdie at the 13th hole. The pair made a couple of bogeys on
their way to the clubhouse, but their 2-under total held up for the victory.
Two teams – Kevin Kelly of Philadelphia Cricket Club and
Luke Marvin of Commonwealth National Golf Club and the Cricket Club’s Cal
Buonocore, a former scholastic standout at The Haverford School, and Mark
Fuessinger of Llanerch Country Club – shared second place, each posting a
1-under 71.
The Tavistock Country Club team of Nathan Guertler and Adam
Warner finished alone in fourth place with a 2-over 74.
David Guertler of Tavistock and Matthew Normand of Riverton
Country Club and the tandem of Mark Wachter and Bobby Beck of Lehigh Country
Club finished in a tie for fifth place, each team posting a 3-over 75.
Noreen Mohler, who has been a good player forever, is a
member of GAP’s Executive Committee and helps out the Pennsylvania Golf
Association (PAGA) in staging the Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ Championship at
Hershey Country Club’s East Course in June.
Mohler teamed up last year with one of the girls she had met
at the Pennsylvania Junior Girls, Grace Simenson of RiverCrest Golf Club &
Preserve, to take the Junior Girls’ Division of The Deeg Sezna.
When Mohler, a Bethlehem resident who plays out of
Northampton Country Club, met Harriton senior Callie Jean Burns, who plays out
of Bala Golf Club, at Hershey this summer, Mohler knew she had her new Deeg
Sezna partner.
Mohler and Burns carded a solid 5-over 77 to give Mohler a
repeat in an event that she clearly enjoys.
“She came the second day and said, ‘Hi, Noreen!’ and that
was great that she remembered me,” the 65-year-old Mohler told the GAP website
concerning her choice of Burns to play in The Deeg Sezna. “It was then when I
knew I would ask her to play with me. I knew what her game was like, but she
had no idea what mine was like.”
Mohler’s game was good enough to help the team pick up its
lone birdie of the day on the 280-yard, par-4 seventh hole at Cedarbrook. A
drive by Burns, a 17-year-old Wynnewood resident, left Mohler with her perfect
sand wedge distance, 100 yards. Mohler’s approach finished five feet from the
hole and Burns knocked in the birdie try.
Mohler and Burns finished two shots ahead of the
Philadelphia Cricket Club pair of Kerry Rutan and Emma Schotsch, a junior at
Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. The Cricket Club pair posted a 79.
The Kennett Square Golf & Country Club pair of Taylor
Hollander and Mary Dunigan was another shot behind the Rutan-Schotsch pair in
third place with an 80. Dunigan was the runnerup to The Springhaven Club’s
Grace Smith in the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia Junior Girls’
Championship earlier this summer at Phoenixville Country Club.
It’s been quite a couple of weeks for Mohler. A week before
The Deeg Sezna, Mohler punched her ticket to the U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur
Championship at Cedar Rapids Country Club in Cedar Rapids, Iowa by earning
medalist honors in a GAP-administered qualifier at LuLu Country Club.
A few days after The Deeg Sezna, Mohler defeated her friend
Rutan in the final of the Pennsylvania State Women’s Amateur Championship
Senior Division final at the Cricket Club’s Militia Hill Course.
The Radley Run Country Club pair of Greg Smith and his son,
Kasim Narinesingh-Smith, earned the top spot in the Junior-Junior Boys’
Division with a 5-over 77. Kasim Narinesingh-Smith was the medalist in
qualifying for match play and reached the semifinals in the recent GAP
Junior-Junior Boys’ Championship at Flourtown Country Club.
The Steel Club pair of Frank Boensch and Frank Boensch III
finished a shot behind Team Narinesingh-Smith in second place with a 78.
The teams of Travis Robertson of Sunnybrook Golf Club and
Jeffrey Jones of Manufacturers Golf & Country Club and Shane Powelson of
Bidermann Golf Club and Nick Ryder of Aronimink Golf Club shared third place,
each posting a 79. Nick Ryder was a member of a couple of pretty good Radnor
golf teams I covered during my days at the Delaware County Daily Times.
The tandem of Reid Walker of Riverton and William Walker of
Middletown Country Club finished alone in fifth place with a 92.
The Spring-Ford Country Club duo of Dave Thomas and Riley
Thomas won the Mixed Division with a 3-over 75. The Northampton Country Club
team of Josh Sanborn and Grace Sanborn and the Whitford Country Club pair of
Bruce Cowgill and Ava O’Sullivan shared second place, each duo carding a 79.
O’Sullivan, who finished third in the WGAP Junior Girls at
Phoenixville, was a freshman on the Downingtown East team that was the runnerup
in the PIAA Class AAA team race last fall.
Davis "Deeg" Sezna Jr., a couple of month after graduating from Vanderbilt with a degree in economics, was in his sixth day at his new job on the 104th floor of the South Tower when the terrorists struck Sept. 11, 2001. But his spirit and the spirit of mentorship live on with The Deeg Sezna.
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