The 14th edition of the Jon M. Pritsch Cup brought together the top players from the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour and the New Jersey Section PGA Junior Tour for a Ryder Cup-style event Friday at Forsgate Country Club’s Banks Course in Monroe Township, N.J.
The Jersey guys and girls -- well, Central Jersey as the Philly Junior Tour includes several South Jersey standouts – retained possession of the Pritsch Cup with a 12-6 victory. A year ago at Saucon Valley Country Club’s Weyhill Course, the teams battled to a 9-9 tie with New Jersey, having won it in 2018, retaining possession of the Pritsch Cup with the deadlock.
The rosters are made up of the top point-getters from the respective Junior Tour’s wraparound 2019-2020 season.
A couple of last year’s top performers in the PIAA postseason, Conestoga senior Morgan Lofland and Plymouth-Whitemarsh senior Dylan Gooneratne, led the way for the Philly Junior Tour team.
Lofland, the Class AAA East Regional champion at Golden Oaks Golf Club last fall, rolled to a 6 and 5 decision over Michael Foley and Gooneratne, who shared second place in last fall’s District One Class AAA Championship, pulled out a 2-up victory over Joseph Giamanco.
In the concurrent four-ball match, Lofland, who was coming off a tie for 17th place in the American Junior Golf Association’s KJ Choi Foundation Junior Championship by SK Telecom, which concluded Thursday at Fiddler’s Elbow Country Club, and Gooneratne claimed a 2 and 1 victory over Foley and Giamanco.
The first matches out were tight battles as Devon Prep senior Ryan McCabe, a top-three finisher in each of the last two PIAA Class AA Championships, and Spring-Ford senior Luke Watson each earned a half a point with ties in their individual matchups.
McCabe, a product of the junior program at The Springhaven Club, halved his match with Ethan Lee while Watson ended up even with Arjun Malik.
In both matches, the Jersey guys battled back from late deficits to pull out a tie. Lee won the 17th and 18th holes to rally for a deadlock with McCabe and Malik won the 16th and 17th holes to salvage a half-point against Watson.
Those late heroics enabled Lee and Malik to pull out a pivotal 2-up victory over McCabe and Watson and grab the four-ball point.
Nathan Guertler of Merchantville, N.J., a consistent performer in the 13-to-15 division on the Philly Junior Tour this summer, had one of the more impressive singles showings as he rolled to a 7 and 6 victory over Jun Chun.
Another standout in the Philly Junior Tour’s 13-to-15 division, Matthew Normand of Lumberton, N.J., suffered a 4 and 3 defeat at the hands of Kevin Ha.
Chun and Ha then pulled out a half-point in their four-ball match with the South Jersey standouts, Guertler and Normand, as the two pairs were tied after 18 holes.
Strath Haven sophomore Tyler Debusschere, another product of the junior program at Springhaven, dropped a 3 and 1 decision to Hunter Po. Debusschere’s four-ball partner, Scott Hughes, took Priyam Nayak to the final hole before falling, 1-up.
But Debusschere and Hughes did salvage a half-point by getting a tie with Po and Nayak in their four-ball match.
New Jersey, however, pulled away by sweeping six points out of the final two foursomes.
New Jersey’s Shane Quinn handed Elijah Ruppert, a senior at Brandywine Heights who finished in a tie for third in the PIAA Class AA Championship last fall, a 3 and 2 setback. Reed Greyserman rolled to a 7 and 6 decision over Ethan Martin.
Quinn and Greyserman earned a full point for their 7 and 6 four-ball victory over Ruppert and Martin.
It was more of the same in the girls foursome as Ava Lozito earned a 5 and 4 victory over Olivia Strigh of Hammonton, N.J. and Samantha Galantini captured a 2 and 1 win over Evelyn Wong of Macungie.
Lozito and Galantini then made it a sweep of all three available points in the foursome with a 4 and 3 four-ball victory over Strigh and Wong.
The matches are held to honor the memory of Jon M. Pritsch, who died tragically at age 17 in 1991 of heart disease. Pritsch was the No. 8-ranked junior player in the country at the time of his death and dreamed of playing professional golf.
Pritsch’s parents started the Jon M. Pritsch Memorial Fund to help youngsters achieve the dream their son never got a chance to realize. The Jon M. Pritsch Memorial Fund has donated more than $200,000 in scholarships to junior golfers hoping to pursue a career in a golf-related field. All of the Pritsch Cup competitors are eligible to apply for one of the Jon M. Pritsch Memorial Fund scholarships.
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