Bradbeer claims boys crown, Quartermain tops girls field in a bittersweet Central League Championship at Downingtown

    EAST CALN – Normally my tour of the high school postseason golf trail begins with the Central League Championship, usually at Turtle Creek Golf Club.

   But 2020 is anything but normal, so this year the Central League Championship is at the end of the high school postseason and the site was Downingtown Country Club.

   Coming a week after the PIAA Championship was contested at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort, it was too late for the Central League Championship to fulfill what is usually its most important function: Determining the league’s qualifiers to the District One Championship.

   So, it was a bittersweet gathering on a dreary, drizzly Monday at Downingtown. There was disappointment and frustration voiced, but give the Central League kids credit. They grasped that the worldwide coronavirus pandemic was ultimately the problem and they felt that even a too-late Central League Championship was better than no Central League Championship at all.

   Harriton senior John Bradbeer matched par at a Downingtown layout that measured 6,209 yards for the boys with a 72 that gave him a two-shot victory over Conestoga’s Mike Walz.

   Haverford senior Riley Quartermain also matched par on a course that measured 5,092 yards for the girls, her 72 giving her a one-shot edge over 2019 District One Class AAA champion Sydney Yermish, a sophomore at Lower Merion.

   There was only one foursome of girls, but three of them, Quartermain, Yermish and Strath Haven junior Grace Smith, would have been contenders for District One and PIAA crowns this fall. Yermish lost in a playoff in the PIAA Class AAA Championship as a freshman a year ago.

   There was a team consolation prize Monday as well. While Conestoga and Radnor were to battle it out for the normal dual-match Central League crown later Monday at St. Davids Golf Club, a tournament team champion was crowned Monday and that went to Strath Haven.

   Each team was represented by five players with the top four scores counting, similar to the way many college tournaments are scored. Led by the Debusschere brothers, Tyler and Jackson, and Smith, the Panthers finished with a 310 total, five shots better than perennial league power Conestoga.

   It wasn’t quite a repeat of the Central League crown Strath Haven won a year ago, but it capped a pretty nice two-year run for head coach Kevin Kochersperger and his Panthers.

   Bradbeer, who spent his first two years of high school at Friends’ Central, would loved to have had a shot at playing in the PIAA Championship at Heritage Hills.

   “I won a Philly Junior Tour tournament at Heritage Hills,” Bradbeer said. “I really like the course and I think I could have done well there if I had a chance to play at states. But everything happens for a reason.”

   Bradbeer is the younger brother of Peter Bradbeer, who was a standout at Bucknell and won the 2017 Patterson Cup, a Golf Association of Philadelphia major championship. The Bradbeers are members at Merion Golf Club.

   “The East Course is my favorite course in the world,” Bradbeer said. “But my earliest memories of golf are playing with my dad on the West Course. It was the West Course where I really learned how to play the game.”

   And it was a pretty solid game Bradbeer put on display Monday at Downingtown. He quickly recovered from a bogey at the fifth hole by dropping a 30-foot birdie bomb at the sixth hole to get back to even-par.

   After making a bogey at the seventh hole, Bradbeer rattled off eight straight pars. He reached the par-5 16^th hole in two and got a two-putt birdie to finish at even for the round. It was first time he had laid eyes on Downingtown.

   “I’ve been hitting the ball pretty well,” said Bradbeer, who works with Temple head golf coach Brian Quinn on his game. “I drove it well, my irons were OK. I didn’t putt that great, but I had a lot of 25- to 35-foot putts.

   “When I play Junior Tour events, I’m often playing a course for the first time, so I try to shoot for the middle of greens and that’s a pretty good option. That’s what I was doing today. I did make a nice up-and-down for par on the 17^th.”

   Marple Newtown’s Nick DiPinto, playing in the final foursome of the day, took third place with a 3-over 75, a shot behind Conestoga’s Walz.

   Strath Haven sophomore Tyler Debusschere was alone in fourth place with a 76. Older brother Jackson Debusschere, a senior, shared fifth place with Radnor’s Tyler Tornoe, each posting a 77.

   Haverford’s Liam Hempel and Conestoga freshman Sachin Blake finished in a tie for seventh place, each signing for a 78. Strath Haven’s Colin Beucler, Conestoga’s Kyle Mauro, Radnor’s Quinn Bookbinder and Penncrest’s Corey Anderson rounded out the top 10 as each carded a 79 to finish in a tie for ninth place.

   Penncrest’s Eli Shah, the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour’s 13-to-15 Graham Company Player of the Year in the wraparound 2018-2019 season, and Garnet Valley’s Matt Pulcinella shared 13^th place, each landing on 80.

   Pulcinella’s teammate, junior Nick Woods, and Marple Newtown’s Jake Micewski finished in a tie for 15^th place, each registering an 81.

   Six more players – Lower Merion’s Adam Chen, Penncrest’s Ben Chang, Radnor’s Luke Kelly and Chase Stephano, Garnet Valley’s Bradyn Cantwell and Springfield’s Dan Flaherty – finished in a tie for 17^th place, each posting an 82.

   The Central League normally sends 20 or 21 players to the District One Championship so that group at 82 would have played off for the final four or five spots. Obviously, there were no district berths on the line Monday, but if there had been, most of those guys at 82 or better would have made it.

   While disappointed that she didn’t get one last shot at a state title, Haverford’s Quartermain, a product of the Llanerch Country Club junior program, was grateful to tee it up with her pals Yermish, a Rolling Green Golf Club member, and Smith, a product of the junior program at The Springhaven Club, in a Central League Championship one last time.

   “I thought I could win a state championship, I really like Heritage Hills,” Quartermain said. “It stinks we didn’t get to play in our last year, really for all the kids in the Central League, but especially the seniors.

   “But I’m glad we got to do this. The Central League Championship has always been my favorite tournament of the year at Turtle Creek. This had to be my Turtle this year and it was really fun to be out there with my friends.”

   Quartermain, Yermish and Smith shared medalist honors among the girls a year ago, each carding a 78 at Turtle Creek. Yermish got off to a quick start Monday, but Quartermain caught her and passed her with birdies at the 16^th and 17^th holes.

   She only had 40 yards left into the par-5 16^th hole, chipped it close and made the putt. Then Quartermain stuck a three-quarters gap wedge to four feet at the par-3 17^th hole and converted the birdie try. She preserved her one-shot edge on Yermish on the par-5 finishing hole with a nice up-and-down from the greenside bunker for a par after chunking a flop shot from the rough left of the green.

   Quartermain honed her game this year with some American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) appearances, including a tie for third place in the Golf Performance Center Junior Open at the Richter Park Golf Course in Danbury, Conn. earlier this month that makes her fully exempt for AJGA events in 2021. Quartermain had rounds of 74 and 76 for a 150 total at Richter Park.

   Quartermain continues to work with swing coach John Dunigan, a Golf Digest Top 50 instructor who hangs his shingle at Applebrook Golf Club these days. Dunigan is the swing coach for West Chester East junior Victoria Kim, who won the PIAA Class AAA Championship last week at Heritage Hills.

   Kim was in a playoff for the state title a year ago with Yermish and Wissahickon’s Elizabeth Beek, who ultimately won the title. Beek enrolled in the IMG Academy in Sarasota, Fla. for this school year.

   There is little doubt Yermish would have been a contender for a state crown this fall. A busy summer was highlighted by a runnerup finish in the Junior Girls’ North & South Championship at the Pinehurst Resort & Country Club’s No. 6 Course in Pinehurst Village, N.C. Her 1-over 73 Monday showed her game’s in pretty good shape.

   Strath Haven’s Smith carded a solid 78 to finish third behind her two friends. Smith was also in the field in the AJGA stop at Richter Park earlier this month and finished in a tie for 12^th place with a 155 total.

   Ridley’s Anna Bauer was the fourth player in the group and posted a 91. I’m guessing it was a nice learning experience for Bauer to tee it up with a trio of top junior players.

  That 78 by Smith was a huge contribution to Strath Haven’s team win, much as she often came up big in the Panthers’ run to the first Central League and District One Class AAA crowns in program history a year ago.

   Team Debusschere, Tyler’s 76 and Jackson’s 77, was typically strong for Haven. The brothers have been really strong on the Philly Junior Tour’s weekend fall series in the last couple of months.

   Strath Haven got one more sub-80 round out of Beucler, his 79 sealing the deal and giving the Panthers a 310 total. Jackson Voshell contributed a solid 84 that Strath Haven had the luxury to throw out.

   Conestoga was the runnerup at 315, Quartermain led Haverford to a third-place finish at 319, one shot ahead of Radnor at 320.

   Penncrest finished fifth at 326, Garnet Valley was sixth at 328, Marple Newtown, behind DiPinto’s 75, was seventh at 329, Bradbeer and Harriton were eighth at 330, Springfield was ninth at 353, Lower Merion was 10^th at 359, Ridley was 11^th at 395 and Upper Darby was 12^th at 479.

   If it seems like somebody was missing from this roundup, you’re right. Conestoga senior Morgan Lofland had a really strong summer and appeared primed for a strong senior season of high school golf.

   Even if the Central League players had been able to tee it up at districts, Lofland, who won the Class AAA East Regional and finished in ninth place in the PIAA Class AAA Championship a year ago, might not have been able to go. He was at Downingtown Monday cheering on his teammates, but he wasn’t cleared to play in time after suffering from mononucleosis that sidelined him for more than a month.

   Lofland was going to tee it up later Monday in the dual match with Radnor, no doubt a huge boost to the lineup for the Pioneers.

   And there’s more good news, especially if you’re a follower of Greg Nye’s Penn State program. Lofland has committed to join the Nittany Lions next fall. Nye is getting a good player and a real quality person.