Downingtown West's Gross outduels Holy Ghost's Sanderson to capture District One crown at Turtle Creek

    LIMERICK – The battle for the District One Class AAA individual title between Downingtown West freshman Nick Gross and Holy Ghost Prep junior Calen Sanderson would have been an intriguing one just for the great golf it produced.

   Throw in the fact that neither player originally had next week’s scheduled Class AAA East Regional on his dance card, which would have made them ineligible to compete for a state title, and it gets a little more interesting.

   Of course, in the year of the coronavirus pandemic nothing is quite as it seems. At some point in the last couple of weeks, the PIAA decided to abandon the regionals with the top 12 finishers in Class AAA in District One advancing directly to the PIAA Class AAA Championship at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York County in two weeks. The state tournament will be reduced from two rounds to one round to avoid having the players stay overnight.

   So, the scheduling conflict with American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) events in Oklahoma that Gross and Sanderson are headed to no longer exists. So, we could get Round 2 of Gross vs. Sanderson at Heritage Hills in a couple of weeks. If it’s anything like Round 1, it will be something to see.

   Unfortunately, they probably won’t be paired together like they were Tuesday at Turtle Creek Golf Club. Gross captured the District One Class AAA individual crown when he edged Sanderson by two shots after Sanderson slightly blocked his attempt to reach the par5 18^th hole in two, the ball ending up out of bounds by all of about three feet to the right of the green.

   Gross, who trailed Sanderson by three shots at one point in the final round, closed with a 1-under-par 71 over the 6,375-yard, par-72 Turtle Creek layout after opening with a 69 Monday for a 4-under 140 total.

   Sanderson’s double bogey on the closing hole left him with a second straight 1-under 71 that earned him runnerup honors at 2-under 142.

   “He’s a wonderful player,” Gross said of his playing partner Sanderson. “I hadn’t ever played a round with him before today, but you can just look at his scores and see what a good player he is.”

   I caught up with them on the seventh hole of Tuesday’s second round. The wind was blowing in Limerick Township and it made the Turtle a tricky challenge.

   “You could feel (the wind) on the range,” Gross said. “You could tell it was going to be tough to judge out there. Pars were going to be good and I had 13 of them.”

   Gross had started the same as he had Monday, making pars at the first five holes before a bogey at the sixth. Sanderson had bogeyed the second hole and birdied the third.

   Sanderson made birdies at the seventh, eighth and 10^th holes and Gross made a bad swing and yanked his second shot at the par-5 eighth and made bogey. As they headed to the tee at the 178-yard, par-3 11^th hole, Sanderson was 4-under for the championship and Gross was 1-under. And then Gross made his move.

   He drilled a 5-iron to three feet and converted the birdie try at the 11^th hole. Gross got a little lucky when his drive on the short par-4 12^th hole hit a tree on the left side and bounded all the way to the right side of the fairway. He made the most of the break by sending a 50-degree wedge to 18 feet and draining the birdie try.

   Gross and Sanderson both hit it close at the 154-yard, par-3 15^th hole, but both missed good looks at birdie, Gross from 10 feet and Sanderson from eight feet.

   “It was pretty much a match-play scenario at that point,” Gross said. “After I missed, I really expected him to make his putt. I was looking at being two down with three to play.”

   But Sanderson missed and then Gross finally clawed back even with him at the par-4 16^th hole. Gross’ tee shot nearly ran into the water hazard on the right, but off a hanging lie, he just cleared the bunker from 85 yards away and then rolled in a 12-footer for birdie to join Sanderson at 4-under.

   “I had a similar shot at the 10^th and I left it short,” Gross said of his clutch approach at 16. “So, I wanted to give it enough to get it up there. And I made a nice putt there.”

   Gross gained a ton of experience over the summer, twice winning at AJGA’s Junior All-Star level in August, among several strong showings. He might be a freshman, but all of that experience was on display Tuesday.

   “There’s a lot of good players out there, just like there was here today,” Gross said. “I have to play my own game, stay focused and just hit good shots.”

   After both players made pars at the 17^th hole, Gross and Sanderson arrived at the risk-reward, 552-yard, par-5 18^th hole.

   Gross’ drive found the left bunker and made the decision to lay up easy. Sanderson was in the fairway. He went for it and his ball caromed off the bank right of the green and ended up just out of bounds. From 139 yards away, Gross found the green with his third shot and lagged it to tap-in range from 13 feet away to capture the district title.

   Sanderson, going for the win, had to settle for second place, but both will move on to Heritage Hills to compete for a state championship. Sanderson will be trying to become the third Holy Ghost player to win a state title since 2015. Firebirds Stephen Cerbara and Liam Hart captured the PIAA Class AAA title in 2015 and 2017, respectively. Cerbara and Hart are on Drexel’s roster.

   Gross is headed for Norman, Okla. where the AJGA Junior All-Star Invitational will tee off Friday at the Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club. Sanderson is headed for Stillwater, Okla., where the PING Invitational will tee off Friday at Karsten Creek Golf Club, where the 2018 NCAA Championship was staged.

   But those events will no longer conflict with the PIAA postseason with the regionals no longer on the schedule. Some of us can remember that going straight from districts to states is the way it used to work. The one flaw, then and now, is that it limits District One, arguably the state’s deepest talent pool, to just 12 berths to the state tournament.

   The other two players in Tuesday’s final foursome, Unionville’s Roy Anderson and Central Bucks West’s Milo Jezzeny, finished third and fourth, respectively.

   Anderson recovered from a triple bogey 8 at the par-5 eighth hole to shoot a 1-over 73 and finish alone in third place at 1-under 143. Anderson also helped return Unionville to the top of the heap in the District One team race for the third time in the last four years .More on that later.

   Jezzeny stumbled a little in the middle of the round with a double bogey at the ninth hole and a bogey at the 10^th, but carded a solid 2-over 74 to finish in fourth place at 1-over 145, two shots behind Anderson.

   West Chester Henderson’s Dylan Kochis and Wissahickon’s Christian Matt finished in a tie for fifth place, each landing on 3-over 147. Kochis added a 1-over 73 to his opening-round 74 while Matt, who had matched par with a 72 in Monday’s opening round, posted a 3-over 75.

   Unionville sophomore Win Thomas added a 73 to his opening-round 75 to finish alone in seventh place at 4-over 148.

   West Chester Rustin had two players among the trio tied for eighth place at 5-over 149. Eric Miller added a 73 to his opening-round  76 while teammate Ryan D’Ariano carded a 4-over 76 Tuesday after opening with a 73 Monday. Matt’s Wissahickon teammate Jackson Tappen matched D’Ariano’s splits, adding a 76 to his opening-round 73 to join Miller and D’Ariano in the group tied for eighth place.

   Souderton senior Stephen Butler will return to the state championship, which he reached as a sophomore two years ago, as he added a 74 to his opening-round 76 that left him alone in 11^th place at 150.

   Plymouth-Whitemarsh senior Dylan Gooneratne punched his ticket to Heritage Hills in dramatic fashion. He drilled his tee shot on the tough par-3 ninth hole to two feet and made birdie on the third hole of a 4-for-1 playoff to earn the final berth to the PIAA Class AAA Championship.

   Gooneratne struggled to a 78 after opening with a 73 for a 151 total. The playoff casualties included Spring-Ford’s Luke Watson (77-74), Downingtown East’s Jake Leon (78-73) and Hatboro-Horsham’s Noah Sim (76-75).

   Anderson’s 73 and Thomas’ 76 led the way as Unionville nailed down the district team crown in Class AAA with a 13-over 301 total. The other counters for Unionville were Denny Donnelly’s 77 and Ross Charlton’s 79. Stephen Starnes’ 84 was a throw-out. Unionville captured the PIAA Class AAA team crown in 2017 and was the runnerup to Pittsburgh Central Catholic in 2018.

   Central Bucks West finished seven shots behind Unionville in second place with a 308 total. Pennsbury, the runnerup to Strath Haven a year ago, was another three shots behind the Bucks in third place at 311.

   New Hope Solebury’s Nate Wiseman earned an automatic spot in the PIAA Class AA field as the sophomore claimed the district crown with a second straight 85, giving him a 170 total. Teammate Evan Menz, also a sophomore, added an 88 to his opening-round 86 to finish second at 174.

   Wiseman and Menz led New Hope Solebury to the team title with a 361 total. Liam Griffin added a 92 and Kyle Sullivan had a 96 to round out the scoring. Mason Scull’s 103 was a throw-out for New Hope Solebury, which will still have to tee it up in a sub-regional to make it to Heritage Hills.

   Jenkintown was the runnerup with a 366 total.

   The Downingtown School District had a pretty good day as the Class AAA girls champion was Downingtown East junior Ava O’Sullivan, who added a 2-over 74 to the 1-over 72 she carded in Monday’s opening round at Raven’s Claw Golf Club for a 3-over 146 total.

   O’Sullivan, Mount St. Joseph’s senior Clare Gimpel and Unionville senior Charlotte Scully arrived at the 16^th tee tied at 3-over. But O'Sullivan birdied the par-4 16^th hole while Gimpel and Scully made bogeys and O’Sullivan was able to protect that two-shot edge over the final two holes to capture the district crown.

   Gimpel closed with a 76 after sharing the opening-round lead with O’Sullivan with a 72 at Raven’s Claw to end up in a tie for second place with Pennsbury senior Jade Gu at 5-over 148, two shots behind O’Sullivan. Gu’s 1-over 73 was the best round of the day among the girls at Turtle Creek after she had opened with a 75 at Raven’s Claw.

   Scully had surged into contention with birdies at the 11^th, 13^th, 14^th and 15^th holes, but she hit her third shot out of bounds on the final hole to fall back into a tie for fourth place with West Chester East junior Victoria Kim at 8-over 151. Scully added a 77 to her opening-round 74 as she booked a return trip to Heritage Hills after reaching the PIAA Class AAA Championship two years ago. Scully led Unionville to District One Class AAA team title Monday at Raven’s Claw.

   Kim, who lost in a playoff for the PIAA Class AAA crown a year ago, added a 76 to the 75 she registered at Raven’s Claw.

   The sixth and final ticket to Heritage Hills went to Owen J. Roberts sophomore Stefania Fedun, who carded a solid 76 Tuesday at the Turtle after opening with a 77 at Raven’s Claw. Her 153 total left her alone in sixth place.

   Springfield (Montco) sophomore Mollie Young claimed the District One Class AA title as she added a 97 Tuesday at Turtle Creek to her opening-round 99 for a 196 total. Jenkintown junior Katie McGrath was the runnerup with a second straight 107 for a 214 total.