Will Davenport and Troy Vannucci figured to be a formidable pair in their bid to repeat in The Springhaven Cup, which wrapped up Saturday at The Springhaven Club, the Wallingford layout that has hosted this event, in one form or another, since 1923.
And they were. Blitzing the 6,518-yard, par-70 William Flynn design – or more accurately redesign – with a better-ball total of 9-under-par 61 in Saturday’s second round after opening with a 65 in Friday’s opening round, Davenport and Vannucci threatened the tournament record as they rolled to a victory in the Amateur Division with their 14-under 126 total.
It was a distant five shots back to the runnerup team of John Brennan, the Spring-Ford High teacher who qualified for match play in the 2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at Stonewall, and Danny Feeney. Brennan’s a Philadelphia Cricket Club guy and I’m pretty sure Feeney is as well.
The Cricket Club was well-represented at Springhaven, which enjoyed two days of fabulous weather, particularly considering it was the first full weekend of November.
Davenport, who plays out of Whitemarsh Valley Country Club, was the 2019 Golf Association of Philadelphia Middle-Amateur champion. He also qualified for match play in last year’s U.S. Mid-Amateur at the Colorado Golf Club in suburban Denver. When he was ousted in the opening round, Davenport picked up the bag of Lukas Michel and had a front-row seat as the Aussie became the first foreign-born U.S. Mid-Am champion.
Davenport reprised his role as Michel’s looper in last month’s U.S. Open at Winged Foot. The two teed it up in a friendly round at Stonewall’s Old Course after Winged Foot – Michel’s first look at the Old Course, but Davenport’s been there a few times – and the talk is that Davenport will be donning the familiar white overalls when Michel tees off Thursday morning in the oddest of Masters in November at Augusta National Golf Club.
Vannucci, who plays out of Little Mill Country Club, has become something of an expert at this better-ball thing. In addition to his two Springhaven Cup victories with Davenport, Vannucci teamed up with fellow Marlton, N.J. resident Vince Kwon, who plays out of Huntingdon Valley Country Club, to reach the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship at Bandon Dunes in Oregon in the spring of 2019.
Davenport and Vannucci were in the hunt right to the finish in the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s Open Championship at iconic Oakmont Country Club in suburban Pittsburgh in August. They finished in a tie for second at 1-over 214, a shot behind the winner, Pittsburgh-area mid-am Jimmy Ellis.
Davenport and Vannucci’s 14-under total left them just a shot off the tournament record of 15-under established by the duo of Michael Hyland and Radnor High golf coach Andy Achenbach.
Brennan and Feeney matched the opening-round 5-under 65 posted by Davenport and Vannucci, but their 66 in the second round couldn’t keep up with the winners as their 9-under 131 total left Brennan and Feeney in second place.
Heading a trio of groups tied for third place at 7-under 133 was the pair of Pine Valley Golf Club’s Jeff Osberg and Huntingdon Valley’s Andrew Mason, who own a combined 10 GAP major championships between them. Osberg and Mason added a 6-under 64 to their opening-round 69.
Osberg became just the second player to complete the GAP career grand slam when he won the Middle-Amateur Championship in September at LedgeRock Golf Club, adding that victory to his three Patterson Cup wins (2010, 2016, 2019), two Philadelphia Open crowns (2016 and 2019) and his victory in the 2014 BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship. Mason won back-to-back Philadelphia Open crowns in 2011 and 2012 and the Patterson Cup in 2011.
Marc Mandel, another Cricket Club guy, and Chris Baloga matched the splits of Osberg and Mason, adding a 64 to their opening-round 69 to get a share of third place.
Wondering if Baloga is the same Chris Baloga who has been the very successful golf coach at Loyola of Maryland and it looks like Mandel and Baloga both played collegiately at Towson, so probably yeah. A recent Loyola of Maryland product, Jeremy Wall of Brielle, N.J., won back-to-back BMW Philadelphia Amateur titles in 2018 – beating Mason in the final at Whitemarsh Valley – and 2019 – beating Osberg in the final at Stonewall’s Old Course.
Two more Cricket Club guys, Conrad Von Borsig and Brendan Mahoney, rounded out the trio at 133 as they added a 3-under 67 to their opening-round 66. Pretty sure Von Borsig and Mahoney won a second straight title in another pretty neat annual partners event, Stonewall’s Fall Scramble, last month.
Springhaven was the home course for Von Borsig, the 2009 BMW Philadelphia Amateur champion, when he was a scholastic standout at Strath Haven back in the day.
Ryan Cass and Chase Wheatley finished a shot behind the trio tied for third place in sixth as they, too, were very much in contention after an opening-round 65 before cooling off with a 69 Sunday.
Chris Ault, another of the solid contingent of GAP players who made the match-play bracket in the 2016 U.S. Mid-Am at Stonewall, teamed with Jamie Slonis to head five tandems tied for seventh place at 4-under 136. After matching par in the opening round with a 70, Ault and Slonis finished up with a 4-under 66.
With their college programs shut down by the coronavirus pandemic, Temple junior Buddy Hansen, a former La Salle High standout, and La Salle junior Parker Wine, who starred scholastically at Unionville, were also in the group at 136 as they added a 69 to their opening round of 3-under 67.
In a normal year, Hansen and Wine might have been teeing it up Saturday in the City 6 Championship, which has been played in some brutal cold and wind in recent years.
Rounding out the groups tied for seventh place were the Overbrook Golf Club pair of Michael Rogers and Mac Ryan and Marc Czerniakowski and Scott Forrester, both duos matching the splits of Hansen and Wine with rounds of 67 and 69, and Ben Cooley and Patrick O’Leary, who bounced back from an opening-round 71 with a sparkling 5-under 65.
Another Cricket Club tandem of Scott Storck and Robbie Walizer had won The Springhaven Cup in 2017 and 2018. They finished in a tie for 19th place at even-par 140 after adding a 69 to their opening-round 72.
Storck and Marty McGuckin, who also was in the field at Springhaven, will represent GAP and the Cricket Club in next May’s U.S. Amateur Four-Ball at Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash. after they claimed medalist honors in a GAP-administered qualifier last month at Applebrook Golf Club.
Walizer and Matt Kocent, who was also in the field at Springhaven, had punched their ticket to this year’s U.S. Amateur Four-Ball, scheduled to be played on their twin home courses at the Cricket Club, but the event was a casualty of the pandemic.
Michael Tash, the 2003 BMW Philadelphia Amateur champion, teamed with Steve Owens to win the Legacy Division with a 5-under 135 total. After opening with a 71, Tash and Owens fired a 6-under 64 to cruise to a three-shot victory in the division.
Matt Mingione and Gerard Rosato claimed runnerup honors with a 2-under 138 total as they opened with a 72 before carding a 4-under 66.
Three groups – Greg Buliga and Ed Erickson, John Mullins and Chet Walsh and Bill Gregor and Carlos Ochoa – finished in a tie for third place at 1-under 139. Mullins and Walsh had grabbed the opening-round lead with a 68 before cooling off with a 71 while Buliga and Erickson and Gregor and Ochoa each opened with a 70 before adding a 1-under 69.
Robert Amen and Mike Quinn had a pair of even-par 70s to finish alone in sixth place at even-par 140. Paul Rogowicz, the runnerup to Jeff Frazier in GAP’s Brewer Cup during the summer at LedgeRock, and 2017 GAP Senior Amateur champion Glenn Smeraglio were three shots behind Amen and Quinn in seventh place at 143. Rogowicz and Smeraglio matched par in Saturday’s second round with a 70 after opening with a 73.
Got the heads-up on The Springhaven Cup from Mike Hodges, who gave me the link to the event’s website, www.thespringhavencup.com, which has a lot of pretty neat details about the history and past results of the tournament as well as a lot of interesting history of Springhaven.
Hodges teamed with Llanerch Country Club stalwart Tom Spano to finish in a tie for 27th place at 5-over 145.
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