Frazier storms back to defeat Barry and repeat as Brewer Cup winner at Huntingdon Valley

    The first time I caught a loop in the annual Fall Scramble at Stonewall was in 2016. Jeff Frazier and Brent Will were from central Pennsylvania and had never seen the golf course. I had never heard of either of them.

   The wind was downright fierce that day at the Old Course, like 20 to 25 mph steady with the more than occasional gust of 40 mph or so. Right in your face on one, eight and 11, in particular. The 8-under 62 they put together that day was a thing of beauty. They would add another 62 in much calmer conditions the next day on the North Course and won the thing. But they really won it with the 62 in the opening round in the wind.

   Frazier’s game was a revelation. The left-hander could move it right to left or left to right. He rarely hit it just straight. The guy loved to hit driver off the deck. Will always putted first and Frazier, given the line, was deadly with the putter. They had a plan and they executed it beautifully. And they really competed.

   So, I wasn’t entirely surprised to see that Frazier had won the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s 14^th Brewer Cup, presented by Callaway Golf, this week at Huntingdon Valley Country Club, the home course of the tournament’s namesake, O. Gordon Brewer. Frazier became the first player in the short history of the match-play event, one of GAP’s major championships for seniors, to repeat, having won it a year ago at LedgeRock Golf Club.

   The 56-year-old Frazier, a Mechanicsburg resident who plays out of Carlisle Country Club, capped an eventful Wednesday by rallying for a 2 and 1 victory over Lancaster Country Club’s John Barry, a senior “rookie” at age 55.

   Earlier in the day, Frazier had survived an epic 25-hole semifinal match with Overbrook Golf Club’s Oscar Mestre, GAP’s current president. Mestre finally conceded a birdie and the match to Frazier on the par-5 seventh hole at Huntingdon Valley, a William Flynn original.

   Barry had rolled to a 5 and 4 victory over another GAP senior stalwart, Bob Beck of Lehigh Country Club, in the other semifinal and then had a long wait while the marathon between Frazier and Mestre played out.

   And Barry seized the advantage he had gained over the worn-out Frazier by winning the first four holes of the final. Frazier cut his deficit in half by winning the 425-yard, par-4 sixth hole with a par and the 564-yard, par-5 seventh hole, the one where he had finally finished off Mestre a couple of hours earlier, with a two-putt birdie.

   Then the storm that blew through Montgomery County Wednesday reached Lower Moreland Township. While it didn’t quite wreak the havoc it did a few miles to the west, the storm did cause an 80-minute delay while the greenkeeping crew at Huntingdon Valley cleared considerable debris from the golf course to allow pay to resume.

   Frazier ripped off wins at the 10^th, 11^th and 12^th holes to go from 1-down to 2-up. Barry, however, battled back, winning the 169-yard, par-3 13^th hole with a birdie and the 554-yard, par-5 15^th with another birdie to get the match back to even.

   But Frazier put a nose in front again when he drilled driver off the deck into the 365-yard, par-4 16^th hole close enough to make birdie and take a 1-up lead. Not sure why Frazier needed driver off the deck on a relatively short par-4. Wouldn’t put it past him to lay back off the tee just so he could use driver off the deck.

   Frazier knocked it on the green at the 200-yard, par-3 17^th hole while Barry hooked his tee shot into a greenside bunker. Barry eventually had to concede the hole and the match.

   “That’s the beauty of it,” Frazier told the GAP website. “You have to make a shot. Coming down the back nine, you’re just in a grind. You’ve got butterflies flying around your stomach, you’re nervous behind belief. But you just have to get it done.”

   Frazier began his journey to a second straight Brewer Cup victory by sharing medalist honors in qualifying Monday with Gary Smith of Pine Valley Golf Club, each matching par with a 70 over the 6,410-yard, par-70 Huntingdon Valley layout. Smith was a former, long-time member at Huntingdon Valley.

   Frazier opened up in match play with a 4 and 3 victory over Jeffrey Allen of Loch Nairn Golf Club while Barry defeated Tom Soares of Lehigh Country Club, 4 and 3, in Tuesday morning’s round of 16.

   Frazier reached the semifinals with a 2-up decision over Barry Cahill of Radley Run Country Club in Tuesday afternoon’s quarterfinals. Barry, meanwhile, knocked off the host club’s Mike Gregor, 1-up, to earn his spot in the semifinals.

   The Super-Senior division final pitted a pair of legitimate GAP legends as Brian Rothaus of Philmont Country Club defeated Overbrook Golf Club’s Chris Lange, 4 and 2.

   The 65-year-old Rothaus had to get through a pair of Super-Senior legends to claim the Brewer Cup for the first time. In Wednesday morning’s semifinals, Rothaus rallied to knock off Don Donatoni, the eight-time reigning GAP Super-Senior Player of the Year from White Manor Country Club, in 19 holes.

   The 73-year-old Donatoni had a 2-up lead with three holes to play, but Rothaus made birdies at the 364-yard, par-4 16^th hole and at the 376-yard, par-4 finishing hole to send the match to overtime. Rothaus then made another birdie at the 19^th hole, the 370-yard, par-4 opener at Huntingdon Valley, to punch his ticket to the final.

   Lange, a three-time BMW Philadelphia Amateur champion who hasn’t been playing a lot of competitive golf in recent years, reached the final with a 2 and 1 victory over Thomas White of Buck Hill Falls Golf Club.

   Rothaus got off to a fast start against Lange by hitting a 54-degree wedge from 88 yards to 15 feet and making the putt for a birdie on the same opening hole on which he had just made birdie to get past Donatoni. He increased his lead to 2-up with a birdie on the par-5 seventh hole.

   The intense summer thunderstorm interrupted the Super-Senior final as well, right after Rothaus had restored his 2-up advantage by winning the 360-yard, par-4 11^th hole with a par.

   Rothaus would finish off Lange with a birdie at the same par-4 16^th hole where he had begun his comeback against Donatoni as he knocked a 54-degree wedge from 101 yards away to 20 feet and converted the birdie try.

   Lange had begun the week by showing there was still some stellar golf left in the old guy as he shot his age for the first time with a sparkling 4-under 66 that gave him medalist honors in qualifying. Rothaus wasn’t bad either, his 1-under 69 giving him a runnerup finish and offering a preview of things to come.

   Lange reached the semifinals with a 6 and 4 victory over Chuck Dowds of Applebrook Golf Club in his quarterfinal match while Rothaus was extended to the 18^th hole before pulling out a 2-up win over Tom Humphrey of Wilmington Country Club to advance to his semifinal showdown with Donatoni.

   All Buck Hill Falls’ White had to do to reach the semifinals was beat the guy the tournament is named for, Gordon Brewer his own self, which White did with a 3 and 2 decision and a whole lot of respect. Not sure how many associations in the country where that kind of scenario plays out.