Lutz reaches U.S. Senior Amateur quarterfinals with a pair of match wins at the Country Club of Detroit

    For the sixth time in 11 U.S. Senior Amateur Championship appearances, Chip Lutz of Reading and LedgeRock Golf Club has reached the quarterfinals after winning a pair of matches Tuesday at the Country Club of Detroit in Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.

   The 66-year-old Lutz won the U.S. Senior Amateur six years ago in 2015 at Hidden Creek Golf Club in Egg Harbor Township, N.J. He’s really got it going again at the Country Club of Detroit.

   Lutz lost only one hole on his way to a 6 and 5 dismantling of Jim Muething of Cincinnati in a second-round match Tuesday morning. Lutz won the second hole before Muething answered with ai win at the third.

   Lutz then went off, earning a win at the fourth hole to even things up and then taking seven, nine, 10, 12 and 13 to make quick work of Muething. Getting off the golf course in 13 holes is huge when the seniors are playing two matches a day.

   Lutz then reached the quarterfinals with a 3 and 2 victory over Eddie Hargett of Blythewood, S.C. in the round of 16 Tuesday afternoon. Again, Lutz briefly fell behind when he lost the third hole to Hargett, but he rattled off wins at four, six and nine to take a 2-up lead and never looked back.

   Twice Hargett got within 1-down with wins at the 10^th and 13^th holes. But Lutz always had the answer, restoring his 2-up advantage by taking the 11^th hole and then responding to the loss at 13 by winning 14 and 15 to take a 3-up lead with three holes to play.

   Lujtz’s quarterfinal opponent will be a familiar face as he will take on Craig Davis of Chula Vista, Calif. Lutz edged Davis, 1-up, in the quarterfinals of the 2018 U.S. Senior Amateur Championship at Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Ore. Lutz fell in the semifinals in Eugene.

   Lutz makes it a point to concentrate on the job at hand and not look ahead to who else might be in his bracket, which might help explain his 28-9 match-play record in the U.S. Senior Amateur Championship.

   “I try not to pay too much attention (to the other results) because everybody is a good player at this level,” Lutz told the United States Golf Association website. “I try not to think about mapping (my bracket) out or seeing who is in front of you because things change so quickly.”

   Two other Pennsylvanians failed to advance out of Tuesday morning’s second round.

   Chris Fieger, the reigning two-time Golf Association of Philadelphia Senior Amateur champion, dropped a hard-fought 2 and 1 decision to Jim Scorse of Churchville, N.Y.

   Fieger, a Delco native who resides in Denver, Lancaster County, fell behind when Scorse picked up wins at the second and fourth holes, but evened things up by earning wins at six and seven. Scorse won the 12^th hole and Fieger again got it back to even by claiming a win at 13. Scorse took over with wins at the 14^th and 16^th holes go to 2-up and closed out Fieger with a half at 17.

   Fieger had reached match play in his first U.S. Senior Amateur appearance in 2019 at Old Chatham Golf Club in Durham, N.C., but fell in the first round. He did that one better this year by winning in the opening round before falling in the second round.

   Sean Knapp of Oakmont, the 2017 U.S. Senior Amateur champion at the Minikahda Club in Minneapolis, was also ousted in the second round, suffering a 2 and 1 setback at the hands of Joe Jaspers of Huntersville, N.C.

   Knapp, one of western Pennsylvania’s top amateur players for years, was a beaten finalist in defense of his U.S. Senior Amateur crown in 2018 at Eugene.

   The two finalists at the Country Club of Detroit will be determined after two more rounds of match play Wednesday.

Grier grabs lead after opening round of Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship with a 66 at Applebrook

    Ashley Grier, an assistant pro at Overbrook Golf Club and the 2020 Women’s PGA Player of the Year, got the jump on the field in the 100^th Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship by firing a 5-under-par 66 at Applebrook Golf Club Monday.

   Grier hit all 18 greens in regulation on one of renowned golf course architect Gil Hanse’s early designs in East Goshen Township and finished with six birdies and just one bogey. Her lone blemish came on the finishing hole at Applebrook as she three-putted for bogey.

   Half of the field played Aronimink Golf Club, the Donald Ross masterpiece that Hanse carefully updated in advance off the 2018 BMW Championship, and Aronimink proved to be the tougher test Monday as nobody was able to do better than match par. Aronimink will play host to the PGA Championship in 2026.

   Grier will play Aronimink Tuesday and the field will be cut for Wednesday’s final round, which will be played at Aronimink. The forecast for Wednesday looks shaky with remnants of Hurricane Ida taking aim at the region.

   The top 11 finishers in the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship, which is presented by Cadillac, Club Car and Rolex, will qualify for next spring’s PGA Professional Championship, which will be held at the Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa in Austin, Texas.

   Grier is in very good shape to earn one of those berths. Two years ago, Grier, along with Baltimore Country Club instructor Joanna Coe, became the first two women to survive two cuts and play four rounds in the PGA Professional Championship at Belfair in Bluffton, S.C. Grier finished in a tie for 71^st place.

   “I was unusually calm today,” Grier told the Philadelphia Section PGA website. “It’s going to be a long week, so I was trying to be rerally strong mentally today. I hit the ball really well.”

   Grier has been playing some really solid golf lately. Last month she finished in fifth place in the LPGA Professional National Championship at the Kingsmill Resort’s River Course in Williamsburg, Va. That earned her a ticket to the 2022 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, an LPGA major championship, at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md.

   Earlier this month, Grier was the runnerup for the second year in a row in the Philadelphia Assistant PGA Professional Championship at Cedarbrook Country Club, earning her a repeat appearance in the National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla. in November. Grier was the only member of the Philadelphia Section’s contingent to make the cut in last fall’s NCR Assistant PGA Professional Championship.

   She followed that up by winning the inaugural Philadelphia Women’s PGA Professional Championship at Kennett Square Golf & Country Club.

   Right on Grier’s heels were a couple of the Section’s talented young players in Brett Walker, an assistant pro at Sunnybrook Golf Club, and Billy Stewart, an instructor at Union League Liberty Hill, both of whom posted a 4-under 67 at Applebrook.

   Walker has been having himself a pretty nice year as well. He finished in a tie for fifth in last year’s Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship that earned him a spot in the PGA Professional Championship in April at the PGA Golf Club. Walker then finished in a tie for eighth place at the PGA Golf Club, which punched his ticket into the PGA Championship, one of golf’s four major professional championships, at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course on the South Carolina coastline.

   Earlier this month, Walker won the Philadelphia Assistant PGA Professional Championship at Cedarbrook by two shots over Grier.

   Stewart, winner of the Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship in 2018, was in his comfort zone at Applebrook, a course that used  to be an occasional site for practice when Stewart played on the golf team at nearby Malvern Prep.

   Bidermann Golf Club instructor Zac Oakley, who has been playing well all summer, shared fourth place with Steve Sanderson, playing out of the pro shop at Pine Valley Golf Club, each landing on 3-under 68 at Applebrook.

   The Philadelphia PGA Professional Championship is also supported by Titleist/Footjoy, Nike, TaylorMade, The Golf Channel, the PGA Tour, Ship Sticks, Visit Delco, Pa. and Precise Yardage Books.

 

 

Lutz, Fieger advance with opening-round wins in U.S. Senior Amateur at the Country Club of Detroit

    Chip Lutz, Reading’s ageless wonder, cruised into the second round of the 66^th U.S. Senior Amateur Championship Monday at the Country Club of Detroit in Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.

   Lutz, who captured the 2015 U.S. Senior Amateur crown in 2015 at Hidden Creek Golf Club in Egg Harbor Township, N.J., rolled to a 5 and 3 decision over Robert Nelson of Carthage, Ala.

   The 66-year-old Lutz had been a regular contestant in The Senior Amateur Championship across the pond, winning the title three times. Pretty sure the coronavirus pandemic stopped that run in 2020 and it doesn’t look like he made it this year either.

   Rumor had it, Lutz teed it up in a one-day Partner-Guest at Stonewall earlier this month and made 16 pars and two bogeys. Pretty sure my sourcing on that is solid.

   There was no U.S. Senior Amateur in 2020 as the United States Golf Association made the difficult call to cancel all of its championships with the exception of the U.S. Open, the U.S. Women’s Open, the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Women’s Amateur.

   It looks like Lutz was anxious to get back and try to add another U.S. Senior Amateur crown to the one he won at Hidden Creek in 2015. Lutz will take on Jim Muething of Cincinnati in Tuesday morning’s second round. Muething advanced with a 3 and 2 decision over Mark Small of Frankford, Ill.

   Joining Lutz in the second round was Chris Fieger of Denver, Lancaster County as Fieger, the two-time reigning Golf Association of Philadelphia Senior Amateur champion, held off Danny Arvanitis of Manchester, N.H., 1-up, in another opening-round match.

   Fieger was a scholastic standout in the 1980s around the time Nether Providence joined Swarthmore High to become Strath Haven. His older brother Gene Fieger dominated the Philadelphia Section PGA circuit in the 1990s while he was an assistant pro at Overbrook Golf Club.

   Fieger grabbed an early lead on Arvanitis by picking up wins at the first, second and seventh holes. Arvanitis cut into the deficit by winning the 11^th hole, but Fieger restored his 3-up advantage by winning the 14^th hole. Arvanitis creeped back within 1-down by winning the 15^th and 16^th holes, but Fieger gutted out halves at 17 and 18 to close him out.

   Fieger will take on Jim Scorse of Churchville, N.Y. in Tuesday’s second round. Scorse claimed a 2 and 1 victory in Monday’s opening round over Tim McKinnis of Lyons, Kan.

   Lutz and Fieger both earned spots in the match-play bracket the last time the U.S. Senior Amateur was played in 2019 at Old Chatham Golf Club in Durham, N.C., but both were ousted in the opening round.

   Another former champion from Pennsylvania, Oakmont’s Sean Knapp, rolled into the second round with a 5 and 4 victory over Chip Nelson of Scottsdale, Ariz.

   Knapp, who captured the U.S. Senior Amateur in 2017 at the Minikahda Club in Minneapolis, rattled off wins at the seventh, eighth and ninth holes  to take a commanding 5-up lead over Chip Nelson on his way to the victory.

   Record-breaking qualifying medalist Tim Hogarth of Northridge, Calif. was upset by fellow Californian Kory Frost of Trabuco Canyon in a 21-hole thriller.

   Frost built a 2-up lead after winning the seventh hole, but Hogarth battled back to even the match with wins at eight and 12. Frost won the 14^th hole to move back in front, but Hogarth evened the match again by taking 15. The two halved the next five holes before Frost finished off the upset win with a birdie at the 21^st hole, a par 5.