At 66, Reading’s Chip Lutz has been one of the best senior amateur players in the world for a long time.
It has been fairly well documented in the world of the PGA Tour Champions that there is a fall-off when senior players get on the other side of 60. And Lutz may have started to reach that point this year.
The coronavirus pandemic led to travel restrictions and certainly caused legitimate concerns among senior players in particular. But with the U.S. Senior Amateur returning from a one-year hiatus due to the pandemic, Lutz worked on his game and teed it up at the Country Club of Detroit in Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.
It was just like old times as Lutz was the runnerup in qualifying for match play and then made a run to the quarterfinals as he made a strong bid to add a second U.S. Senior Amateur crown to the one he won in 2015 at Hidden Creek Golf Club in Egg Harbor Township, N.J.
“I guess you never know whether you still have it or not and there’s always that doubt,” Lutz told the Golf Association of Philadelphia website after cruising to the title in the 51st GAP Senior Amateur Championship, which wrapped up Tuesday at the Country Club of Scranton in Clarks Summit. “I took some time off from the game. It was just one of those things. ‘Do I want to give it up? Do I want to continue?,’ so I had to reflect on where I’ve been and where I’m going.
“I still haven’t really solved that question completely, but it sure is good to be back.”
The guy can certainly still play. Lutz, playing out of LedgeRock Golf Club, took command of the championship with a sparkling 4-under-par 68 over the 6,616-yard, par-72 Country Club of Scranton layout in Monday’s opening round as he offset three bogeys with seven birdies.
Lutz stared with a bogey on the first hole in Tuesday’s second round. But he put the championship away with four birdies in a six-hole stretch from the eighth to the 14th holes that got him to 7-under for the tournament. The birdies came at the eighth, 10th, 11th and 14th holes.
Bogeys at the 17th and 18th holes gave him a 1-under 71 and a 36-hole total of 5-under 139, six shots clear of runnerup Chris Fieger Sr., a Philadelphia Publinks Golf Association entry who had won the last two playings of the GAP Senior Amateur. The 58-year-old Fieger, a Delco native who resides in Denver, Lancaster County, matched par in Tuesday’s second round after opening with a 73 for a 1-over 145 total.
It was the second GAP Senior Amateur crown for Lutz, who won his first in 2014. In many of the years in between, Lutz has played an ambitious schedule of senior amateur events, winning The Senior Amateur Championship across the pond three times and twice capturing the Canadian Senior Amateur crown.
It made it difficult sometimes to fit GAP events into Lutz’s schedule, but with GAP giving out points for national and international events, Lutz was the GAP Senior Amateur Player of the Year nine straight times from 2010 to 2018.
Fieger of the golfing Fieger family from Wallingford also represented GAP well in last month’s U.S. Senior Amateur at the Country Club of Detroit, earning a spot in the match-play bracket and reaching the second round of match play before falling.
Art Brunn of Wyoming Valley Country Club headed a strong contingent of Northeast Pennsylvania seniors getting a chance to compete close to home as he matched par in Tuesday’s second round with a 72 after opening with a 75 to finish two shots behind Fieger in third place with a 3-over 147 total.
Michael Anderson of Philadelphia Cricket Club carded a second straight 74 to finish in fourth place, a shot behind Brunn with a 4-over 148 total.
Another player out of the Cricket Club’s deep well of talent, Kevin Kelly, shared fifth place with Jeff Hudson of the Olde Homestead Golf Club, each landing on 6-over 150. Kelly added a 76 to his opening-round of 2-over 74. Hudson had the same splits as he opened with a 74 before closing with a 76 Tuesday.
Hudson, however, did not leave the Country Club of Scranton empty-handed. Hudson’s final-round 76 enabled him to capture the Senior Silver Cross Award. The 72-hole stroke play scoring includes earlier rounds in the Francis B. Warner Cup (Gross) and the Frank H. Chapman Cup (Gross) along with the two rounds of the Senior Amateur Championship.
Hudson went a long way toward his Senior Silver Cross Award when he took the Chapman Cup with a record-setting 6-under 64 at Lehigh Country Club in June. Hudson posted a 77 in the Warner Cup at The Springhaven Club in May. His rounds of 74 and 76 at the Country Club of Scranton gave Hudson a 7-over 291 total.
Overbrook Golf Club’s Oscar Mestre headed a group of three players tied for seventh place at 7-over 151 as he added a 75 to his opening-round 76. Mestre was Hudson’s closest pursuer in the Senior Silver Cross Award race, coming up two shots behind Hudson at 9-over 293.
Joining Mestre at 151 were Michael Vassil of host Country Club of Scranton and Mark Bartkowski of Pocono Farms Country Club.
Vassil, a 14-time club champion and 10-time senior club champion at the Country Club of Scranton, was Lutz’s closest pursuer following an opening round of 2-under 70, but struggled to an 81 in Tuesday’s second round. Bartkowski had matched par in the opening round with a 72, but he, too, struggled in Tuesday’s second round with a 79.
Rounding out the top 10 in the GAP Senior Amateur were three players tied for 10th place at 8-over 152, including Joseph Weiscarger, another Wyoming Valley entry, Norman Lewis of Pine Valley Golf Club and Joe Roeder of Merion Golf Club.
Weiscarger opened with a 2-over 74 before adding a 78 in Tuesday’s second round. Lewis and Roeder had identical splits, added a 3-over 75 to an opening-round 77. Roeder also represented GAP in the U.S. Senior Amateur last month at the Country Club Detroit, but failed to advance to the match-play bracket.
In the Super-Senior Division, Greg “Ozzie” Osborne of Overlook Golf Course matched par with a 72 after opening with a 75 to edge a couple of GAP stalwarts, Duke Delcher of Sandy Run Country Club and Brian Rothaus of Five Ponds Golf Club, by a shot to capture the title.
The 67-year-old Osborne of Lititz had dropped back to 4-over for the championship with a three-putt bogey at the par-3 17th hole. But he bombed his 3-wood second shot from 220 yards away at the 476-yard, par-5 finishing hole to eight feet and two-putted for a birdie that left him with a 3-over 147 total.
The 65-year-old Delcher of Bluffton, S.C. has been around on the GAP scene for forever. He is a GAP major champion and played on a U.S. Walker Cup team. He was coming off a victory in the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s Art Wall Jr. Memorial Championship last week at Indiana Country Club. Delcher added a 75 to his opening-round 73 for a 4-over 148 total.
Joining him at that figure was the 65-year-old Rothaus who posted a second straight 2-over 74. Rothaus’ pair of 74s did give him the Super-Senior Division’s Silver Cross Award. Combined with his 76 at the Warner Cup and the 77 he posted in the Chapman Cup, Rothaus finished with a 12-over 296.
Rothaus’ closest pursuer in the Silver Cross standings was Gary Daniels of Applebrook Golf Club, whose bag I carried in last summer’s Pennsylvania Senior Amateur Championship at Stonewall’s North Course. Daniels added a 2-over 74 to his opening-round 77 to finish alone in sixth place in the GAP Senior Amateur’s Super-Senior Division at 151, which left him two shots behind Rothaus in the Silver Cross standings at 14-over 298.
Frank Polizzi of Whitemarsh Valley Country Club added a 76 to his opening-round 73 to finish alone in fourth place, a shot behind Delcher and Rothaus, at 149. Christopher Clauson of LuLu Country Club was a shot behind Polizzi in fifth place as he registered a 74 after opening with a 76 for a 150 total.
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