Merion's Willcox will make first U.S. Mid-Am appearance after earning medalist honors in qualifier at St. Davids

    It’s been a decade since Cole Willcox graduated from Virginia, where he had played on the golf team for the Cavaliers.

   Willcox was a professional golfer for much of that time before returning to amateur golf. His first full year as a reinstated amateur has gone pretty well and a couple of weeks ago the 33-year-old earned medalist honors in a Golf Association of Philadelphia-administered qualifier at St. Davids Golf Club for the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship with a sparkling 4-under-par 66.

   I’ll always remember Willcox as the kid who was about to enter his senior year at Malvern Prep in the summer of 2005 when he qualified for the U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course in a GAP-administered qualifier at Rolling Green Golf Club and Llanerch Country Club. He seemed surprised that anybody would be surprised that a high school senior could survive the pressure cooker of a U.S. Amateur qualifier, coveted even more than usual that year because it meant a ticket to a U.S. Amateur at Merion.

   Flash forward 16 years and Willcox is a member at Merion these days. He finished in sixth place in the Pennsylvania Amateur at the East Course in late July.

   And now he’s headed for his first U.S. Mid-Am, which will be held at Sankaty Head Golf Club in Siasconset, Mass. on the island of Nantucket, which just sounds like it has to be a cool golf course. The U.S. Mid-Am tees off Sept. 25.

   Willcox got it going Aug. 23^rd at St. Davids, the 6,608-yard, par-70 Donald Ross design where Delaware County meets Chester County in Wayne, with back-to-back birdies at the fourth and fifth holes. Willcox knocked a wedge from 70 yards out to two feet and made the putt at the 372-yard, par-4 fourth hole and then had a wedge in from 70 yards out on the 428-yard, par-5 fifth, got that one to finish 15 feet away and converted the birdie try.

   He nearly reached the 490-yard, par-5 eighth hole in two, chipped it close and tapped it in as he made the turn at 3-under. A double bogey at the 10^th hole slowed Willcox’s roll, but he got a shot back right away when he reached the 545-yard, par-5 11^th hole in two by drilling a 5-iron from 230 yards and two-putting for another birdie.

   Willcox sent a 9-iron in from 150 yards away on the 420-yard, par-4 13^th hole to six feet and made the putt to get it back to 3-under for the round. An 8-iron at the 165-yard, par-3 14^th hole finished two feet from the cup and Willcox swept that birdie putt in to get it to 4-under. He grinded out pars on the last four holes to earn the qualifying medal.

   “It was a really solid day,” Willcox told the GAP website. “I wasn’t looking at the scores, but I knew that if I could keep it at 4-under, that would get me in.”

   Willcox, a Malvern resident, had to shoot 4-under just to get low-Merion honors as clubmate Patrick Knott of Bryn Mawr carded a solid 3-under 67 to get a share of second place with Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Gregor Orlando, winner of the 2017 BMW Philadelphia Amateur on his home course. Orlando is a Haverford resident.

   Knott was one of the players who had to return Aug. 24^th to complete his round as there was a two-hour delay at the start of the day Aug. 23^rd and another for storms later in the day. It will be the 35-year-old Knott’s third shot at the U.S. Mid-Am, although he’s been unable to crack the match-play bracket in his first two tries.

   Another player from the deep stable of talent at the Cricket Club, Mike Moffat of Warrington, and Joseph Rossetti of Charlotte, N.C. were the two survivors of a four-man playoff for the final two tickets to Sankaty Head after both carded a 1-under 69. Both dropped in sizable birdie bombs, Moffat from 25 feet and Rossetti from 20 feet, on the first hole of the playoff, the 177-yard, par-3 10^th hole at St. Davids.

   The two players eliminated in the playoff, Zach Falone of Mickleton, N.J. and Little Mill Country Club and Tyler Stahle of Philadelphia and White Manor Country Club, were the respective first and second alternates. Falone and Stahle also got around St. Davids in 1-under 69.

   Another player who teed it up in that 2005 U.S. Amateur at Merion, Dan Walters of Winston-Salem, N.C., was the medalist in another GAP-administered qualifier Aug. 23^rd at Carlisle Country Club with a 4-under 67.

   Like Willcox, the 37-year-old Walters is a reinstated amateur who won low-pro honors in the 2008 Pennsylvania Open. He was an associate head coach for the Wake Forest men’s program before switching over to a business career in 2018. The U.S. Mid-Am will be his first appearance in a USGA event since that 2005 U.S. Amateur at Merion.

   Walters wasn’t far from his roots at Carlisle as he was playing out of Lancaster’s Meadia Heights Golf Club when he reached the BMW Philadelphia Amateur semifinals in 2006.

   Another North Carolinian, 32-year-old David Gies of Pineville, was the runnerup to Walters with a 3-under 68 over the 6,800-yard, par-71 Carlisle layout. Gies reached the quarterfinals of the 2015 U.S. Mid-Am at the John’s Island Club in Vero Beach, Fla.

   Kevin Fajt of Greensburg and Hannastown Golf Club parred the first hole of a playoff, the 214-yard, par-3 eighth hole at Carlisle, to grab the final ticket to Sankaty Head after finishing in a tie for third place with Kevin Grady of Catonsville, Md., each signing for a 2-under 69.

   The 43-year-old Fajt also teed it up in the 2015 U.S. Mid-Am at John’s Island, failing to survive a 21-man playoff for the final two spots in the match-play bracket.

   Grady was the first alternate and Clayton Davidson of Mechanicsburg was the second alternate. Davidson carded a 1-under 70 and survived a playoff with Zack Henry of Winchester, Va., Jarred Texter of Lancaster and William Wingerd of Nottingham, Md.

   Kevin Koerbel of Pittsburgh was the medalist in a qualifier Tuesday at the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort’s Mystic Rock Course with 66.

   Jimmy Ellis, winner of the 2020 Pennsylvania Open at Oakmont Country Club, was the runnerup to Koerbel at Nemacolin with a 67. Ellis, who starred scholastically at Peters Township and collegiately at Ohio University, was very much in the hunt in this summer’s Pennsylvania Amateur at Merion before settling for a tie for fourth place.

   Brett Young of Bethel Park grabbed the third ticket to Sankaty head out of the Nemacolin qualifier with a 68.

   Drexel golf coach Ben Feld made the road trip to Nemacolin and had to settle for first alternate after registering a solid 69.

   A couple of other familiar names earned spots in the field at Sankaty Head in another qualifier Tuesday at Springdale Golf Club in Princeton, N.J., Nelson Hargrove, once a Haverford School standout, and former Temple standout John Barone of Dunmore as each carded a 67. Looks like they were the two survivors of a 4-for-2 playoff at Springdale.

   Hargrove, who stared collegiately at Brown, was the runnerup to Jeff Osberg in the 2014 BMW Philadelphia Amateur at White Manor. He is a reinstated amateur after giving pro golf a shot. Barone, who wrapped a solid career at Temple in the spring of 2019, also qualified for the U.S. Amateur at Oakmont earlier this summer.

   It’s been five years since I had the opportunity to get a loop in the 2016 U.S. Mid-Am at Stonewall. My man, Michael Mitani of Irvine, Calif. didn’t make the match-play bracket, but all of the guys who showed up a Stonewall could play. I certainly gained a lot of respect for the mid-am game that week and became a big fan of the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship. It was a tremendous week at Stonewall five years ago and I’m sure it will be more of the same at Sankaty Head later this month.