Drexel's Giantsopoulos shares individual medalist honors with La Salle's Werner, leads Dragons to team title in City 6 at Llanerch

    With Angelo Giantsopoulos, a senior from Canada, earning a share of medalist honors and Drue Nicholas, a sophomore from Egg Harbor Township, N.J., continuing his strong play, Drexel cruised to a nine-shot victory in the City 6 Championship hosted by Saint Joseph’s Saturday at Llanerch Country Club, the underrated Haverford Township layout.

   Giantsopoulos offset four bogeys with five birdies to share medalist honors with La Salle’s Matt Werner, a senior from West Linn, Ore., each landing on 1-under-par 70 over the challenging 6,780-yard, par-71 Llanerch layout.

   Nicholas, a St. Augustine Prep product, was coming off a scintillating performance that earned him the individual title in the ODU/OBX Intercollegiate at the Kilmarlic Golf Club in Powells Point, N.C. Nicholas matched par with a 71 to finish in a tie for third place with Saint Joseph’s graduate student Wills Montgomery, who starred scholastically at Downingtown East, and Villanova’s Noah Peck, a senior from Hunt Valley, Md.

   Giantsopoulos and Nicholas helped the Dragons, who play out of the Colonial Athletic Association, put together a 3-over 287 total. Villanova, which plays out of the Big East, earned runnerup honors as the Wildcats finished nine shots behind Drexel with a 12-over 296 total.

   Host Saint Joseph’s, an Atlantic 10 entry, was another three shots behind Villanova in third place with a 15-over 299 total. Temple, which plays out of the American Athletic Conference, was a snot behind the Hawks in fourth place with a 16-over 300.

   La Salle, another Atlantic 10 entry, was three shots behind the Owls with a 19-over 303 total behind the strong showing by Werner as the Explorers finished in fifth place.

   For some reason, Ivy League representative Penn did not join the field. The Quakers have teed it up in the City 6 in the past, but have not participated the last few years.

   It was the second straight time Drexel has claimed the team title, head coach Ben Feld’s Dragons having captured the crown two years ago at Huntingdon Valley Country Club. The City 6 was a casualty of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 as none of the Philadelphia area teams played a fall schedule a year ago.

   The City 6 is always a neat gathering of the region’s Division I golf teams. Many of the players on the rosters are local guys, familiar with the classic golf courses in the area like Llanerch, site of the 1958 PGA Championship. It’s not quite the Big 5 basketball rivalries at the Palestra of yore, but it’s the same concept. A one-day shootout at one of the great Philadelphia area golf courses at the end of the fall portion of the wraparound season seems just about right.

   The win was Drexel’s second team crown of the fall as the Dragons also won the other tournament played locally, the Wildcat Fall Invitational hosted by Villanova at Radnor Valley Country Club at the end of September.

   Giantsopoulos, who has been strong all fall, made bogeys at the first and sixth holes around a birdie at the second as he started a little slowly. But he got it going in the middle of the golf course with birdies at the seventh, ninth and 13^th holes to get it to 2-under. Bogeys at the 14^th and 17^th holes dropped Giantsopoulos back to even-par, but he closed with a birdie on Llanerch’s short par-4 finishing hole to end up at 1-under.

   Nicholas backed up Giantsopoulos with his even-par showing. Nicholas had blitzed Kilmarlic with a 12-under 201 total over three days earlier last week, helping Drexel claim runnerup honors to CAA rival Delaware in the team chase.

   Jeffrey Cunningham, a senior from West Palm Beach, Fla., and junior Liam Hart, the 2017 PIAA Class AAA champion as a junior at Holy Ghost Prep, backed up Giantsopoulos and Nicholas for Drexel as they landed in the three-way tie for sixth place, each posting a 2-over 73 to account for the Dragons’ last two counters. Hart finished with a flourish, going birdie-eagle at 17 and 18, respectively.

   Griffin Mitchell, a sophomore from New Albany, Ohio, gave Drexel a fifth player in the top 10 as he was part of a six-player logjam tied for 10^th place with a 4-over 75.

   The small field in the City 6 allows for a sixth player for each team and Tafadzwa Nyamukondiwa, a freshman from Zimbabwe, rounded out the Drexel lineup as he registered a 6-over 77 to finish among the group tied for 18^th place.

   La Salle might have finished last in the team chase, but the Explorers got to celebrate the individual success for Werner. After making bogeys at the second and eighth holes, Werner jump-started his round with an eagle at the par-5 ninth hole. A birdie at the 13^th hole got him to 1-under, but he gave the shot back with a bogey at 14. A birdie at the 16^th hole enabled him to finish 1-under and get a share of the individual title with Giantsopoulos.

   Joining Drexel’s Cunningham and Hart in the trio tied for sixth place at 2-over 73, a shot behind Nicholas, Montgomery and Peck, was Peck’s Villanova teammate Matthew Copeland, a graduate student from Maryville, Tenn.

   It was a little bit of a disappointing day for Temple, which started off strong in the fall campaign, highlighted by a team win in the Cornell Invitational, but the Owls got a nice outing from junior Buddy Hansen, one of several players in the field produced by the strong La Salle High program in recent years. Hansen finished alone in ninth place with a 3-over 74.

   A couple of Hansen’s Temple teammates, senior Dawson Anders, the 2017 Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Junior Boys champion, and Ethan Whitney, a freshman from Westminster, Mass., joined Drexel’s Mitchell in the large group tied for 10^th place at 4-over.

   St. Joe’s had a couple of local scholastic standouts of recent vintage in senior J.T. Spina, a two-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at Pope John Paul II, and sophomore Kevin Smith, who led Strath Haven to the 2019 Central League and District One Class AAA titles, in the group tied for 10^th place at 4-over.

   Rounding out the gang of six that signed for 75 was Villanova’s Luke Alexander, a junior from Rochester, Minn.

   Villanova’s last counter came from Peter Weaver, a sophomore from Frontenac, Mo. who finished among the group tied for 28^th place with a 77. Vimal Alokam, a freshman from Ypsilanti, Mich., finished in a tie for 23^rd place for the Wildcats with a 79. Senior Matt Davis, a scholastic standout at Malvern Prep, rounded out the Villanova lineup as he registered an 80 to finish tied for 25^th place.

   Sophomore Steve Lorenzo, another of those La Salle High guys and a PIAA Class AAA Championship qualifier in 2018, was the final counter for Saint Joseph’s as he finished in a tie for 21^st place with a 78. Jake Avery, a junior from Avon, Conn., finished in a tie for 23^rd place with a 79. Rounding out the St. Joe’s lineup was James Gorman, a sophomore from Greenville, S.C. who finished in a tie for 27^th place with an 81.

   The final counter for Temple was Graham Chase, a sophomore from Charlotte, N.C. who joined the group tied for 16^th place with a 76.

   Junior Conor McGrath, who captured the BMW Philadelphia Amateur last summer at Cedarbrook Country Club, had a disappointing day with a 78 that left him tied for 21^st place. McGrath, though, has been solid for head coach Brian Quinn’s Owls this fall.

   Rounding out the Temple lineup was freshman Joey Morganti, who starred scholastically at St. Joseph’s Prep. Morganti is a product of the Llanerch junior program and probably put a little too much pressure on himself. He carded an 83 to finish in 30^th place.

   Backing up Werner for La Salle was Kristian Fortis, a junior from Key Largo, Fla. who finished in a tie for 16^th place with a 76. Junior Nikita Romanov, a product of Delaware’s Mount Pleasant High and the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour, added a 77 to finish among the group tied for 18^th place.

   The final counter for La Salle came from redshirt freshman Matt Lafond, the 2019 Catholic League champion at La Salle who finished tied for 25^th place with an 80.

   A couple of freshmen, Alex Gekas and Ryan Smiley, rounded out the La Salle lineup as Gekas finished in a tie for 27^th place with an 81 and Smiley was 29^th with an 82.

 

 

 

 

Harrell, Curran each land on 78 at Berkeigh to share medalist honors and a Junior Tour victory

    Callahan Harrell of York and John Curran of Malvern shared medalist honors in the 13-to-15 division as each carded a 6-over-par 78 in a Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour stop at Berkleigh Golf Club in Kutztown on a chilly, cloudy Saturday.

   Harrell made a birdie at the 11^th hole and had 12 pars on his scorecard and Curran had 12 pars on his card as each player could claim a Junior Tour victory.

   Tyler Sikorski of Lincoln University birdied the first hole and had 10 pars as he finished alone in third place with an 80 over the par-72 Berkleigh layout.

   Nick Linkchorst of Glen Mills and Keegan Redmond of Hummelstown shared fourth place, each posting an 83. Colton Orris of Hershey took sixth place with an 89 and Michael Liu of Garnet Valley rounded out the 13-to-15 division field as he finished seventh with a 95.

   David Birmingham was the lone entry in the 16-to-18 division and he signed for a 93. Birmingham had eight pars on his scorecard, six of them on the incoming nine as he bounced back from a tough start with a 3-over 40 on his way back to the clubhouse.

   Jillian Burks of Paoli won a tight battle with Danielle Higbee of Mickleton, N.J. to earn a Junior Tour win in the girls 13-to-15 division.

   Burks, who finished in fifth place in the Girls 10-11 division in the Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals at Augusta National Golf Club the Sunday of Masters week, made birdies on the fifth and 14^th holes and had nine pars on her scorecard on her way to a solid 6-over 78. Higbee made a birdie on the fourth hole and had 11 pars on her card as she finished a shot behind Burks in second place with a 79.

   Katherine Liu of Moorestown, N.J. made birdies at the ninth and 14^th holes and had six pars on her card as she finished alone in third place with an 82.

   Kiersten Bodge of West Chester took fourth place with an 85, Kayla Benson of Beach Lake was fifth with a 90, Kaitlyn Hummers of Bethlehem was sixth with a 91 and Isabella Magno of Delran, N.J. rounded out the 13-to-15 division field as she finished seventh with a 103.

   Colby Komancheck, the son of the RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve pro shop team of Jamie and Kelly Komancheck, was really steady, making pars on the first four holes and the last four holes of his round as he bested a very competitive group of nine-holers with a 1-over 36.

   Jason Mack of Delaware Water Gap and Lawson Leeper of York chased Komancheck home as they finished in tie for second place, each posting a 2-over 37. Mack, a winner in last week’s Junior Tour stop at Heidelberg Country Club, finished up with a birdie at the ninth hole and had five pars on his scorecard. Leeper made a birdie at the second hole and had five pars on his card.

   Sebastian Park of Lansdale and Anthony Proud of Stroudsburg finished in a tie for fourth place, each registering a 3-over 38 as only two shots separated the top five players. Henry Sokol of Villanova finished alone in sixth place with a 44.

   Jack Sokol of Villanova’s Team Sokol, James Kulesa of Doylestown and Preston Minio of Lansdale finished in a tie for seventh place, each landing on 48. Elijah Hartono of Downingtown rounded out the top 10 in the coed 12-and-under division as he ended up alone in 10^th place with a 54.

 

Oklahoma's win over Oklahoma State in men's final prevents an Oklahoma State sweep in East Lake Cup

    Leave it the Oklahoma men’s golf team to prevent in-state rival Oklahoma State from completing a sweep of the men’s and women’s titles in the East Lake Cup, which wrapped up Wednesday under the watchful eye of The Golf Channel’s cameras at the East Lake Club in Atlanta.

   The Sooners, No. 1 in the latest Golfstat rankings, edged Big 12 rival Oklahoma State, 3-2, in the men’s final, Jaxon Dowell, a redshirt freshman from Edmond, Okla., finishing off the win for Oklahoma by defeating the Cowboys’ Eugenio Chacarra, a senior from Spain and No. 8 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, on the 19^th hole.

   The No.-2 ranked Cowgirls, meanwhile, did bring the East Lake Cup women’s crown back to Stillwater as they edged Atlantic Coast Conference power Duke, ranked 19^th, 3-2 in the final.

   I’ve spent most of the last few weeks running around Pennsylvania watching the Keystone State’s best scholastic players battling it out in the PIAA postseason and the Bert Linton Inter-Ac League individual championship. I’ve limited most of my posts on the college scene to the City 6 teams and the Penn State men’s and women’s programs. Beats the heck out of the fall of 2020 when most of the local college programs were unable to compete due to the coronavirus pandemic.

   The East Lake Cup was one of the few very few big college tournaments that was played in the fall of 2020. With the Big Ten, the ACC and the Pac-12 all shutting down their golf programs, the East Lake Cup, which normally brings together the four semifinalists from the previous spring’s NCAA Championship, offered the top-four ranked teams when the ill-fated 2019-2020 season came to a premature end at the pandemic’s outset, a spot in the field.

   It may seem a little presumptuous to label the East Lake Cup as a preview for college golf’s postseason, which is still six months or so away, but the two teams that won the East Lake Cup in 2020, the Pepperdine men and the Mississippi women, were crowned NCAA champions in May of 2021 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. Just sayin’.

   The East Lake Cup mimics the NCAA Championship with a round of stroke play Monday setting the field for two semifinal matches Tuesday with the finals and third-place matches being played Wednesday. The Golf Channel treats it like the big-time event that it is and me, I get a chance to catch up with some of the premier programs in college golf.

   Pepperdine, ranked seventh, has several holdovers from its NCAA Championship team and all five members of the Waves’ starting lineup are inside the WAGR’s top 100.

   Pepperdine earned the top seed in Monday’s qualifying round with a solid 5-under 283 total in the typical five-score-four format over the 7,434-yard, par-72 East Lake layout.

   The Waves were led by Joe Highsmith, a senior from Lakewood, Wash. and No. 14 in the WAGR, and Joey Verzich, a redshirt senior from El Cajon, Calif. and No. 28 in the WAGR, in qualifying with Highsmith finishing in third place with a 3-under 69 and Verzich ending up in a three-way tie for fifth with a 1-under 71.

   That earned them a date in the semifinals with Oklahoma, which finished in a tie for third with Oklahoma State in the qualifying round, each posting a 4-over 292, in a rematch of last spring’s Final Match at Grayhawk.

   This time, though, it was the Sooners who had the edge, beating Pepperdine, 3.5-1.5, to earn a spot in the East Lake Cup final.

   Pepperdine got a key early victory when Dylan Menante, a junior from Carlsbad, Calif. and No. 19 in the WAGR, edged Chris Gotterup, a redshirt senior from Little Silver, N.J. and No. 79 in the WAGR, in 19 holes.

   Followers of Big Ten golf will recognize Gotterup as one of the top players in the conference at Rutgers for most of his career there. Gotterup decided to use the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA to make up for the lost spring of 2020 at Oklahoma. And he certainly made an impact in the East Lake Cup.

   Gotterup carded a bogeyless 4-under 68 to share medalist honors in qualifying with Arizona State’s Preston Summerhays, a freshman from Scottsdale, Ariz. and No. 79 in the WAGR. Summherhays was an impressive winner of the 2019 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio.

   The Sooners, though, won three of the other matches and halved a fourth to come away with the victory.

   Stephen Campbell Jr., a redshirt freshman from Richmond, Texas, knocked off William Mouw, a junior from Chino, Calif. and No. 52 in the WAGR, 3 and 1, Dowell claimed a 4 and 2 decision over Verzich, and Drew Goodman, a freshman home boy from Norman, Okla., got the clinching point with a 4 and 3 win over Derek Hitchner, a senior from Minneapolis, Minn. and No. 96 in the WAGR. Logan McAllister, a senior from Oklahoma City, Okla., battled Highsmith to a draw.

   No. 5 Oklahoma State, meanwhile, made it Bedlam – the name used mostly in reference to an Oklahoma-Oklahoma State football game, but which certainly applies when these two heavyweights of college golf get it on – in the title match with a 3.5-1.5 victory over the Pac-12’s Arizona State in the other semifinal.

   The Cowboys got a couple of key victories when Chacarra, who had finished in fourth place in qualifying with a 2-under 70, knocked off Summerhays, the qualifying co-medalist, 4 and 3, and Brian Stark, a junior from Kingsburg, Calif. and No. 41 in the WAGR, edged the Sun Devils’ David Puig, a senior from Spain and No. 5 in the WAGR, 2 and 1. Stark reached the quarterfinals of last summer’s U.S. Amateur at Oakmont Country Club.

   Oklahoma State’s other full point came from Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, a senior from Denmark who edged Ryggs Johnston, a junior from Libby, Mont. and No. 50 in the WAGR, 1-up.

   Oklahoma, however, had the edge on its rival in the final. McAllister and Gotterup finished off their opponents, Stark and Hazen Newman, a junior from Las Vegas, respectively, on the tough par-3 15^th hole, McAllister completing a 5 and 3 victory and Gotterup finishing off a 4 and 3 decision.

   When Dowell rallied to send his match with Chacarra to extra holes, they were sent to the same 15^th hole for the 19^th hole of the match. Dowell’s tee shot found the green and Chacarra was bunkered and Dowell got the clinching point with a par.

   They’ll meet again, these two. Oklahoma State was missing two of its top two players, Bo Jin, a sophomore from China and the runnerup to Summerhays in that U.S. Junior Amateur at Inverness, and Aman Gupta, a senior from Concord, N.C. and a semifinalist in the 2020 U.S. Amateur at Bandon Dunes. Pretty sure Jin was sidelined with a minor injury and Gupta didn’t survive Oklahoma State’s qualifier for the East Lake Cup. That’s how competitive programs like that are.

   They’ll square off in the Big 12 Championship at Whispering Pines Golf Club in Trinity, Texas. And I won’t be surprised a little bit if they’re among the last eight still standing for match play in the NCAA Championship, which will once again be contested at Grayhawk.

   Pepperdine claimed a 3-2 decision over Arizona State in the third-place match.

   The Oklahoma State women, No. 2 in the latest Golfstat rankings, were strong right from the very start at East Lake as Rina Tatematsu, a sophomore from Thailand and No. 65 in the Women’s WAGR, claimed individual medalist honors in Monday’s qualifying with a sparkling 5-under 67, leading the Cowgirls to the top seed in match play.

   Maddison Hinson-Tolchard, a sophomore from Australia, finished in a tie for second place in qualifying with a 1-under 71 over an East Lake layout that measured 6,297 yards for the women. The Cowgirls finished with a 1-under 287 total, five shots better than reigning NCAA champion Ole Miss, the No.-21 ranked Southeastern Conference representative.

   That earned Oklahoma State a semifinal meeting with a shorthanded Arizona team. Team Hou, sisters Vivian, a junior, and Yu-Sung, a fifth-year player, had competed in the LPGA Qualifying School’s Stage II and weren’t quite ready to go at East Lake for the No. 16 Wildcats. With Yu-Sang on the bag, Vivian reached the final of last summer’s U.S. Women’s Amateur at Westchester Country Club in Rye, N.Y. before falling to Kentucky’s Jensen Castle.

   Hinson-Tolchard, who earned Oklahoma State’s lone point in its 4-1 loss to Ole Miss in the Final Match at Grayhawk last spring, claimed a 5 and 4 verdict over Carolina Melgrati, a freshman from Italy and No. 44 in the Women’s WAGR, Isabella Fierro, a junior from Mexico and No. 47 in the Women’s WAGR, edged Caitlin Whitehead, a freshman from England, on the 19^th hole and Hailey Jones, a junior from Dallas, earned a 3 and 2 decision over Elinor Sudow, a graduate student from Sweden, to give Oklahoma State a 3-2 edge on Arizona and a spot in the East Lake final.

   In the other semifinal, sophomore Phoebe Brinker, who starred scholastically at Archmere Academy, got things started for Duke with a 2-up victory over Natacha Host Husted, a freshman from Denmark, as the Blue Devils rolled to a 4-1 victory over Ole Miss.

   Brinker was among the best freshmen in the country last season, even with the ACC keeping her off the course for the fall campaign. Brinker finished in a tie for fifth place in the individual standings in the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk and helped the Blue Devils reach the semifinals in match play.

   Anne Chen, a sophomore from Sugar Land, Texas, pulled out a 3 and 2 victory over Julia Johnson, a senior from St. Gabriel, La. and No. 14 in the Women’s WAGR. Johnson was clearly one of the emotional leaders in Mississippi’s unlikely run to an NCAA crown last spring.

   Megan Furtney, a junior from St. Charlies, Ill., claimed a 3 and 2 decision over Andrea Lignell, a junior from Sweden, and Erica Shepherd, a senior from Greenwood, Ind. and No. 43 in the Women’s WAGR, pulled out a 1-up victory over Chiara Tamburlini, a junior from Switzerland, to account for Duke’s points.

   Duke freshman Rylie Heflin, a former scholastic rival of Brinker at Tower Hill School, dropped a 4 and 3 decision to Ellen Hume, a senior from England. Heflin, an Avondale, Chester County resident, was filling in for Gina Kim, Duke’s standout senior, who, like Arizona’s Hou sisters, couldn’t make the quick turnaround from LPGA Qualifying School’s Stage II tournament.

   The final was a rematch of last spring’s semifinals at Grayhawk where the Cowgirls blanked Duke, 5-0. Fierro made a big statement in the final with a 7 and 6 victory over Brinker. Hinson-Tolchard completed a 2-0 run in match play with a 3 and 1 victory over Furtney and Jones got the clinching point with a 2 and 1 verdict over Heflin.

   Shepherd capped a very solid fall campaign with a 2-up victory over Tatematsu, the qualifying medalist, and Chen pulled out a 1-up decision over Caley McGinty, a junior from England and No. 24 in the Women’s WAGR. Shepherd, winner of the 2017 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at Boone Valley Golf Club in Augusta, Mo., and Chen both went 2-0 in match play for the Blue Devils at East Lake.

   The addition of McGinty to the Oklahoma State lineup is just one of the reasons the Cowgirls completed a perfect run through the fall campaign as they won all four tournaments in which they competed. Oklahoma State head coach Greg Robertson originally recruited McGinty to Kent State when he was running that program before coming home to his alma mater two summers ago. McGinty was a member of the Great Britain & Ireland team that fell, 12.5-7.5, to the United States in the Curtis Cup Match at Conwy Golf Club in Caernarvonshire, Wales in August.

   Arizona claimed a 3-2 victory over Ole Miss in the third-place match.

   There’s still a few events left on the fall college golf schedule, but the beginning of the spring campaign in late January can’t get here soon enough.