Having two LuLu Country Club members battling it out for the title in a BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship was the kind of day Jon Rusk had in mind when he became the part owner and head pro at the Donald Ross classic in Glenside.
The part of the story in which Rusk becomes a reinstated amateur and nearly ends up being one of those LuLu members trying to get his name on the J. Wood Platt Trophy wasn’t necessarily part of the vision, but he’s probably pretty happy with the way it all worked out.
The 43-year-old Rusk, one of the best scholastic players in the history of District One golf during his high school days at Council Rock – so long ago there was only one Council Rock – fell to Jeff Cunningham, 2 and 1, in the semifinals of the 122nd BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship Wednesday at Philadelphia Country Club.
Cunningham, a West Palm Beach, Fla. native, came to Philadelphia to play golf for Ben Feld’s Drexel program and was a solid member of the Dragons’ City 6 Championship team last fall. Needing a place to play, Cunningham found a home at LuLu, where, per Rusk’s vision, all that really matters is the golf.
When Cunningham takes on fellow LuLu member Michael R. Brown Jr. for the Philly Amateur title in Saturday’s scheduled 36-hole final, he will be trying to become the first African American to win the title. He is already the first African American to reach a Philly Am final.
“I totally expect and I hope that the picture of what GAP looks like and what our whole entire golf community and the world looks like will change,” Cunningham told the Golf Association of Philadelphia website after getting past Rusk to earn a spot in the Philly Am final. “If I have any ounce of sway in that or I’m part of that, then that’s what makes me really proud.”
Cunningham seems to have found a comfort zone in the classic layouts that are everywhere in the Philadelphia area. He finished in a tie for sixth place in helping Drexel capture the team title in the City 6 Championship with a 2-over 73 at Llanerch Country Club last fall.
Cunningham got the jump on Rusk with wins at the first, fourth and sixth holes that gave him a 3-up advantage. Rusk cut his deficit to 2-down by winning the seventh hole, but Cunningham took control of the match with wins at 11 and 12 that gave him a 4-up lead with six holes to play.
“Besides losing to Michael Brown, Jeff Cunningham is the next nicest guy to lose to,” Rusk told the GAP website. “I’m glad I got to play. I’m excited I started to play golf again. And we have two LuLu guys in the final.”
Cunningham reached the semifinals with a 4 and 3 victory over City 6 rival J.T. Spina, the Pope John Paul II product who was Saint Joseph’s best player this spring, in Wednesday morning’s quarterfinals. Spina was playing out of Philadelphia Cricket Club, where his father John is one of the instructors in the pro shop.
Rusk outlasted another of the City 6’s top players, Temple’s Dawson Anders, a Souderton product who was the GAP Junior Boys’ Championship winner in 2017, 1-up, in another quarterfinal match. Anders plays out of Indian Valley Country Club.
Rusk battled back from an early 3-down deficit to even the match. Anders took a 1-up lead by winning the 14th hole, but Rusk evened things up again with a win at 16 and then took the match with a win at 18.
Brown has a chance to make history Saturday at Philly Country as well. A victory in the Philadelphia Amateur would enable Brown to join Chris Lange and Jeff Osberg as the only players to complete the GAP career grand slam.
The 49-year-old Brown won the first two legs of the GAP career grand slam more than a decade ago when he captured the Middle-Amateur in 2009 and the Philadelphia Open in 2010.
When he won the third leg by taking the Joseph H. Patterson Cup at Gulph Mills Golf Club, it marked the beginning of a resurgence in Brown’s game. Long a contender in GAP’s major events who couldn’t quite close the deal, Brown has become a finisher who keeps finding himself getting his picture taken with a trophy.
He grinded out a Pennsylvania Amateur title in 2020 at Lookaway Golf Club, where he had been a member. He followed that up with state amateur crowns in New Jersey and Delaware in 2021.
Brown’s experience helped him withstand a spirited challenge from Logan Paczewski, a recent Dallas graduate who was one of the top scholastic players in Pennsylvania throughout his high school career.
Paczewski, playing out of Huntsville Golf Club, evened the back-and-forth match by winning the 16th hole. Brown won the final two holes to pull out a 2-up victory. Rutgers is getting a good one when Paczewski joins the program later this summer.
Earlier in the day, Brown overcame a formidable hurdle in his bid to win the Philly Am crown when he rallied to edge Troy Vannucci of Little Mill Country Club in a heavyweight quarterfinal showdown.
The 30-year-old Vannucci was coming off his first win in a GAP major as he captured the Middle-Amateur Championship last month at Jericho National Golf Club and had shared medalist honors in qualifying for match play in this week’s Philly Am.
Brown was 2-down after Vannucci won the 10th hole, but Brown picked up wins at 12, 14 and 17 to pull out a 1-up decision.
Paczewski reached the semifinals by claiming a 4 and 3 victory over another recent high school graduate in Kevin Lydon, who was a standout at Central Bucks West. Lydon was representing Commonwealth National Golf Club.
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