Larsen, Sako team up to prevail in a playoff in Francis X. Hussey Memorial at Rolling Green

   Ian Larsen and Seiji Sako will be two young players to watch in District One when the scholastic golf season tees off later this summer.

   They teamed up Wednesday to capture the really neat Golf Association of Philadelphia better-ball event for junior players, the 37^th Francis X. Hussey Memorial at Rolling Green Golf Club, the underrated William Flynn design off of Route 1 in Springfield, Delaware County.

   Larsen, who will be a freshman on the golf team at reigning District One Class AAA champion Downingtown West, and Sako, who will be a sophomore at Lower Merion, made birdies at the last three holes to fire a sparkling better-ball total of 6-under-par 65 over the 6,275-yard, par-71 Rolling Green layout that played host to the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship in 2016.

   That earned them a spot in a playoff with a couple of South Jersey standouts, Nate Guertler, who plays out of Merion Golf Club, and Matthew Normand, who plays out of Laurel Creek Country Club. Guertler and Normand will join head coach Ben Feld’s program at Drexel later this summer.

   Larsen and Sako waited three hours to see if anyone would match their 6-under total and Guertler and Normand finally did it.

   Larsen holed a 10-footer for par for an up-and-down from a bunker on Rolling Green’s first hole to keep the team’s hopes alive. Sako made a par-saving putt on the second hole of the playoff and that turned out to be the shot that decided the tournament.

   Larsen and Sako, who earned a trip to the District One Class AAA Championship by finishing in a tie for ninth place in the Central League Championship at Turtle Creek Golf Course as a freshman last fall, looked like they were going to run away with the title when they got it to 6-under through 12 holes.

   The 14-year-old Larsen fueled that run with an eagle at Rolling Green’s par-5 seventh hole.

   But the Larsen-Sako pair hit a speed bump when they made bogeys at the 13^th, the tough par-3 signature 14^th and 15^th holes.

   Larsen got the duo back on track when he hit a gap wedge to eight feet at the 129-yard, par-3 16^th hole and converted the birdie try.

   Then Sako used his length to get the team back to 6-under. He only needed a gap wedge from 131 yards away to reach the 460-yard, par-5 17^th hole in two and two-putted for birdie. He drilled a 6-iron from 190 yards away at the 521-yard, par-5 18^th hole to again reach the putting surface in two and two-putted from 30 feet for a finishing birdie.

   “Winning is why you play the game,” the 15-year-old Sako told the GAP website. “There’s like 100 people playing in each of these and only one player or team can win. It’s a grind out here, so it is important to keep focusing on hitting good shots and the results will come.”

   Nolan Corcoran, a Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour representative, and Ian Natale of Sunnybrook Golf Club finished two shots behind the top two teams in third place with a solid 4-under 67.

   A couple of Tatnall School teammates, Jack Homer, playing out of Wilmington Country Club, and Win Thomas, a USGA/GAP entry, headed a trio of teams tied for fourth place at 3-under 68.

   Thomas was a sophomore on Unionville’s PIAA Class AAA runnerup team in 2020 and resurfaced this spring as a junior at Tatnall, claiming the Delaware individual championship at Baywood Greens in Long Neck, Del. this spring. The kid could always play.

   Jack Homer and Thomas were joined at 3-under by the teams of Colby Komancheck, son of the RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve pro shop team of head pro Jamie and Kelly Komancheck, and Patrick Duda of Bellewood Country Club and Paul Reilly of Galloway National Golf Club and Keller Tannehill of Atlantic City Country Club.

   Jack Homer’s twin older brothers, Matt and Jeffrey Homer, also playing out of Wilmington Country Club, finished in a tie for seventh place with the Commonwealth National Golf Club pair of Charles Ferraco and Ryan Quinn, each duo landing on 1-under 69.

   Quinn gave his team a boost when his 6-iron shot at the 170-yard, par-3 sixth hole found the bottom of the cup for his first career hole-in-one.

   Rounding out the top 10 in the Junior division were two teams that finished in a tie for ninth place at 1-under 70, including the Kennett Square Golf & Country Club pair of Grant Burkhart and Jackson Puskar and the Glen Oak Golf Club tandem of Conner Abel and Robert Munley.

   The Junior-Junior division title went to Riverton Country Club brothers Jackson and Gavin Lane as they teamed up to match par with a 36 on Rolling Green’s outgoing nine.

   The 13-year-old Jackson Lane makes frequent appearances on Philly Junior Tour leaderboards and is an eighth-grader at Cinnaminson Middle School in South Jersey. Gavin Lane is an 11-year-old seventh-grader at Cinnaminson Middle School.

   Team Lane got off to a tough start and was 2-over after four holes on a front nine that measured 2,939 yards for the Junior-Junior division.

   But Jackson Lane hit it to 10 feet from 100 yards away with his 52-degree wedge at the 318-yard, par-4 fifth hole and dropped the birdie putt. Jackson Lane then reached the green at the 449-yard, par-5 seventh hole in two, drilling a 5-iron from 180 yards away to 20 feet, and two-putting for birdie to get Team Lane back to even-par.

   “We didn’t get off to the greatest start,” Jackson Lane told the GAP website. “I think (with the way Gavin) played the first four holes, we could have just taken his score. On the last five (holes), he didn’t play his best and I started playing well.”

   Zachary Proud, an unaffiliated entry, and Anthony Proud, a GAP Youth on Course representative, earned runnerup honors with a 2-over 38.

   The Green Valley Country Club pair of Henry Sokol and Jack Sokol won a USGA tiebreaker to claim third place after recording a 4-over 40, a total matched by two other teams. The Sokol boys have been fixtures on the Philly Junior Tour coed 12-and-under division’s leaderboards this spring.

   Finishing in a tie for fourth place following the tiebreaker were the tandems of William Quartermain of Llanerch Country Club and Joe McDonald, another GAP Youth on Course entry, and Gray Biborosch and Logan Turner, an unaffiliated entry. Both pairs matched the 4-over 40 posted by Team Sokol.

   The Francis X. Hussey Memorial celebrates the life of an avid junior golfer at Rolling Green who suffered from congenital heart disease and died much too young at age 13 while undergoing heart surgery in December of 1983. Hussey was a student in the Haverford Township School District.