Stevenson earns another major GAP victory by taking the Christman Cup title at Gulph Mills

 

   Have a lot of catching up to do, not the least of which is Braden Shattuck’s Philadelphia Open victory at Lookaway Golf Club, but I have two of the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s major junior tournaments I  have been unable to get to yet, starting with the Christman Cup …

   La Salle senior John Stevenson was already having a pretty good summer with his victory in the Golf Association of Philadelphia (GAP) Junior Boys’ Championship last month at his home course at LuLu Country Club.

   Well, it got a lot better July 13^th at Gulph Mills Golf Club, the venerable Donald Ross design in King of Prussia, when Stevenson defied the blazing heat with a 5-under-par 137 total in the one-day, 36-hole test to earn his second major championship on the GAP junior circuit this summer.

   Stevenson did most of his damage in the opening round as he blitzed the 6,450-yard, par-71 Gulph Mills layout with a spectacular 5-under 66.

   That gave Stevenson a one-shot lead over Aronimink Golf Club’s Hunter Stetson, an Episcopal Academy senior. Stevenson then matched par in the afternoon with a 71 to hold off Stetson and Radley Run Country Club’s Charlie Barrickman by two shots.

   Stevenson became just the third player to capture the GAP Junior Boys and the Christman Cup in the same summer, joining Austin Barbin, who accomplished the feat in 2019, and Billy Stewart, who did it in 2001.

   “I wouldn’t expect this to happen,” Stevenson told the GAP website. “It’s just crazy, to be honest. It really is. There’s no better feeling. My friends and family support me so much. It’s a nice validation for the work that I’ve put in.”

   Stevenson, an Ambler resident, gave some of the credit for his summer surge to the hard work he’s been putting in at the original Skramble House of Golf in Horsham.

   Got a chance to speak with Justin Rinas, who operates the Skramble House of Golf in Horsham in the spring after he opened a second location near King of Prussia for an article I was working on that appeared in Joe Burkhardt’s Tri-State Golfer magazine. Rinas was justifiably proud of the work the Skramble House of Golf was doing in the development of junior players like Stevenson.

   I have a soft spot for the Christman Cup ever since I looped for then-Penn Charter senior Brian Isztwan in the 2017 edition at Stonewall’s North Course. Pretty sure it was hottest day of the year then and it was pretty close to the hottest day of the year when this year’s version was contested two Thursdays ago.

   Stevenson’s opening-round 66, a personal best in competition, started quietly enough as, after starting off the 10^th hole, he drained a 12-foot birdie putt at the 520-yard, par-5 12^th hole and nearly chipped in for eagle after hitting it close in two shots at the gettable 464-yard, par-5 18^th.

   Stevenson really heated up on the outgoing nine at Gulph Mills.

   After knocking an 8-iron onto the green at the 415-yard, par-4 first hole, he dropped a 45-foot birdie bomb. Stevenson used a gap wedge to hit it to five feet at the 404-yard, par-4 second hole from 108 yards away and converted the birdie try.

   Stevenson’s 56-degree wedge into the short par-3 fourth hole stopped a foot from the hole for an easy birdie and he wielded the 56-degree again at the 398-yard, par-4 fifth, knocking it to four feet and making that birdie putt to get it to 6-under for the round.

   Stevenson missed the green at the 351-yard, par-4 eighth hole and it led to a bogey, the only blemish on his scorecard.

   Stetson kept the heat on Stevenson in the afternoon, getting it to 5-under when he made back-to-back birdies at the ninth and 10^th holes. But bogeys at the 14^th, 15^th and 17^th holes stalled his momentum. A finishing birdie at the 18^th hole gave Stetson a 1-over 72 that left him in a tie for second place, two shots behind Stevenson with a 3-under 139 total.

   Stetson, winner of the Bert Linton Inter-Ac League individual championship as a sophomore in the fall of 2021 at Bluestone Country Club, is having a great summer on the golf course as well.

   By the time I post this, Stetson will be in Charleston, S.C. preparing for the opening round of qualifying for match play in the U.S. Junior Amateur Monday at the Daniel Island Club. Stetson will tee off from the 10^th tee at 1:58 p.m. at the Daniel Island Club’s Beresford Creek Course.

   A week later, Stetson will be representing Aronimink, Episcopal Academy and the Philadelphia area when he tees it up in another major national junior tournament, the Boys Junior PGA Championship at Hot Springs Country Club in Hot Springs, Ark.

   Barrickman added a solid 2-under 69 to his opening-round 70 to get his share of second place with Stetson at 3-under.

   Radnor senior Shaun Mazzalupi, a two-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier, had the best round of the afternoon, a 3-under 68, to finish alone in fourth place with a 2-under 140 total. Mazzalupi, who had opened with a 1-over 72, was playing out of Philadelphia Cricket Club.

   After opening with a 1-over 72, Drew Clark of Bidermann Golf Club carded a 1-under 70 in the afternoon to finish alone in fifth place, two shots behind Mazzalupi with an even-par 142 total.

   Wilmington Country Club’s Jeff Homer, who put his name on the Christman Cup with a victory in 2021 at Chester Valley Golf Club, added a 2-over 73 to his opening round of 1-under 70 to finish alone in sixth place with a 2-over 144 total.

   Homer, a recent graduate of the Tatnall School, will join the program at Delaware later this summer.

   Nolan Corcoran, representing the Philadelphia Junior Tour, and Talamore Country Club’s Ethan Martin, a teammate of Stevenson’s at La Salle, shared seventh place, each landing on 3-over 145. Corcoran and Martin each opened with a 1-over 72 before adding a 73 in the afternoon.

   Jericho National Golf Club’s Michael Deussing and Applecross Country Club’s Ben Saggers headed a group of six players who finished in a tie for ninth place at 4-over 146.

   Deussing, who would come back four days later to defeat Saggers in playoff to win the title in the final GAP major junior event of the summer, the Jock MacKenzie Memorial at Sandy Run Country Club, carded a pair of 2-over 73s at Gulph Mills. Deussing is a senior at The Hun School of Princeton. I’ll have a separate post on the Jock MacKenzie at some point this week.

   Saggers, a recent Bishop Shanahan graduate who will join head coach Brian Quinn’s program at Temple next month, bounced back from an opening round of 6-over 77 with a solid 2-under 69 in the afternoon.

   Rounding out the group at 4-over were Sunnybrook Golf Club’s Ian Natale, Kasim Narinesingh-Smith of Radley Run Country Club, Kevin Lafond of Blue Bell Country Club, and Northampton Country Club’s Matt Vital, all of whom added a 1-over 72 in the afternoon to an opening-round 74.

   Natale and Lafond, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier last fall, were teammates for La Salle’s Catholic League championship team along with Stevenson and Martin last fall. Natale is a junior while Lafond graduated in the spring. Narinesingh-Smith is a senior at Kennett and was a PIAA Class AAA qualifier last fall.

   Vital was a three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at Liberty and will join Saggers as a freshman on the Temple golf team for the 2023-2024 season. Vital was coming off a victory in the Philadelphia Boys Junior PGA Championship three days earlier at the Toftrees Golf Resort outside of State College and will join Stetson, who was the runnerup at Toftrees, in the field for the Boys Junior PGA Championship in Arkansas next week.