Haverford School's Curran completes fall roll with six-shot victory in PAISAA Championship at Radley Run

 

   BIRMINGHAM TOWNSHIP – With Halloween upon us, there’s only one way to describe how good Sean Curran, a junior at The Haverford School, was in Monday’s Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association Championship at Radley Run Country Club: Scary good.

   Curran had established himself as the best player in the Inter-Ac League by piling up the most points during the six invitationals that make up the league’s regular season.

   In last week’s Bert Linton Invitational for the Inter-Ac’s individual championship at Whitemarsh Valley Country Club, Curran drove that point home with a resounding six-shot victory, firing a 5-under-par 67 over a tough layout designed by legendary golf course architect George Thomas.

   Monday at Radley Run, Curran did it again, rolling to another six-shot victory with a sizzling 5-under 67 over the 6,392-yard, par-72 Radley Run layout outside of West Chester.

   I didn’t get a chance to make it to Whitemarsh Valley last week, but with the PAISAA Championship returning to Radley Run for a second straight year not too far away from my Chester County base, I snuck over there to get a look at an emerging star in Curran. I was not disappointed.

   I caught the last seven holes of Curran’s round, a stretch during which he went 3-under. If anybody else was hanging around with a chance to win the PAISAA individual crown, Curran put those hopes to rest with that impressive closing flourish over a Radley Run layout that was in perfect condition on a spectacular late October day.

   “The putter’s really been working lately,” Curran said after completing another dominant performance.

   The kid is a member at Merion Golf Club, so fast greens are not going to intimidate him. They were reportedly fast at Whitemarsh Valley last week and they were pretty quick Monday at Radley Run.

   Curran finished six shots in front of his teammate, senior J.P. Hoban, whose 1-over 73 was pretty good, but not in the same zip code as Curran.

   Curran and Hoban led the way as Haverford School added the PAISAA team crown to its Inter-Ac title. Junior William Forman added a 3-over 74 and senior Harrison Brown was the final counter with a 5-over 76 as the Fords put together a 290 total.

   Teams were allowed six players with four counting toward the team total. Rounding out The Haverford School lineup were junior Nicky Nemo with an 81 and senior Gregor Weissenberger with an 84.

   Malvern Prep, which finished in a tie for second place in the Inter-Ac race with Episcopal Academy and was the defending PAISAA team champion, finished 13 shots behind Haverford School in second place with a 303 total.

   Haverford School head coach Steve Cloran had tremendous leadership from a team that had won an Inter-Ac title a year ago in the senior trio of Hoban, Brown and Weissenberger.

   “We had a great group of seniors, but just a great group of guys in general,” Curran said after the Fords rolled to the team crown in the state prep school tournament.

   Curran, who works with Golf Digest Top 50 instructor John Dunigan, had a good summer. He lost in a playoff in the Christman Cup, a Golf Association of Philadelphia major championship for junior players, at Huntingdon Valley Country Club.

   Curran won the junior club championship at Merion, defeating Episcopal Academy sophomore Liam Crowley in the 36-hole match-play final at the historic East Course, and at Aronimink Golf Club, beating Hunter Stetson, the best player in the Inter-Ac last year at Episcopal who is a freshman at North Carolina State this fall.

   As the fall scholastic season beckoned, Curran made one equipment change.

   “I put a new driver in the bag and that seems to have worked out pretty well,” Curran said.

   Curran started off the sixth tee in Monday’s shotgun start and I got there just in time to see him lip out for birdie from six feet at the par-4 17^th hole, one of the few putts he didn’t make.

   Curran had made birdies at the eighth and ninth holes, a bogey at the par-5 12^th, the only blemish on his scorecard, and a birdie at the par-5 16^th and was already 3-under when I caught up to him.

   A blocked drive at the downhill par-4 first hole left Curran close enough to a tree that he had to punch it out in front of the green. No problem. Curran’s chip shot found the bottom of the cup for birdie.

   Curran promptly reached the green at the 503-yard, par-5 second hole in two and converted a tough two-putt from 40 feet for a birdie that got him to 4-under for the round.

   Curran made a couple of testy par putts, from four feet at the third hole and from six feet at four, to maintain his momentum.

   Curran split the fairway on his final hole, the 413-yard, par-4 fifth, Radley Run’s No.- 1 handicap hole, knocked his approach to 18 feet and rolled the tough, right-to-left breaking putt right in the middle of the hole to finish with a birdie, his sixth of the day against one bogey.

   Forman gave Haverford School three players in the top three as he shared third place with Malvern Prep’s top two players, junior Davis Conaway and senior Michael Henry, each ending up a shot behind Hoban at 2-over 74.

   Conaway, who won the Bert Linton title as a freshman two years ago, was the runnerup to Curran in last week’s Bert Linton at Whitemarsh Valley with a 1-over 73.

   Jimmy Warmkessel, one of Episcopal’s junior co-captains, finished alone in sixth place with a 3-over 75.

   Haverford School’s Brown and Malvern Prep sophomore Colby Komancheck finished in a tie for seventh place, each signing for a 4-over 76.

   Rounding out the top 10 was a pair of players tied for ninth place at 5-over 77, Will Krietsch, Episcopal’s other junior co-captain, and Quin Zuegner, a sophomore at The Hill School.

   The quartet of Penn Charter sophomore Jack Sheward, George School sophomore Jack Forstein, Hill School senior Constantine Kontes and Kiski School senior Sebastian Waugaman finished in a tie for 11^th place, each registering a 6-over 78.

   Episcopal Academy made it a sweep of the top three spots in the team standings for the Inter-Ac as the Churchmen finished 10 shots behind Malvern Prep in third place with a 313 total.

   The Hill School, which plays in both the fall and the spring, took fourth place with a 318 total, Penn Charter and Germantown Academy, also Inter-Ac representatives, ended up fifth and sixth with respective totals of 321 and 331, and Friends’ Central School finished seventh at 340.