Kleinschmidt, Lane each win two matches to reach final of GAP Junior Boys' Championship at Chester Valley

 

   Luca Kleinschmidt, a recent Strath Haven graduate, will carry the Central League banner into the final of the 112^th Golf Association of Philadelphia Junior Boys’ Championship.

   Kleinschmidt, playing out of The Springhaven Club, capped an impressive three days at Chester Valley Golf Club in East Whiteland, Chester County with a surgical 3 and 2 victory over Sunnybrook Golf Club’s Liam Littleton, a senior on the golf team for Catholic League power La Salle, in a semifinal match Wednesday afternoon.

   Kleinschmidt’s opponent in the final will be Riverton Country Club’s Jackson Lane, a junior at Collingswood High who took down the defending champion, Merion Golf Club’s Sean Curran, a recent graduate of The Haverford School, with a 2 and 1 victory in the other semifinal.

   The final, as well as the First Flight final between Union League Golf Club at Torresdale’s Logan Cassidy, a senior at Holy Ghost Prep, and Mountain View Country Club’s Luke McGraw, who finished in a tie for ninth place in the PIAA Class AAA Championship as a junior at State College last fall, will have to wait.

   Golf course availability being what it is at this time of the year, the two finals will be played at a later date.

   It dates back to the nasty summer storm that rolled through Cheser Valley during Monday’s stroke-play qualifying.

   The 18-year-old Kleinschmidt, who arrived relatively late to competitive golf, beat the storm Monday, carding a 1-over 71 over the 6,631-yard, par-70 Chester Valley layout, which held up for a share of medalist honors.

   Kleinschmidt, who will join the program at PSAC power Millersville later this summer, had been the medalist in the GAP Junior Boys a year ago before falling in the quarterfinals.

   But Kleinschmidt was a man on a mission this year.

   After rolling to an 8 and 6 victory over Nathan Goblirsch, a GAP Youth on Course entry, in Tuesday’s round of 16, Kleinschmidt cruised into the semifinals with a 6 and 5 victory in Wednesday morning’s quarterfinals over Galloway National Golf Club’s Paul Reilly.

   Kleinschmidt stayed patient in his semifinal showdown with Littleton, who grabbed a 1-up lead when he won the fifth hole.

   Kleinschmidt evened the match by taking the 10^th hole and then quickly grabbed a 1-up lead by winning the 11^th.

   Littleton battled back to even the match by winning the 12^th hole.

   But Kleinschmidt rattled off three straight wins at the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th holes to take command of the match, finishing off the burst with a majestic 6-iron from 185 yards away to 16 feet at 15 that led to a third straight win.

   “I’m really grateful for this opportunity,” Kleinschmidt told the GAP website. “I have a strong group of people that are supporting me and it feels really good to prove them right. It’s less about proving people wrong. I felt like that was my mentality originally. I had a tough time getting recruited.

   “I felt I was missing out on opportunities I was good enough for. Originally, I was like, ‘Let’s go prove all these people wrong.’ Hindsight, it’s less about proving people wrong and more about proving to the people that supported you, right. And I think that’s what I’m doing this week.”

   The 16-year-old Lane seems to get a little better every year, dating back to his days competing with the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour nine-holers.

   Lane jumped out to a 4-up lead over Curran, one of the Inter-Ac League’s best players with the Fords the last two falls who will take his talents to the Ivy League when he joins the program at Penn later this summer.

   Curran got a win at the ninth hole to cut his deficit to 3-down, but Lane quickly restored his 4-up lead with a win at 10.

   But Curran wasn’t going away. He ripped off wins at the 11^th, 12^th, 14^th and 15^th holes to get the match back to even, highlighting that run with an eagle at the par-5 14^th.

   You’d think Lane would be rattled, but he calmly got back in front by sticking a 52-degree wedge from 120 yards away at the 430-yard, par-4 16^th hole to eight feet, leading to a win.

   At the 387-yard, par-4 17^th hole, Lane’s tee shot clipped a tree and he was forced to punch the ball out. He hit a sand wedge to 20 feet.

   Curran, who had driven it in the fairway, saw his approach trickle off the back. After a poor chip, Curran three-putted, missing a four-footer for bogey.

   Lane cozied his par putt to three feet and dropped that one for a winning bogey.

   Lane reached the semifinals with a 6 and 4 victory over McCall Golf Club’s Seiji Sako, who wrapped up his scholastic career at Lower Merion with a third straight trip to the PIAA Class AAA Championship last fall, in a quarterfinal match Wednesday morning.

   Curran reached the semifinals with a 1-up victory over his Merion clubmate and Haverford School teammate Nicky Nemo in a highly-anticipated quarterfinal match that was a rematch of last year’s final won by Curran at Merion’s West Course.

   Curran charged out to a 5-up lead through 10 holes only to see his friend and rival cut the deficit to 1-down going to the 18^th hole.

   After a poor drive forced Curran to punch out of the trees, he lifted a 9-iron from 160 yards away to five feet for a winning par that enabled him to hold off Nemo.

   A third Central League standout and a third Merion member among the final eight, Brad McDermott, who capped his senior season at Radnor by reaching the Class AAA state tournament for a second time, suffered a 3 and 1 setback at the hands of Littleton in the other quarterfinal.

   Overbrook Golf Club’s Lannon Boyd, the medalist in the Central League Championship for a second time as a senior at Radnor last fall, dropped a 3 and 2 decision to Cassidy in the First Flight semifinals.

   Boyd, who earned a trip to the PIAA Class AAA Championship last fall, will join the program at Saint Joseph’s later this summer. Boyd and McDermott led the Raptors to a tie for second place with McGraw and State College in the PIAA Class AAA team competition, a shot behind state champion Unionville.

   McGraw, one of the top returning scholastic players in Pennsylvania this year, reached the First Flight final with a 2 and 1 victory over Kennett Square Golf & Country Club’s Grant Burkhart in the semifinals.

   Burkhart was coming off a runnerup finish behind Salesianum teammate Joseph Kelly in the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association (DIAA) Championship last month at Baywood Greens Golf Course.

   Burkhart and fellow junior Kelly led the Sallies to a runaway victory in the team chase at Baywood Greens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Curran, Nemo set up a rematch of last year's final in the quarterfinals of GAP Junior Boys at Chester Valley

 

   The Merion Golf Club pair of Sean Curran and Nicky Nemo, recent graduates of The Haverford School, will reprise their meeting in the Golf Association of Philadelphia Junior Boys’ Championship title match a year ago, but this time in the quarterfinals.

   The 112^th GAP Junior Boys’ Championship got behind schedule as a result of Monday’s stormy weather that hit Chester Valley Golf Club in East Whiteland, Chester County pretty squarely.

   There was still some golf to be played to complete stroke-play qualifying for match play Tuesday morning, although Curran, who defeated his Merion clubmate and Haverford School teammate Nemo in the final at Merion’s West Course a year ago, was exempted into the top seed in match play as the defending champion.

   There was a playoff among seven players who carded 4-over-par 74s for the final five spots.

   The plan was to play two rounds of matches Tuesday and get it down to four semifinalists. But the two suspensions and the resumption of play Tuesday only allowed for the round of 16 matches to be played.

   I’m guessing GAP will try to get in two rounds of matches Wednesday with the two finalists battling it out to put their name on the Peg Burnett Trophy Thursday.

   With the match-play bracket finally set Tuesday, there was no more intriguing round-of-16 matchup than the one between Inter-Ac League rivals Nemo and Aronimink Golf Club’s Liam Crowley, who captured the Bert Linton Invitational for the Inter-Ac’s individual championship and helped Episcopal Academy capture the Inter-Ac team crown as a junior with the Churchmen last fall.

   The Haverford School-EA rivalry is as intense as any in the Philadelphia region and the Fords have been the dominant power in golf in recent years. But Episcopal Academy claimed Inter-Ac supremacy last fall in an incredibly tight three-way battle among the Churchmen, the Fords and Malvern Prep.

   Nemo and Crowley traded wins on the outgoing nine at Chester Valley, once the home of the Bell Atlantic Classic on what was then called the PGA Senior Tour, and the pair were all even heading for the back nine.

   Nemo, however, grabbed a 2-up lead with consecutive wins at the 10^th and 11^th holes on what looks like were concessions by Crowley.

   Crowley cut the deficit to 1-down by taking the 13^th hole, but Nemo restored his 2-up advantage with a win at 14.

   Crowley kept battling, again cutting his deficit to 1-down with a win at the 16^th hole. But Nemo grinded out halves at the final two holes to pull out a 1-up victory.

   Curran, who is headed for the Ivy League and the program at Penn this summer, never quite recaptured the magic of his junior season when he swept to titles in the Bert Linton and the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association (PAISAA) Championship and led Haverford School to the Inter-Ac team crown, as a senior last fall.

   Not that he was bad. He had just set a pretty high bar for himself.

   Curran rolled to a 5 and 3 victory over Keller Tannehill of Galloway National Golf Club to set up his rematch with Nemo in Wednesday morning’s quarterfinals.

   A couple of Central League standouts, McCall Golf Club’s Seiji Sako, who made a third straight appearance in the PIAA Class AAA Championship as a senior at Lower Merion last fall, and Radnor’s Brad McDermott, who made a second appearance in the Class AAA state tournament as a senior at Radnor last fall, were survivors of the 7-for-5 playoff with a steady rain coming down in the morning and won their round-of-16 matches in the afternoon to reach the quarterfinals.

   Sako, who earned a spot in the match-play bracket in last week’s BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship at Sunnybrook Golf Club, cruised to a 6 and 4 decision over Blue Bell Country Club’s Ty Sheftic, a senior on the Wissahickon golf team.

   Sako earned a mention in GAP’s Day One notebook on the Philly Am last week after he survived a less stressful 10-for-9 playoff to nail down a spot in the match-play bracket. He plans to try to walk on at Penn State. As he has proven these last two weeks, the kid can play.

   Sako’s quarterfinal opponent will be Riverton Country Club’s Jackson Lane, who knocked off another McCall entry, Quinn Gallagher, who will be a senior on the golf team at The Haverford School this fall, with a hard-fought 1-up decision.

   It was an impressive 4 and 3 victory in the round of 16 for McDermott over RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve’s Colby Komancheck, who will be a senior at Malvern Prep this fall and has been one of the Inter-Ac’s top players for the last three falls.

   Komancheck, who captured the individual crown in the PAISAA Championship at Radley Run Country Club to cap his junior season with the Friars, still had three holes left to complete stroke-play qualifying with rain coming down early Tuesday morning.

   Komancheck made three pars to complete a 1-over 71 that gave him a share of medalist honors in qualifying with The Springhaven Club’s Luca Kleinschmidt, a recent Strath Haven graduate.

   McDermott, the son of three-time BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship winner Michael McDermott, will join the program at Bucknell later this summer.

   McDermott’s quarterfinal opponent will be Sunnybrook Golf Club’s Liam Littleton, a senior on the golf team of Catholic League power La Salle who claimed a 4 and 3 decision over Philadelphia Country Club’s Harry Neilly, yet another Haverford School guy who will be a senior with the Fords this fall.

   Kleinschmidt, a District One Class AAA qualifier in each of his last two seasons at Strath Haven, rolled into the quarterfinals with an 8 and 6 victory over Nathan Goblirsch, a GAP Youth on Course entry from Hammonton, N.J.

   Kleinschmidt’s quarterfinal opponent will be Galloway National Golf Club’s Paul Reilly, who had to go to the 19^th hole to get past Fox Hill Country Club’s Liam Gill, a sophomore on the golf team at Holy Redeemer in Wilkes-Barre.

   GAP also crowned a Junior team champion at the end of stroke-play qualifying and Overbrook Golf Club edged Merion by a shot with a 21-over 231 total.

   Overbrook was led by Lannon Boyd, who qualified for the PIAA Class AAA Championship as a senior at Radnor last fall.

   Boyd, who will join the program at Saint Joseph’s later this summer, just missed out on a spot in the Championship Flight with a 5-over 75. Boyd is still alive in the First Flight, however, after earning a 1-up victory in the round of 16 over Philmont Country Club’s Benjamin Robbins, a senior on the La Salle golf team.

   Boyd’s quarterfinal opponent will be Wilmington Country Club’s Connor Smolenski, another member of Episcopal Academy’s Inter-Ac championship team as a junior last fall, in Wednesday morning’s quarterfinals. Smolenski pulled out a 1-up decision over Philadelphia Country Club’s Jesse Shurman in his round-of-16 match.

   Backing up Boyd in Overbrook’s winning team effort were Freddy Hartmann, also a junior on Episcopal’s Inter-Ac championship team last fall, and Cole Berry, the District One Class AAA champion as a senior at West Chester Rustin last fall, both of whom tallied a 78.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kelly, LaScala share a Philly Junior Tour victory for a second straight day in the Rehoboth Junior Open

 

   A day after finishing in a tie atop the leaderboard in the 16-to-18 division in a Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour stop at Plantation Lakes Golf & Country Club, Salesianum teammates Joseph Kelly and Luke LaScala did it again in the Rehoboth Junior Open at Rehoboth Beach Country Club June 9^th.

   Kelly and LaScala, still on a roll after helping the Sallies cruise to the team crown in the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association (DIAA) Championship last month at Baywood Greens Golf Course, each carded a solid 2-over-par 74 at Rehoboth Beach to again share a Philly Junior Tour victory.

   Kelly, who claimed the individual crown in the DIAA Championship at Baywood Greens, got started with a birdie at the second hole, went back-to-back with birdies at six and seven, added birdies at nine and 13 and had seven pars on his scorecard.

   Kelly’s four birdies on the outgoing nine at Rehoboth Beach enabled him to tour the front side in 1-under 35.

   LaScala, who finished in a tie for seventh place in the DIAA Championship, also got started with a birdie at the second hole, went back-to-back with birdies at 11 and 12 and had 10 pars on his card, including a string of four straight pars from 13 to 16.

   Kelly and LaScala will be seniors at Salesianum beginning in the fall.

   Another of Delaware’s top scholastic players, Jake Hollerback, capped his junior season at Sussex Central by finishing in fourth place in the DIAA Championship on his home course at Baywood Greens in defense of the individual title he won a year ago.

   Hollerback made birdies at the ninth and 12^th holes and had 11 pars on his card, finishing up his round with six straight pars, at Rehoboth Beach as he ended up a shot behind Kelly and LaScala in third place with a 3-over 75.

   Kie Shaw, who wrapped up his junior season at the Delaware Military Academy by finishing in a tie for fifth place in the DIAA Championship, ended up a shot behind Hollerback at Rehoboth Beach in fourth with a 4-over 76.

   Cole Henning, a senior on the Souderton golf team, finished in fifth place with a solid 5-over 77.

   There was a four-way logjam for sixth place at 6-over 78, a foursome that included Shane Cornell, a District One Class AAA qualifier as a junior at Avon Grove last fall, Brooks McCall, a junior on the Wilmington Friends School golf team, Joey Higgins, a junior on Philadelphia Academy Charter’s Public League championship team last fall, and Jaxon Niman, a senior on the Central Dauphin golf team.

   Rounding out the top 10 in the 16-to-18 division were Billy Nikolaidis, a junior on the Muhlenberg golf team, and Landon Shoczolek of North Cape May, N.J. as they finished in a tie for ninth place, each signing for a 79.

   Cole Martin, an invader from McLean, Va., matched the feats of Kelly and LaScala by repeating his Philly Junior Tour victory at Plantation Lakes in the 13-to-15 division as he shared  first place at Rehoboth Beach with Charles Blok of Downingtown, each landing on 4-over 76.

   Martin got it going on the outgoing nine at Rehoboth Beach, going back-to-back with birdies at the fourth and fifth holes and adding another birdie at nine. He went back-to-back again with birdies at the 11^th and 12^th holes and had eight pars on his scorecard.

   Blok made birdies at the 12^th and 14^th holes and had nine pars on his card, including a run of five straight pars from two through six, to get a share of the top spot with Martin.

   Tucker Detwiler, a West Chester resident and a sophomore on the Malvern Prep golf team, Hunter Pearson of Medford, N.J. and David Padgett of Barnegat, N.J. finished in a tie for third place, each tallying a 7-over 79.

   Detwiler made birdies at the fourth, ninth and 12^th holes and had six pars on his card. Pearson made birdies at the second and fourth holes and had seven pars on his card, including a string of four straight pars from five through eight. Padgett made birdies at the second, fourth, 12^th and 17^th holes and had six pars on his card.

   Ian Lu, taking a road trip from Edison, N.J., took sixth place with an 81 and Owen Ciesielka, like Detwiler a West Chester resident and a sophomore on the Malvern Prep golf team, and Jack Ferry of Port Deposit, Md. finished in a tie for seventh place, each recording an 82.

   Rounding out the top 10 in the 13-to-15 division was the trio of Beckett Kush of Yardley, Ben Meixell, a sophomore on the Salesianum golf team, and Jonathan Thomas of Landenberg as they finished in a tie for ninth place, each registering an 83.

   The best score among the girls emerged out of the 13-to-15 division as Dahlia Garrick, coming off a fourth-place finish in the DIAA Championship at Baywood Greens as a freshman at the Tower Hill School, made a birdie on the 16^th hole and had 10 pars on her scorecard, including a run of six straight pars from six through 12, on her way to a solid 7-over 79 that gave her a Philly Junior Tour victory.

   Mia DeCarlo of Glen Mills, moving up after being one of the top players in the girls 12-and-under division in 2025, had four pars on her card as she finished in second place with an 88.

   Rounding out the field in the 13-to-15 division was Hannah LeGrow, coming off her freshman season on the Ursuline Academy golf team, as she made a birdie on the fourth hole and had three pars on her card, finishing in third place with a 90.

   LeGrow completed both ends of the two-day Philly Junior Tour’s Delaware stops as she was the lone entry in the 13-to-15 division at Plantation Lakes a day earlier and registered a 96.

   Kiera Post, who reached the second day of the District One Class AAA Championship as a sophomore at Avon Grove last fall, finished at the top of the leaderboard in the 16-to-18 division as she made a birdie on the 13^th hole and had eight pars on her scorecard on her way to an 85.

   Post is the daughter of Brendon Post and Patty Post, the husband-wife team at the helm of the Delaware golf program. Patty Post oversees both the men’s and women’s teams as the director of golf programs and Brendon Post is mostly involved with the men’s team for the Blue Hens.

   Gabrielle Hamstead, coming off her freshman season at Cape Henlopen, had 10 pars on her card, including a string of four straight pars from the fourth through the seventh holes, as she earned runnerup honors with an 88 that left her three shots behind Post.

   Rounding out the field in the 16-to-18 division was Ellie Walls, who capped her sophomore season at Indian River by finishing in third place in the DIAA Championship at Baywood Greens, as she took third place at Rehoboth Beach, making six pars on her way to an 89 that left her a shot behind Hamstead in third.

   Walls completed both ends of the two-day Philly Junior Tour’s Delaware stops as she was the lone entry a day earlier in the 16-to-18 division at Plantation Lakes and posted an 87.

   James Wilson of Wilmington, Del. made birdies at the sixth and eighth holes and had four pars on his scorecard as he bested the field of boys 12-and-under nine-holers with a 1-over 37.

   Brody Rollins of Milton, Del. had six pars on his card, including four straight pars to close out his round, as he earned runnerup honors with a 3-over 39. Rollins was coming off a victory in the boys 12-and-under division a day earlier at Plantation Lakes.

   Ben Adkins of Lewes, Del. had four pars on his card as he finished in third place with a 42.

   A trio of Wilmington, Del. guys, Alex Cheng, Chris Pilcher and Jackson Larrabee, shared fourth place, each ending up with a 45.

   Landon Post, another member of Lincoln University’s Team Post, took seventh place with a 46, James Hall of Hebron, Md. was eighth with a 57 and Luca Lancelloti of Wilmington, Del. rounded out the field in the boys 12-and-under division as he finished ninth with a 65.

   Skylar Crutchfield of Elkins Park was the lone entry in the girls 12-and-under division and she made a birdie on the third hole on her way to a 50.