White Manor's Turner tames Sandy Run with a 66 to capture title in Jock MacKenzie Memorial

 

   White Manor Country Club’s Logan Turner made an immediate impact in his rookie season of high school golf at Devon Prep last fall.

   Turner finished in a tie for 15^th place in his debut in the PIAA Class AA Championship at Penn State’s White Course and then helped Devon Prep finish in third place in the Class AA team chase.

   Turner was pretty quiet for much of this summer, but that all changed when he fired a sizzling 6-under-par 66 July 28^th at Sandy Run Country Club in Oreland to capture the title in the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s final major junior event of the summer, the 42^nd Jock MacKenzie Memorial.

   Turner made a birdie at the first hole, but really heated up when he ripped off three straight birdies at seven, eight and nine.

   He added three more birdies on Sandy Run’s incoming nine at the 13^th, 15^th and 16^th holes to get it to 7-under for the round before finishing up with a bogey at Sandy Run’s closing hole, the only blemish on his scorecard.

   It left Turner three shots clear of runnerup Seiji Sako, who wrapped up his scholastic career at Lower Merion last fall with a third straight trip to the PIAA Class AAA Championship, as Sako put together a solid 3-under 69.

   Sako, playing out of McCall Golf Club, has had a really strong summer, including a victory in the Christman Cup, another of GAP’s major championships for juniors, at the RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve earlier in July. He is headed for Penn State and plans to try to make the golf team as a walk-on.

   A McCall guy I ran into at the U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club said that Penn State has become aware that they have a pretty good player coming to Happy Valley and plan to give Seiko a shot at joining the program.

   Not sure if there’s scholarship money involved or if he will be a preferred walk-on, but Sako has certainly proven that he’s capable of playing at a pretty high level.

   Turner was well aware that anytime you win one of GAP’s major championships for junior golfers, you’re beating a deep and talented group of players. Turner’s 66 equaled the Jock MacKenzie record established by Phoenixville Country Club’s Morgan Lofland, who starred scholastically at Conestoga and collegiately at Penn State, in 2020.

   “Tying the tournament record is really cool,” Turner told the GAP website. “GAP’s history is really strong and over a long period of time. To be part of that is really cool. I’ve been wanting to win a GAP tournament ever since I started playing. It really means a lot of me.”

   The trio of Llanerch Country Club’s Bryce Ciochetto, Waynesborough Country Club’s Gavin Reger, Quinn Gallagher, another McCall guy, and The Legacy Club’s Tyler Whitney shared third place, each ending up a shot behind Sako with a 2-under 70.

   Cicochetto wrapped up his scholastic career at Haverford High by qualifying for the District One Class AAA Championship last fall. Reger, Cicochetto’s Central League rival in his freshman season at Radnor, helped the Raptors finish in a tie for second place in the PIAA Class AAA team chase, just a shot behind state champion Unionville.

   Gallagher will be a senior on the golf team at The Haverford School this season.

   Gallagher’s teammate with the Fords, Merion Golf Club’s Sean Curran, headed a group of four players that rounded out the top 10 in the Junior Boys division of the Jock MacKenzie as he posted a 1-under 71.

   Curran, who is joining the program at Penn in the Ivy League, was the Inter-Ac League’s best player as a junior in the fall of 2024, sweeping to titles in the Bert Linton Memorial for the Inter-Ac's individual crown and in the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association Championship and leading the Fords to the Inter-Ac championship before dropping off only slightly as a senior last fall. He captured the title in the GAP Junior Boys’ Championship at Merion’s West Course in the summer of 2025.

   Joining Curran at 1-under were Sunnybrook Golf Club’s Adam Cifra, a senior at Catholic League power La Salle, Overbrook Golf Club’s Lannon Boyd, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier as a senior at Radnor last fall, and RiverCrest’s Colby Komancheck, who will be one of the Inter-Ac’s top returning players as a senior at Malvern Prep this season.

   Sako’s showing at Sandy Run enabled him to wrap up the Harry Hammond Award, a summer-long stroke-play competition that includes rounds from GAP’s major championships for junior players.

   Sako recorded a 74 in qualifying for match play in the Junior Boys’ Championship at Chester Valley and a 67 in winning the Christman Cup, shortened from 36 holes to 18 holes by stormy weather, along with his 69 in the Jock MacKenzie to finish with a 3-under 210 total.

   Boyd, who is joining the program at Saint Joseph’s in the Atlantic 10, and Komancheck shared second place, three shots behind Sako.

   Boyd lost in a playoff to his Central League rival Sako after Boyd matched Sako’s 4-under 67 in the Christman Cup at RiverCrest.

   Sako and Boyd wrapped up their careers as junior golfers by representing GAP in the 62^nd Williamson Cup, a gathering of nine teams of junior golfers from nine golf associations, included two from Canada, hosted by the Metropolitan Golf Association at Knickerbocker Country Club in Tenafly, N.J. Aug. 10^th and 11^th.

   Rounding out the GAP team were Riverton Country Club’s Jackson Lane, a junior at Cinnaminson High who claimed the title in the GAP Junior Boys’ Championship at Chester Valley, and The Springhaven Club’s Luca Kleinschmidt, a Strath Haven standout who lost in the GAP Junior Boys final to Lane.

   Kleinschmidt is joining the program at PSAC power Millersville.

   Pretty good testament to Central League golf that three of the four members of the GAP team came out of the Central.

   Sako earned a share of medalist honors with David Kim from the Maryland State Golf Association in the individual scoring as each landed on 3-under 141.

   Sako added a 1-under 71 to his opening round of 2-under 70 while Kim matched par in the opening round with a 72 and caught Sako with a sparkling 3-under 69 in the second round.

   Kim led MSGA to the team crown with a 9-under total. Sako led the way for GAP as it earned runnerup honors, nine shots behind MSGA at even-par.

   In the Jock MacKenzie Junior Girls division, Valleybrook Country Club’s Cara Chojnacki was the lone entry and carded a 103.

   In the Junior-Junior Boys division, Llanerch’s Ryan Comly blitzed the incoming nine at Sandy Run with a sizzling 3-under 33, the lowest score in the history of the event, to capture the title.

   After opening his round with a bogey at the 10^th hole, Comly ripped off three straight birdies at 13, 14 and 15 before adding a fourth birdie at 17.

   Overbrook’s Bobby Stefanski and Gulph Mills Golf Club’s Jack Gilbert, the son of Gulph Mills head pro Tom Gilbert, shared second place as each signed for a 2-under 34.

   Baylor Keim of Huntingdon Valley Country Club took fourth place with a 1-over 37 and Ryan Diamond, a GAP Youth on Course representative, rounded out the top five as he finished fifth with a 40.

   In the Junior-Junior Girls division, Huntingdon Valley’s Stella Seese finished at the top of the leaderboard with a 48.

   Annie Remaker, playing on her home course at Sandy Run, finished two shots behind Seese in second place with a 50.

   Northampton Valley Country Club’s Avery Jaffe rounded out the field in the Junior-Junior Girls division as she finished a shot behind Remaker in third place with a 51.