Davis, Selverian team up to take Hussey; Bernard wins Philly Women's Am

   Michael Davis, the Newtown Square resident who won the Inter-Ac League title as a freshman at Malvern Prep this spring, teamed with Haverford School senior Mac Selverian to cruise to the Francis X. Hussey Memorial Tournament title at Rolling Green Golf Club Monday.

  "We thought we could go low because the course was set up a little short and the greens were perfect," Davis told the Golf Association of Philadelphia website after the duo matched the tournament record with their 8-under total at the challenging 6,315-yard, par-71 Rolling Green layout. "If you got your putt on the right line, everything went in."

   Davis, who will be headed to Gold Mountain G.C.’s Olympic Course in Bremerton, Wash. for the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship next week, made birdies at the fourth and fifth holes and Selverian, an All-Delco with the Fords as a sophomore, added birdies at the sixth and seventh holes to get the duo rolling.

  Davis, playing out of Merion G.C., then highlighted the round by driving the par-4 12th hole and draining the downhill putt for an eagle. Selverian, playing out of Aronimink G.C., capped the record-tying effort by dropping a 15-foot birdie put on the final hole.

   Finishing in a tie for second at 4-under 67 was a pair of Inter-Ac rivals of Davis’ and Selverian’s, Episcopal Academy juniors Sean Fahey and Alex Dupre. Fahey plays out of Overbrook G.C. while Dupre had home-course advantage at Rolling Green.

   They shared second place with the Commonwealth National G.C. pair of T.J. Summers and Kyle Martin.

   The Rolling Green pair of Nolan Dirienzi and Brian Todaro finished sixth with an even-par 71 and Matthew Bastian Jr. and Quinn Dolan, another Rolling Green duo, finished in a tie for seventh at 1-over 72.

   In the Junior-Junior boys competition, the Rolling Green pair of Ryan Brennan and Andrew Todaro finished second with a 40, three shots back of R.J. Wrenn (Honeybrook G.C.) and Mitchell Davis (Wilmington C.C.). The Aronimink G.C. pairing of Thomas Gravina Jr. and Matt Davis finished sixth with a 43.

   Stephanie Bellisario, who plays out of Overbrook G.C. and is a member of the Notre Dame golf team, teamed with Courtney Mangano of Indian Valley G.C. to take top honors in the girls 14-to-17 division with a 92.

o

   GAP’s top junior players were right back in action Thursday in the Christman Cup at Biderman G.C. in Wilmington, Del. with Ryan Siegler of Mercer Oaks G.C. taking top honors with rounds of 74 and 73 for a 3-over 147 total.

Haverford High senior and Llanerch C.C. member Connor Eichman topped the Delco contingent with rounds of 75 and 79 for a 155 total that left him in fifth place.

   Haverford School sophomore Cole Berman had rounds of 78 and 79 and his 157 total left him in a tie for sixth.

Overbrook’s Fahey (79-80—159) finished 12th and Marple Newtown sophomore Sam Soeth (87-79) and Rolling Green’s Dupre (82-84) were in a tie for 19th at 166.

   Other Delco finishers at Biderman were Rolling Green’s Matthew Bastian Jr. (80-88—168); Garnet Valley sophomore Liam McAnally (86-84—170); Haverford School’s Selverian (82-89—171); Mac Ryan (81-91—172) of Overbrook G.C.; Liam Fahey (94-83—177) of Overbrook; and Mac Walsh (90-88—178) of Aronimink G.C.

Pennsylvania Junior Championship

   Soeth, coming off an All-Delco freshman campaign at Marple Newtown, led a strong showing by the Delco contingent at the Pennsylvania Junior Championship last week at Hershey C.C.’s East Course.

   Playing a Hershey East layout toughened up for the recent PGA Professional National Championship, Soeth had rounds of 76 and 70 to finish in a tie for fourth at 4-over 146. Reilly Erhardt, the beaten finalist in the GAP Junior Championship earlier this summer, took the title with rounds of 74 and 70 for a 2-over 144 total. Zach Herr, the District One champion from Council Rock North last fall, was one of two players who finished tied for second at 3-over 145.

   Episcopal Academy’s Dupre (76-74) and The Haverford School’s Selverian (77-73) were among three players in a tie for 12th at 8-over 150. Episcopal Academy’s Fahey (78-74) was another two shots back in a tie for 18th at 152.

The Haverford School’s Berman (80-78) finished in a tie for 44th at 158.

Philadelphia Women’s Amateur

   Lauren Bernard, the Notre Dame product who is coming off a big freshman season at Bucknell, beat all comers this week to capture the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia Amateur championship at Sunnybrook G.C.

   Bernard, playing out of Aronimink G.C., finished off the title in thrilling fashion, beating Gabriella DiMarco, the recent West Chester East graduate who lost in a playoff to Chichester’s Aurora Kan as last fall’s PIAA Tournament, on the 38th hole Friday. The scheduled 36-hole final went to two extra holes before Bernard could claim the Glenna Collett Vare Cup that goes to the Philadelphia women’s amateur champion.

   Along the way, Bernard disposed of another of Notre Dame’s finest golfers, Catherine Elliott, the Merion G.C. player who led the University of Pennsylvania to the NCAA Tournament in her senior year in the spring of 2010. Bernard won the matchup that featured arguably two of the best players to ever tee it up for Notre Dame in a convincing 8 and 6 semifinal match.

   Bernard capped her freshman season at Bucknell by carding a final-round 72 for a 226 total in the Big South Tournament. Her second-place finish was a record for a Bison player and she led Bucknell to a third-place finish in the team race, also a record at the Lewisburg-based school.

   In the quarterfinals, Bernard edged Christine Shimel, the 2008 PIAA champion when she was at Kennett, 2 and 1. Shimel plays collegiately at the University of Maryland.

   Elliott had claimed the qualifying medal with a 75, just a shot better than Bernard’s 76.

   DiMarco, who is headed for the University of Kansas, fired the loudest shot in the opening round of match play when she stunned Laura Ladden, who won this title for an eighth time a year ago, 4 and 3.

   Overbrook G.C.’s Karen McFadden also earned a spot in the championship flight with an 83 in qualifying. McFadden was ousted in the first round of match play, 5 and 4, by Kelli Pry of Coatesville C.C. DiMarco, playing out of Penn Oaks G.C., edged Pry in the semifinals on the 19th hole, the second of three straight matches in which DiMarco went to extra holes, including the final.

   Sarah Harvey of Edgmont C.C. just missed earning a spot in the championship flight with an 84 in qualifying. Competing in the first flight, Harvey edged Carol Cowhey of Philadelphia Cricket Club on the 19th hole before falling, 7 and 6, to eventual first-flight winner Marji Goldman, also of the Cricket Club.

In the opening round of the first flight, Goldman knocked out Aronimink’s Lyn Kurz, 4 and 3. Kurz posted an 86 in qualifying.

   Carol Wlotko of Llanerch C.C. also won a match in the first flight before falling after carding an 85 in qualifying. Wlotko claimed a 6 and 5 victory over Judith Owens of Waynesborough C.C. before falling, 3 and 1, to eventual first-flight runnerup Ruth Averback of Old York Road C.C.

   Wendy Kennedy of The Springhaven Club earned a spot in the second flight with a 92 in qualifying. She claimed a 2 and 1 victory over Susan Trombley in the first round before getting knocked out by eventual second-flight winner Christine Hunt of Whitford C.C., 6 and 5, in the second round.

   Mary Jo McWilliams of Llanerch carded an 88 in qualifying, but was unable to compete in match play.

Philadelphia PGA Junior Tour

   Penncrest senior Patrick Nommensen, an All-Delco second-team pick as a junior, carded an 8-over 79 to finish second in the 16-to-18 division in a Philadelphia PGA Junior Tour stop at Llanerch C.C. Monday.

   Jonathan Rennard of Phoenixville fired a 4-under 32 total on the front nine at Llanerch on his way to an even-par 71 that gave him first place.

   Broomall’s Mac Ryan, a junior at St. Joseph’s Prep, finished in a tie for third with an 81. Springfield junior Kyle Hakun was two shots back of Ryan in seventh with an 83.

   Springfield’s Jim Callahan, like Ryan a junior at the Prep, finished in a tie for 10th with an 85.

   In the nine-hole division, John Updike of Wayne finished second with a 44, Kevin Smith of Wallingford placed fourth with a 52 and Michael Sydnes of Bryn Mawr was sixth with a 55.

   Leading the Delco contingent in the 13-to-15 division at Llanerch was Garnet Valley’s McAnally, who posted a 6-over 77 to finish second. Marple Newtown’s Soeth was third with an 80, Media’s Griffin Colvin finished in a tie for eighth with an 86 and Alec Kerr of Broomall finished 11th with an 87.

   Garnet Valley senior Erica Cornacchia carded an 85 to finish second in the girls 16-to-18 division.

o

   Nommensen headed for New Jersey Tuesday and Wednesday for a Junior Tour Junior Golf Scoreboard two-day event at Little Mill C.C. and Pennsauken C.C., respectively.

   Nommensen bounced back from one of his worst rounds of the summer, a 91 at Little Mill, with a 5-over 75 at Pennsauken to finish seventh overall at 166 in the 16-to-18 division for the two-day event.

   Nommensen’s 75 at Pennsauken left him a tie for fifth in his division for the day.

   Radnor junior Ben Kleiman teed it up at Little Mill and his 80 left him in second place in the 16-to-18 division for the day.

Also at Little Mill, Wallingford’s Smith finished fourth among the nine-holers with a 47. Wayne’s Updike finished second in the nine-hole division at Pennsauken with a 39.

o

   Nommensen made an eagle on the 17th hole on his way to an even-par 72 that gave him the top spot in the 16-to-18 division in a Junior Tour stop at Ron Jaworski’s Valleybrook C.C. July 7.

   Smith continued his strong play in the nine-hole division with a 45 that gave him a fourth-place3 finish.

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  Springfield’s Callahan earned a share of second place in the 16-to-18 division after posting an 8-over 80 in a Junior Tour stop at the Moorestown Field Club July 8.

   Updike of Wayne finished in a tie for third in the nine-hole division with a 48.

o

   Radnor’s Kleiman settled for third place in a match of cards after firing a 2-over 73 in a Junior Tour stop at Linfield National G.C. July 6.

 Kleiman finished in a tie for second with Douglas MacDonald of Berwyn.

   In the girls 13-to-15 division Anniak Vandayar of Garnet Valley finished in a tie for second with a 94.

Swinging seniors

   Llanerch C.C.’s Neil McDermott, patriarch of the golfing McDermott family, made up part of a powerhouse squad that easily repeated as the winner of the GAP Senior Four-Man Team event held Thursday at Applecross C.C.

   McDermott teamed with Carl Everett of Merion G.C., Mike Rose of Meadowlands C.C. and Don Donatoni of White Manor C.C. for a two-best-balls-of-foursome total of 14-under 130 over the 6,182-yard, par-72 Applecross layout.

   "It’s hard to know what the formula is in these team events, but we just seem to play well together," said McDermott, who contributed birdies at nine, 10 and 12 to the cause and watched Donatoni make seven birdies on his ball. "We are very comfortable around each other."

   That left them two shots clear of a strong runnerup entry that included Frank McFadden and Ray Thompson of Overbrook G.C., Douglas Fraser of Galloway Natuional G.C. and Terry Sawyer of Mercer Oaks G.C.

   The Springhaven Club entry of Andrew Harmer, John Turner, Rich Thon and Robert Maze finished in a tie for fifth at 141.

   A day earlier Overbrook’s McFadden fell in the semifinals of Brewer Cup Senior at Bellewood C.C., going 19 holes before bowing out to Craig Scott of Huntingdon Valley C.C.

   Scott went on to lose, 3 and 2, to Chip Lutz of LedgeRock G.C. in the final.

Outings and tournaments

   21ST ANNUAL JOHN A. MOSCHELLA GOLF TOURNAMENT

"Fore the Kids" will be held Saturday, Aug. 6 with an 11 a.m. shotgun start at Beckett Golf Club in Swedesboro, N.J. Cost is $90 per player and includes greens fee, cart, individual and team prizes and door prizes. Following golf there will be a buffet awards dinner and three-hour open bar at the Red Lantern’s Tiki Bar, 41 Oak Lane in Folcroft. The tournament benefits the Folcroft Boys Club. Hole sponsors are also being sought. Call: Dino "Gabby" Hartnett (215) 778-0360.

Shattuck dominates at Concord

   Sun Valley senior Braden Shattuck dominated the field in the Philadelphia Section Junior PGA Championship with rounds of 66 and 68 for a 134 total that earned him a trip to the 36th Junior PGA Championship Aug. 2 to 5 at Sycamore Hills G.C. in Fort Wayne, Ind.
   Shattuck’s closest competitor was Episcopal Academy junior Sean Fahey, who topped the ages 13-to-15 division with rounds of 71 and 68 at Concord for a 139 total that left him five shots back of Shattuck in the overall scoring. Fahey was coming off a strong showing in the Golf Association of Philadelphia Junior Boys Championship that saw him reach the semifinals.
   Many of Delco’s top scholastic players were in the field, including All-Delco Scott Jaster, a Haverford School junior, who had rounds of 71 and 74 to finish at 145, which earned him a runnerup finish to Shattuck in the 16-to-18 division.
   Also in the 16-to-18 division, Radnor senior Kavian Bina had rounds of 78 and 81 for a 159 total that left him in a tie for 20th.
   Haverford School sophomore Cole Berman was the runnerup to Fahey in the 13-to-15 division with rounds of 78 and 74 and a 152 total. Marple Newtown All-Delco Sam Soeth finished in a tie for eighth with rounds of 83 and 78 for a 161 total, Radnor junior Carey Bina (81-81) and Paul Yun (78-84) of Broomall finished in a tie for 10th at 162 and Springfield sophomore Brian Todaro (83-83) finished 15th at 166.
   Representing the Philadelphia Section in the girls competition at the Junior PGA Championshp, presented by Under Armour and Heritage F.S.E., will be Erica Herr, who captured the District One title last fall in her freshman season at Council Rock North. Herr had rounds of 75 and 76 at Concord for a 151 total.
The nine-hole youngsters got to play a full 18 and John Updike of Wayne finished fourth with an 88 and Kevin Smith of Wallingford was eighth with a 100.
Nommensen takes fifth
   Penncrest senior Patrick Nommensen, who made the All-Delco second team as a junior, finished in a tie for fifth in the 16-to-18 division in a two-day Philadelphia PGA Tour event played at Bellewood G.C. and Downingtown C.C. in Chester County.
   Day 1 was June 28 at Bellewood and Nommensen carded an 82 then came back June 29 at Downingtown with an 80 for a 162 total. Brendan Worth of Chester Springs finished first overall, firing a 67 at Bellewood and a 77 at Downingtown for a 144 total.
  Radnor junior Ben Kleiman carded an 83 at Downingtown to finish in a tie for 15th in the 16-to-18 division on day 2 of the event. Springfield junior Kyle Hakun also teed it up at Downingtown and finished in a tie for 29th with an 89.
   In the girls 16-to-18 division, Radnor senior Jamie Susanin competed both days and finished fifth overall with rounds of 91 at Bellewood and 89 at Downingtown for a 180 total.
   Garnet Valley senior Erica Cornacchia posted and 87 at Downingtown, which was good enough to earn her a tie for third in the day 2 competition.
   In the boys 13-to-15 division, Griffin Colvin of Media carded a 97 at Bellewood, but bounced back with an 84 at Downingtown to finish in a tie for 11th overall at 181.
  Among those who only teed it up at Downingtown, Springfield sophomore Brian Todaro had an 81 (fifth place) and Radnor sophomore Austin Dunlap had an 87 (tied for 15th).
  In the nine-hole division at Downingtown, John Updike of Wayne finished second with a 42, Gabriella Kim of Wayne finished fifth with a 50 and Kevin Smith of Wallingford finished sixth with a 53. In the nine-hole division at Bellewood, Michael Sydnes of Bryn Mawr finished sixth with a 55.

The unabridged musings from Aronimink

This is a longer version of  Tom McNichol's column in the Sunday Times that did not quite fit the constraints placed on it by the printed page

NEWTOWN  — The AT&T National will end its all-too-brief and seemingly successful run at Aronimink Golf Club when the final round comes to a close today.
Ironically, for an event that was anticipated as the chance for Philadelphia area golf fans to finally get a chance to see the great Tiger Woods in action, there were just four mediocre  — by his standards  — rounds in 2010.
Not that the golfing public cared. You can spend a lifetime covering sports and not see anything like the crowds that descended on this Donald Ross gem to see Woods play last year.
Good, bad or indifferent, they didn’t care. They just wanted to see one of the greatest players in the history of the game, play.
 Not that those of us in the media got cheated. When Woods arrived for media day in 2010, it marked the first time since  — you know, the Thanksgiving night fire hydrant thing  — that he took questions in a full-blown press conference setting. It was a media circus to beat all media circuses, not that Woods had a whole lot to say about the state of his marriage or any of the dozen or so “girlfriends” who had come out of the woodwork in the wake of – you know, the Thanksgiving night fire hydrant thing.
  At  media day this year, Woods was taking questions in a full-blown press conference setting for the first time since he walked off the course at TPC Sawgrass after taking 42 shots on the first nine holes of The Players Championship. Even his appearance here Tuesday was the first time Woods had really spoken to media – you know, besides tweets and that kind of  nonsense – since media day and, more importantly, since Rory McIlroy had done a pretty good impersonation of Woods circa 2000 in stomping the field in the U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club.
 But what everybody seems to want to know now that the PGA Tour is leaving town and won’t be back until the U.S. Open returns to Merion in 2013 – and the National Open is something a little more than a PGA Tour stop – will the tour ever come back?
The people at Aronimink have not been shy about the fact that part of their motivation for staging the AT&T was to showcase the course and prove that the overall physical plant has the capability to put on a major championship.
It hasn’t hurt their case one little bit that conditions at Congressional Country Club, where the AT&T will return next year, for last month’s U.S. Open were decidedly un-U.S. Open like. The question of whether Aronimink was playing more like a U.S. Open course than Congressional did was greeted by wry smiles and silence from several players who had no intention of falling out of the good graces of the United States Golf Association.
So yeah, Aronimink is playing more like a U.S. Open course than Congressional did. Of course, if you  ever doubt how much a difference the course “setup” matters, all you had to do was check out guys like Chris Kirk lighting up Aronimink to the tune of a 63 Saturday to understand that moving up a couple of tees and placing pins in accessible locations is all these guys need to go low.
Regardless of all that, the sometimes cranky bunch that plays golf tournaments for a living almost universally gushed about Aronimink this week.
“Every player absolutely loves this place,” Robert Garrigus said
following his opening round of 2-under 68 Thursday. “You know where you can’t hit it and you know where you can. If you hit it there, you’re rewarded.”
Adam Scott, who opened with a 4-under 66, also liked what he saw at Aronimink.
“I have to say it’s set up very, very nicely here,” said Scott, who dimly recalled playing in the 1997 U.S. Junior Amateur at Aronimink. “It’s a great golf course, obviously, and it’s in great shape. But they’ve set it up beautifully.
“The greens are perfect and they’ve got very generous fairways, but severe rough, which is a nice balance. There’s good scores out there, but you have to play well, I think.”
Reportedly there were PGA people and USGA people in town checking things out this week, but even if a major championship was to come to Aronimink, it would be years down the road.
How about a regular tour stop, like the one that used to come to Whitemarsh Valley Country Club every summer until it was discontinued following the 1980 edition?
PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem did express an interest in that possibility, although he said it would be unlikely that it would happen until some time after the 2013 Open at Merion. Again, there has been nothing but good vibes from the tour about the way the AT&T National at Aronimink has been embraced by the fans and, probably more significantly, the business community in the Philadelphia area.
“This is a terrific sports town with a terrific economy of its own,” Finchem said. “The PGA Tour hasn’t been here in a while and we have a strong fan  base here and in our early discussions with the leadership here at Aronimink, there was terrific enthusiasm by the  membership as well. We would definitely like to continue an involvement here in Philadelphia and we’re actively looking for ways to do that.”
  The people at Aronimink seem more interested in having a major championship, so a regular tour stop would probably have to go somewhere else. It’s a big commitment for the  membership at a private club to give up its golf course in the middle of a short season in this part of the world. There’s been some talk that the membership at Congressional is already tiring of its annual commitment to the AT&T National.
  So if you’ re a golf fan, don’t  pass up the opportunity to get out to Aronimink today because it might be a while before you get another up-close look at the best players in the world. We got the fireworks The Golf Channel promised all last week in Saturday’s third round. It might not be a bad golf memory at all to see Rickie Fowler claim his first professional win, right here in Delaware County.

Fahey falls in GAP Junior semifinals -- Golf Notebook

   Episcopal Academy junior Sean Fahey reached  the semifinals of the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s Junior Boys Championship before falling Friday at Running Deer Golf Club in Pittsgrove Township, N.J.
   Fahey, playing out of Overbrook G.C., dropped a 1-up decision to Reilly Erhardt, the 14-year-old medalist from Newtown, Bucks County and Trenton C.C. Later Friday, Brandon Matthews of Fox Hill C.C. edged Erhardt, 1-up, in the title match.
   In the semifinals, Erhardt drew even with Fahey when he dropped a seven-footer for birdie on the ninth hole. Fahey lost the next two holes when he found fairway bunkers off the tee and Erhardt kept him at bay the rest of the way.
   “It’s been a great week,” Fahey, who carded a 76 over the 6,595-yard, par-72 Running Deer layout in qualifying Monday, told the GAP website. “It’s the first time I’ve played in the tournament. It’s fun to come out and do pretty well.”
    Fahey had an interesting day Wednesday. He knocked off Episcopal classmate Alex Dupre — Dupre, playing out of Rolling Green G.C., had finished in a tie for fourth in qualifying with a 1-over 73 — 5 and 4 in an opening-round match.
   Then Dupre turned around and caddied for Fahey in the afternoon and a long day got longer when Fahey needed 22 holes to finally edge Kevin Conners Jr. of Whitford C.C.
   Sam Soeth, coming off an All-Delco freshman campaign at Marple Newtown, made a big splash in his GAP debut by carding a 1-under 71 to finish a shot behind Erhardt in qualifying.
   Soeth, playing out of White Manor C.C., started on the back nine at Running Dear and made three straight birdies at 16, 17 and 18 to make up for a double bogey and a bogey and make the turn at even-par. After a bogey at the second and a birdie at the third, Soeth got under-par for the round by drilling a 9-iron approach at the par-4 sixth to five feet and making the birdie putt.
   “I’m trying to play in bigger tournaments this summer,” Soeth told the GAP website. “I wanted to come out and play a good round and see what happened.”
   T.J. Summers of Commonwealth National G.C. knocked Soeth out in the opening round of match play, 3 and 2.
    Overbrook G.C.’s Mac Ryan, a junior at St. Joseph’s Prep, carded a 2-over 74 in qualifying before falling, 3 and 1, to Zach Arsenault of Little Mill C.C. in the opening round of match play.
   Garnet Valley senior Eddie Maul was among the qualifiers for the first flight of matches after carding an 81 in qualifying. Maul advanced to the first flight quarterfinals when Merion G.C.’s Jake Van Arkel withdrew from their opening-round match before falling, 7 and 5, to  Connor Goodrich of Merchantville C.C.
   Haverford School senior Mac Selverian, an All-Delco as a sophomore, was also a first-flight qualifier with an 80, but fell, 4 and 3, to Jack Quirk of Huntingdon Valley C.C. Selverian was playing out of Aronimink G.C.
Overbrook is still the one
   A potent Overbrook G.C. team won the GAP Team Championship for the second straight year and 14th    time overall by piling up 20 points Thursday at Philmont C.C.’s North Course.
   Competing against Llanerch C.C., Commonwealth National G.C. and Little Mill C.C., Overbrook finished two points ahead of Llanerch and Commonwealth with Little Mill finishing fourth with 16 points.
A couple of the Overbrook veterans, Frank McFadden and Oscar Mestre picked up 2.5 points apiece in the singles competition. Mestre teamed with Villanova junior Michael Kania, the two-time Haverford School All-Delco, to earn 1.5 points in foursomes and McFadden and Chris Lange Jr. added a point in foursomes.
   Rounding out the Overbrook team were James Kania Jr., the 2005-06 Daily Times Player of the Year at Haverford School, Chris Lange, Ray Thompson and former Radnor High and Saint Joseph’s standout Bob Cunningham.
   The Llanerch side included five-time William Hyndman III Player of the Year Michael McDermott, Strath Haven All-Delco Steve Seiden, Jeff Osberg, Sean Coyle, Mike Rogers, J.P. Glynn, Tom Spano and Brian McDermott. Osberg was Llanerch’s top point-getter in the singles competition with three. He also teamed with Coyle to earn 2.5 points in the foursomes matches.
Philadelphia PGA Junior Tour
   Garnet Valley senior Erica Cornacchia, a two-time District One qualifier, carded an 89 to take the top spot in the 16-to-18 division in a Junior Tour stop at Wyncote G.C. June 24.
   In the boys 13-to-15 division Penncrest sophomore Ethan Heller shared the top spot with Kevin Connors of Downingtown at 1-over 73, but Connors took top honors in a match-of-cards tiebreaker.
   Sam Soeth, the Marple Newtown All-Delco, was a shot back in a tie for third at 2-over 74.
   Jake van Arkel, a Merion G.C. member, finished ninth with a 78, Radnor sophomore Austin Dunlap was 13th with an 83, John Concannon of Glen Mills finished in a tie for 23rd with an 89, Griffin Colvin of Media and Michael Stanilka of Garnet Valley were among the players tied for 28th with 92s and Cole Stratton of Glen Mills finished in a tie for 32nd with a 94.
   In the boys 16-to-18 division, Garnet Valley senior Eddie Maul finished 14th with an 88.
Caddie Tournament
   James Pokorny, a former Haverford High standout representing Merion G.C., carded an 81 at Green Valley C.C. Monday to finish in a tie for 14th at the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s 65th Caddie Tournament.
Overall top honors went to Matthew Wiley, a 37-year-old looper at Hidden Creek G.C. who carded a 1-under 70 at the 6,360-yard, par-71 Green Valley layout.
Club Pro Championship
   Concord C.C. head pro Mike Moses did not earn a trip to this year’s PGA Championship with his performance at the PGA Professional National Championship this week at Hershey Country Club, but he played some pretty good golf.
   Moses had rounds of 73, 69, 72 and 74 to finish in a tie for 43rd at  288. It took four shots better to make the top 20 and earn a spot in the field at the Atlanta Athletic Club in August.
   Stu Ingraham, the teaching pro at the M Golf Range in Newtown Square, was a shot back of Moses at 289. Ingraham made the field for the 2010 PGA at Whistling Straits with a strong showing at the National Club Pro.
   Merion G.C. head of instruction Mark Sheftic had finished third and second in the last two National Club Pro events, but failed to make the cut with a pair of 72s and a 144 total.

Open and shut case

   The golf writers gathered at Congressional Country Club to chronicle Rory McIlroy's runaway U.S. Open victory seem to be in a big hurry to chalk the record-setting effort by the youngster from Northern Ireland to easy conditions last week in Bethesda, Md.
   Kind of reminded me of the USGA's panic in the wake of David Graham's masterful final round 30 years to the week at the 1981 U.S. Open at Merion's famed East Course, where the National Open will finally return in two years. The golf course was too easy, everybody seemed to think. Graham's 273 total was just a shot behind the 272 record that Jack Nicklaus had established a year earlier at Baltusrol.
   All of which, I still think, has taken away from a magnificent final round by the Australian. He basically didn't miss a fairway or a green in the final round. Anybody who has ever played Merion East can tell you how difficult that is to do. They will also tell you that that's the secret to scoring at Merion, and a lot of other golf courses, too.
   Probably not a lot of golf fans noted the list of youngest 54-hole U.S. Open leaders that McIlroy was on after Saturday's third round. It included that Nicklaus fella and also one Jim Simons. It was 40 years to the week when a lot of us were pulling for "the kid" at the 1971 U.S. Open at Merion. A native of western Pennsylvania who was a 21-year-old Wake Forest player, Simons was in the hunt until the very last hole of that '71 Open.
   When Simons died a couple of years ago much too young, his Wake Forest teammate back in those days, Lanny Wadkins, recalled what a technically proficient player Simons was. Wadkins was always one of the purest talents of that era, but he marveled at Simons' ability to manage his game and the golf course. That's what the young amateur did at Merion, taking what the golf course gave him, nothing more, nothing less.
   Which brings us to the talented kid from Northern Ireland. He very simply put on a clinic on how to win a U.S. Open. He drove it straight and hit it on the green. Yes, the soft conditions allowed him to get some of those approaches particularly close. But as two-time U.S. Open champion Andy North noted on ESPN's Open recap Sunday night, look how many of those approach shots came from the middle of the fairway.
   As several observers noted Sunday, the USGA is not going to be happy about the number that McIlroy posted at Congressional. The organization overreacted to Johnny Miller's final-round 63 to win the 1973 Open at Oakmont by turning Winged Foot into a house of horrors in 1974 with the former Colorado football star Hale Irwin taking full advantage of the brutal conditions to earn one of his three National Open titles.
   It's unlikely that anybody will get to 16-under par at Olympia Fields next summer.
   All of which will set the stage for the return of the U.S. Open to Merion for the first time in 32 years in 2013. McIlroy's game would appear to be a good fit for the demands of an East Course that will be criticized as "too short" in advance of the 2013 Open.
   In the aftermath of the 2009 Walker Cup at Merion, Rickie Fowler and Peter Uihlein, who won the U.S. Amateur last summer, were in the media room, discussing, among other things, what kind of challenge Merion had presented.
   I can't remember which of the talented twosome said it (althought I think it was Fowler), but the answer went: "They can make this golf course as hard as they want to."
   Of course, if somebody decides to hit all the fairways and greens, as Jim Simons did as a 21-year-old amateur 40 years ago, as David Graham did as a precise veteran 30 years ago and as the 22-year-old McIlroy did last week at Congressional, Merion East can be had.

Hyland is Philly Amateur champion

   Michael Hyland of Little Mill C.C. claimed the second Golf Association of Philadelphia Amateur Champonship title of his career with a hard-fought 1-up triumph over Stephen Hudacek III of Glenmaura National G.C. in a 36-hole final that went the distance.
   Hyland was just 21 when he first wrote his name on the J. Wood Platt Trophy with a Philly Amateur victory in 2000. In the ensuing 11 years, he turned pro, but then returned to the amateur ranks in 2005 before becoming the 17th player to own multiple Philly Amateur titles.

Kania Jr. giving it the college try

    Villanova golf coach Jim Wilkes confirmed last week a rumor that's been going around that James Kania Jr., the 2009 GAP Player of the Year, decided not to play his senior season at the University of Kentucky. Kania, the 2004-05 Daily Times Player of the Year following his junior season at The Haverford School, instead will try to rejoin younger brother Michael and play at Villanova in the spring of 2012.
   James Kania Jr. will be taking classes this summer and again in the fall semester with the intention of joining a talented Villanova nucleus next spring. The Wildcats got a huge talent infusion to an already solid group last summer when Michael Kania, Rob Galbreath, one of GAP's all-time best junior players and a two-time district One champion at Lower Moreland, and Brian Murphy transferred in to the Main Line. Villanova finished third in the Big East Tournament to cap a very successful spring campaign last month.
   Wilkes also said that Will Reilly, who began the 2010-11 school year as the Villanova coach, turned the program over to Wilkes after Reilly joined the national PGA as its director of junior golf.

Kan ready to write the next chapter

   If you're a golf fan, I hope you've been following the career of Chichester's Aurora Kan, the 2010 PIAA champion whose brilliant scholastic career it was my distinct pleasure to chronicle.
    For the third time, I wrote a Player of the Year story on Kan in Tuesday's Daily Times, but it's hardly the last you'll hear from her. She's headed for Purdue to join a program that has been the NCAA champion in 2010 and runnerup in 2011. Kan is likely to run into her old rival, Jackie Calamaro, who won the 2009 PIAA title at Radnor and is now at Illinois.
   In the meantime, Kan will be trying to add to the four USGA events she's already competed in in her still fledgling golf career this summer. She is a tremendous player and a better person, as her teachers and classmates at Chichester and her fellow competitors on the golf course will attest.

It's Open week

    Sean O'Hair capped a fairly disastrous first half of 2011 by failing to qualify for this week's U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club.
   O'Hair was among a large group of touring pros who went from the Memorial to the sectional qualfier at Brookside Country Club and The Lakes Country Club in Columbus, Ohio. There were 16 spots available, but the 120-player field was probably more competitive than any of the other sectionals.
   After an opening-round 68, O'Hair fell back to a 72 and missed qualifying by three shots.
   O'Hair, who lives outside of West Chester, is a favorite son in Delco ever since marrying Jackie Lucas, herself a pretty darn good player at Sun Valley. O'Hair fired his caddy and his swing coach and has his father-in-law Steve, who has an insurance company in Aston, back on the bag. Steve, a pretty good athlete in his younger says, has always been a calming influence on his son-in-law when he's been on the bag.
   Much has been made about the "incident" between O'Hair and Rory Sabbatini at the tour stop in New Orleans. Although the PGA Tour doesn't announce suspensions, Sabbatini's absence from the tour in recent weeks has led many to believe he was indeed suspended.
   O'Hair still has plenty of time to turn this year around and he'll certainly have a ton of supporters in his corner in three weeks at the AT&T National at Aronimink, one of his home courses (along with Concord) in the county.
    In my Golf Notebook in Saturday's Daily Times, I  mentioned that Michael Kania, the two-time Haverfod School All-Delco who is coming off a solid sophomore season at Villanova, also failed to make it to the Open with a rounds of 74 and 78 at Woodmont C.C. in Rockville, Md. He'll take a shot at the Golf Association of Philadelphia's Amateur Championship when he tees off in qualifying Monday at Manufacturers G.&C.C. and North Hills C.C. Kania reached the final in the chase for the J. Wood Platt Trophy a year ago only to fall to Justin Martinson.
   Billy Stewart, who was a Llanerch C.C. member when he won the Philly Amateur championship a couple of weeks after graduating from Malvern Prep, teed it up in the U.S. Open sectional qualifier at Canoe Brook C.C. in Summit, N.J. He had rounds of 74 and 71, his 145 total missing the qualifying cut by seven shots.
   When Tiger Woods announced he would not be healthy enough in time to tee it up at Congressional, it meant that this will be the first U.S. Open Woods will not play in since the 1994 Open at Oakmont.
    That '94 Open also marked the start of a streak of major championships by Vijay Singh. When the three-time major champion decided not to give it a go at the sectional qualifying last week, it meant the longest major streak was coming to an end.
  Want to know how long ago that '94 Open was? Well, I was at Oakmont that Open Friday. It was ridiculously hot and it was Arnold Palmer's final competitive U.S. Open round, making it a pretty emotional day in his native western Pennsylvania. Oh yeah, and there was a lot of buzz about a certain former football star wanted in the murder of his ex-wife riding around the freeways of Los Angeles in a white Bronco.
Off the mark
   In my post on the LPGA last week, I indicated that Yani Tseng had pulled out of the ShopRite Classic. Well, that was apparently news to the No. 1 player in the world, who blistered the classic Seaview Bay Course layout with a final-round 65 to finish in a tie for seventh.
   The point, though, remains the same. The paucity of events on the LPGA Tour means that when there is a tournament, just about all the top players are going to be in the field.

LPGA's pain is a golf fan's gain

    Much has been made of the slimmed-down schedule the LPGA has been forced to endure, mostly due to the downturn in the economy and partially owing to the previous commissioner who meant well, but chased away many of the circuit's traditional small-market events.
    Of the 27 or so events on the LPGA schedule only about a dozen are in the United States. The LPGA has been forced to recognize the game's global appeal, maybe even a little more than it really wants to.
    If you're a golf fan and there's an event near you, like this weekend's ShopRite Classic just outside of Atlantic City, N.J., the good news is that you'll likely find your favorite player teeing it up.
   On the PGA Tour, the big names routinely ignore the smaller tournaments. With all the money Tiger Woods has helped the tour generate, the big boys need only tee it up at the four majors, the World Golf Championship events and a few selected others to rake in a million or two.
   But when there's an LPGA event, the chance to make a check draws anybody who is eligible. The top namees in women's golf were in Gladstone, N.J. a couple of weeks ago for the Sybase Match Play Championship and they are back this week in A.C., and not just because they like to play slots.
    There were a couple of defections this week when injury and illness forced Yani Tseng and Suzanne Petterson, who won the Match Play, to put the clubs away.
    But if you're headed for the Jersey Shore today, you can see second-round leader Cristie Kerr and the best playeers in women's golf duking it out at the ShopRite.
    They're also playing a truly classic golf course, Seaview's Bay Course. The layout was originally mapped out by Hugh Wilson, who didn't even know there was such a thing as a golf course architect when he designed Merion's East Course. The Seaview job was then completed by Donald Ross, the author of any number of America's classic golf courses, including Aronimink G.C., where the AT&T National will be contested in a few weeks.
    The LPGA players have to make hay while they can, so skipping tournaments is not nearly as prevalent for them as it is on the PGA Tour.
A Sam sighting
    Sam Ryder, named the 2006-07 Daily Times Player of the Year after leading Radnor to the inaugural PIAA team title at a cold and windswept Heritage Hills Golf Resort in the fall of 2006, hasn't been playing a lot of competitive golf since his scholastic days.
     That's why it was to see him teaming up with dad David in the Golf Association of Philadelphia's Father & Son Middle Championship last week at Bala G.C.
   The Middle Father & Son event is for teams in which the son ranges in age from 18 to 29. GAP added the event because of the popularity of its Father & Son events in which younger and older sons tee it up with their dads.
   Representing Aronimink G.C., Team Ryder finished in a tie for fourth with a 73 in the gross scoring. Their 68 left them in a tie for fifth in the net division.
    Jeff Klagholz of Rolling Green G.C. teamed with his dad Martin, who plays out of Applebrook G.C., to finish in a tie for second at 71. Team Klagholz was among the groups tied with Team Ryder at 68 in the net scoring.
    Michael Johnson, a member of the La Salle University golf team, joined forces with dad Jim to take the title as the duo out of Talamore C.C. posted a 2-over 70 at Bala.