51st Four-Ball Stroke Play Championship

Towson alums Baloga, Mandel prevail at Philmont

HUNTINGDON VALLEY, Pa. — Marc Mandel became the second individual to win the Four-Ball Stroke Play Championship three times Wednesday.

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The Philadelphia Cricket Club member paired with Chris Baloga to take the event’s 51^st edition at Philmont Country Club (par 70, 6,407 yards). The team carded a 7-under-par 63.

Mandel and fellow Cricketeer Ryan Gelrod won the Four-Ball in consecutive years (2014-15). Blaise Giroso teamed with Davis Sezna to win the Four-Ball in 1985 and 1988. He and Jeff Stoneberger prevailed in 1983.

“Wow. That is cool,” a smiling Mandel said. “And [Gelrod] didn’t want to play with me anymore.”

A Baloga union made sense. Sure, the two teamed in last year’s Four-Ball Stroke Play Championship and finished a shot off the lead. Motivation spilled over. But the venue enticed, too.

“When I saw it was scheduled for Philmont, I was really looking forward to it. The first event Marc and I ever played in together was the North/South [a two-day better-ball event] they had here. We won that three years in a row,” Baloga, 39, of Towson, Md., said. “I hadn’t been here since [winning in 2010]. I was really looking forward to coming back and playing in it.”

Baloga channeled that enthusiasm into an opening birdie. He hit a wedge 85 yards to 20 feet on No. 1 (par 4, 383 yards). Baloga, the men’s golf coach at Loyola University Maryland, closed the team’s outward tour with a birdie as well: an up-and-in from 40 yards following a coolly cut 4-iron on No. 9 (par 5, 563 yards). Mandel sprinkled in a birdie on the par 3, 154-yard No. 3, where he left an 8-iron 15 feet above the flagstick.

The Baloga and Mandel team trailed clubhouse leaders Michael Boslet and Shane Edwards of Hawk Pointe Golf Club by two at the turn. Mandel quickly erased the deficit. On No. 10 (par 4, 329 yards), he hit a wedge 60 yards to 10 feet for birdie. Mandel’s 5-wood settled 15 feet below the hole location on No. 11 (par 3, 218 yards). He buried the uphill putt. On the gettable 13^th hole (par 4, 283 yards), Mandel reached the green with a 3-wood and rolled two putts from 15 feet for birdie. He added insurance on No. 17 (par 3, 181 yards). Both Mandel and Baloga attacked a back hole location with crisp 7-irons. Baloga’s golf ball stopped two feet outside of Mandel’s. He narrowly missed a 12-footer. Mandel, gleaning a hint, made his 10-footer.

“I had a feeling [we were leading]. I just figured leave a bogey off the card,” Mandel, 40, of Plymouth Meeting, Pa., said.

Baloga and Mandel met at Towson University, where they both competed on the men’s golf team. Mandel graduated in 2004, Baloga in 2005. The two remained in touch and enhanced their golf bond over the years.

“Chris is coming up and playing in more GAP events,” Mandel said. “We’re both very similar. Chris is a better driver of the golf ball I’d say. We both have a really good mindset on the course. We’re both very comfortable playing golf with one another. The biggest thing is mentally, we complement each other very well.”

“I play with another friend of mine, Jeff Castle. For whatever reason, i’m not as comfortable playing golf with him. I feel like I’m going to let him down,” Baloga, a Briarwood Golf Club member, added. “With Marc and I, if we bogeyed the last two holes, we know we tried our best. There’s definitely a comfort level there.”

Their best was good enough Wednesday.

GAP
Celebrating Amateur Golf since 1897, GAP, also known as the Golf Association of Philadelphia, is the oldest regional or state golf association in the United States. It serves as the principal ruling body of amateur golf in its region. The Association’s 330 Member Clubs and 90,000 individual members are spread across Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland. The GAP’s mission is to promote, preserve and protect the game of golf.