A fiery DuPont Country Club slayed the perceived Senior Club Team Challenge dragon.
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It posted 51 points to defeat three-time titleholder (2014, 2016, 2019) Little Mill Country Club (37.5 points) and Hershey Country Club (19.5 points) in the Playoff on Oct. 23. The Senior Club Team Challenge is a three-week competition for players 55 years of age or older.
“We scraped through the first two weeks. We won easily in the first week. Then in the second week, we didn’t play all that well but still won our division,” Mason Tyler, DuPont’s team captain, said. “Going into the Playoff against Little Mill … it was a huge victory. Everyone felt pretty good about the win, and everyone played just super. It was one of those weeks when everyone on the team played great.”
Sure was. Matt Kohn and Jim Kegelman defended the DuPont shield with 16.5 points. Little Mill presents a golf course that typically favors the homebodies in team competition. However, Michael Boyle and Thomas Finn escaped the Jersey barrens with 16.5 points as a team.
Tyler and Michael Fagan rounded out the DuPont contingent by collectively producing 18 points at Hershey. Fagan, of note, won 24 of 27 available points throughout the Senior Club Team Challenge.
“We had a very strong team,” Tyler, 71, of Kennett Square, Pa., said. “Most of us know each other and play golf together on a regular basis. There’s a great camaraderie.”
DuPont first participated in the Senior Club Team Challenge in 2017. It advanced to the Playoff a year later, finishing third behind Merion Golf Club (47 points) and Little Mill (45.5). Then came an unforeseen absence in 2019.
“There was a bit of a mix-up,” Tyler said. “GAP sent us an invitation to play, but it was at the time our club [was changing ownership]. By the time we realized we should be hearing about [registration for] the Senior Club Team Challenge, it was too late. We couldn’t get in. We would’ve been in it, except for the oversight.”
The Senior Club Team Challenge was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. DuPont, as a club, turned 100 years old that year. It turned into its next century with exciting additions such as a state-of-the-art driving range, aquatic complex and fitness.
Now its team fervor is turned to the max. DuPont field five teams in the 2021 BMW GAP Team Matches. It auditioned for the 101st Team Championship. And the Senior Club Team Challenge will remain a staple on the club calendar.
“We’re committed to it. We’ll definitely be in it next year,” Tyler said. “We’ll be happy to recruit other clubs as well. It was real good fun.”
The Senior Club Team Challenge, introduced in 2014, features teams of eight; format is singles match play (gross only). Matches are scored as a Nassau with one point awarded for each of the nines. Participating clubs each host a pair of foursomes on Saturdays in October. Those foursomes are slotted in a four-team bracket, with the winners of each section competing in the Senior Club Team Challenge Playoff.
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 300 Member Clubs and 80,000 individual members are spread across the Eastern half of Pennsylvania and parts of Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey. The GAP’s mission is to promote, preserve and protect the game of golf.
