Billy, William March take Father & Son (Younger) title

 JAMISON, Pa. – It was a double Bill win for the March family as William and son Bill of Spring Ford CC won the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s 48^th Father & Son (Younger) Championship with a blistering 4-under-par 66 Thursday on a muggy, overcast day at Bucks County CC (par 70, 6,154 yards).

  It was the second lowest score in the history of GAP’s Father & Son competitions, Younger or Older, dating back to their origin in 1911.

  It earned the March’s the Junior Division title, for sons aged 14-17, by two strokes over Stephen Hudacek and Stephen Hudacek III of Glenmaura National GC, who carded a 68 (35-33).

  Last year’s winners, two-time Philadelphia Junior Champion Robert Galbreath, Jr., and his father, Robert, Sr., of Huntingdon Valley CC, finished tied for 10^th in the 76-team field with a 2-over-par 72.

  The March duo, from Spring City, wasted little time in the selective drive, alternate shot event, posting birdies on holes Nos. 3, 4 and 6, including deuces on the 170-yard No. 4 and the 174-yard No. 6, to make the turn in 3-under-par 33.

  Then the duo all but put it away with an eagle two on the 274-yard, par 4 No. 11, where Bill drove the green and dad dropped a 10-footer. They added another birdie on the 198-yard, par 3 13^th to go 6-under-par.

  Even after slipping gears somewhat with back-to-back bogeys – on the difficult, 430-yard, par 4 15^th and on the short, 136-yard, par 3 16^th – they still carded a 1-under-par 33 on the back.

  “It feels great,” William said after the win in their third try at the title. “The family will be excited. We’ve played a lot of golf, but not much in GAP events. So we didn’t expect to win, just to have a good time. But then things started going our way. We sunk a lot of putts. It was a good day.” Bill, 17, is a student at Devon Prep.

  The Hudaceks had a chance on No. 18, a 385-yard par 4 dogleg right over water, as they stood at 3-under par, needing a birdie to tie for the lead. But a long second shot from the right rough sailed well over the green, resulting in a bogey five.

  The lowest Father & Son score ever posted was a 64 in 1991 at Bala Golf Club, a par-68 course, by the Sullivans, James Sr. and James Jr., of Huntingdon Valley CC, in winning the competition for sons aged 15 to 17.

  Only two other scores of 66 were ever recorded, one in 1985, also at Bala, by William T. and P. Chet Walsh of Philadelphia CC, in winning the ages 16-20 division, and the other in 2001 at Reading CC by Raymond and Justin Thompson of Overbrook GC, in taking the Father & Son (Older) competition for sons 18 and over.

  In Thursday’s Junior-Junior division, for sons aged 10-13, Stephen Hudacek of Glenmaura, doing double duty for the day playing in the morning with his younger son, Charles, carded a 3-over-par 73 to edge Brian and Frank Berzanskis of Ballamor GC, by a stroke for the title.

WD-withdrawal; DQ_disqualification