HVCC’s Michael and Morgan Dougherty win Father & Son (Younger)

  CONCORDVILLE, Pa. — Michael Dougherty and his son R. Morgan retained their Father & Son (Younger) crown Thursday, carding a 2-under-par 69 to outlast the 48-team field at a sunny and scenic Concord CC (par 71, 6,385 yards). The Huntingdon Valley CC members buried early miscues with a seven-layered red figure dip to prevail.

  “It’s really fun,” Morgan said. “It kind of just shows that all of the years before, we kind of came up short because of my play. I wasn’t quite there yet. I think I’ve put it together. I’m helping him (Michael) out now. We play together all of the time now. We know each other’s games really well. This feels really good.”

  A successful title defense became less of reality after the Warrington, Pa. residents bogeyed three of their first four holes. Morgan rolled a 30-footer birdie attempt on No. 11 (par 3, 180 yards) to 18 inches, but his father couldn’t complete the routine par.

  “I didn’t even hit the hole,” Michael, 61, said.

  A poor chip by Michael on the elevation-altering 12th hole (par 4, 393 yards) resulted in a bogey. After choosing to play Morgan’s tee shot out of the left rough on No. 13 (par 4, 418 yards), Michael attempted to negotiate a tree, but his ball clipped a branch and plummeted into the bunker.

  “The first four holes, we weren’t giving each other chances to make any good numbers,” Morgan, 17, said.

  The Dougherty team received a much-needed injection on the monstrous par 5, 570-yard 14th hole. Michael knocked a 9-iron 130 yards to 10 feet, and Morgan, a senior at La Salle High School, cleaned up the birdie putt. Ditto on No. 15 (par 3,161 yards) after Michael’s 8-iron stopped 15 feet from the hole location. And to close out its outward tour, the Dougherty team posted its third birdie of the day following a 30-yard pitch, eight-foot putt sequence on No. 18 (par 5, 503 yards).

  The difficult No. 2 (par 4, 309 yards) threatened to detour the Dougherty’s momentum. They failed to get up-and-down for par after Morgan dumped his approach into the deep front bunker. But they revisited an optimal formula on No. 3 (par 4, 330 yards). Michael drilled a pitching wedge 110 yards to nine feet below the flagstick, and Morgan executed the birdie try. On No. 6 (par 5, 550 yards), Morgan nearly holed out for eagle with a sand wedge from 70 yards away.

  “It was actually pretty low,” Morgan said. “It just took two bounces and spun right to an inch.”

  “It was a great shot,” Michael, 61, added.

  The birdie barrage brought the scorecard back to even par, but the Dougherty team wasn’t done yet. Michael drilled an 8-iron 145 yards to three feet on No. 7 (par 4, 418 yards). His 7-iron on the par 3, 170-yard No. 7 camped out 10 feet from the flagstick. Morgan, who qualified for match play in the Association’s Junior Boys’ Championship at Running Deer GC earlier this week, coaxed the birdie putt into the jar.

  “It was a tough putt, but I just felt like I was on fire with the putter,” he said.

  Morgan’s putter proficiency played a prominent part in the Dougherty’s success Thursday.

  “He made every birdie putt except for the one-inch one that I putted,” Michael, the 2009 Brewer Cup Champion, said. “He made six birdie putts between three feet and 20 feet. That’s a lot of putts to make.”

  “I was asking him on the putting green to look at my stroke because I was on a bad putting streak,” Morgan added. “I moved it [my grip] up a little bit, and everything was rolling where I wanted it to.”

  Junior-Junior Division

  Davis and Randy Mitchell of Wilmington CC followed in the Dougherty’s footsteps. They, too, carded a 2-under-par 69 to retain their Junior-Junior Division title.

  “It means a lot to me,” Randy, 50, said. “We’ve been looking forward to this event since we won last year. This is about as much fun as I can have. There’s nothing like playing golf with your son.”

  The victory may have never occurred, though, as the Mitchell’s arrived slightly before their tee time. Davis competed in the Delaware State Golf Association’s Junior Boys’ Championship at Newark CC and lost in a playoff for the 13 Year-Old Division crown. The Wilmington, Del. residents didn’t feel any effects of a rushed commute as they birdied their first hole of the day (No.1, par 4, 340 yards). Davis hit a lob wedge 75 yards to three feet. The Mitchell team also inked red on Nos. 13 (par 4, 388 yards), 14 (par 5, 530 yards) and 18 (par 5, 489 yards) to post the division’s only subpar score. Davis, an eighth grader at Tatnall School, slapped a sand wedge 110 yards to a foot on No. 13. His pitching wedge traveled 125 yards and settled five feet from the No. 14 flagstick. Davis smashed a 5-wood into the left greenside bunker on No. 18. Randy’s superb sand shot stopped inches from the jar.

  The Father-Son (Younger) tournament is for those father and son teams with sons up to the age of 17. It’s the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s biggest one-day event of 2011 so far. Thursday’s field consisted of 208 players.

  NOTES

  Andrew Desjardins of Waynesborough CC aced the par 3, 155-yard 15th hole with a 6-iron. It was the 12-year-old’s second career hole-in-one.

  “I hit it pretty solidly. It hit the front of the green and bounced in,” Desjardins, of Malvern, Pa., said. “At first, I wasn’t quite sure if it was in, but either way, I was pretty happy.”

  “I couldn’t quite tell if it went in either,” Andrew’s father Jay added. “I was hoping it was in and we basically raced to the hole. I decided that he should be the one to look first.”

  Last year, Andrew, who attends St. Norbert School, aced the 4th hole at his home club.

  “He now has two more than his old man,” Jay said.