LedgeRock linksmen fire 14 under, win 26th Four-Man Team

FLEETWOOD, Pa. — Forgive Evan Thornton for referring to Joe Butto as “Mr. Butto.” Force of habit when the 19-year-old addresses a fellow LedgeRock Golf Club member whom he’s known throughout adolescence. | Scorecards | Photo gallery | History |

  Thornton frequently uttered the greeting Tuesday. He and fellow LedgeRock youth Alex Blickle (22) and Grant Skyllas (28) joined Butto, at age 54 the group’s elder statesmen, to compete in the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s 26th Four-Man Team at Moselem Springs Golf Club (par 70, 6,386 yards). The Berks County collective, with course experience in its corner, carded an impressive 14-under-par 126 to prevail by seven strokes.

  The two best scores of four on each hole count toward the team total.

  “I didn’t do any coaching today. I didn’t impose my will unless they asked,” Butto, of Mohnton, Pa., said. “Evan and Alex were still in high school when I met them. I’ve known Grant since he was 13. We’ve been paired together many times. These guys are bombers. They hit it 60 yards past me.”

  “It was a blast,” Blickle, of Wernersville, Pa., said. “It was everything I thought it would be: good guys playing good golf. The atmosphere was light and fun.”

  Course knowledge aided the LedgeRock team as it trekked Moselem’s rolling terrain. Butto and Skyllas are both former members. Blickle and Thornton logged rounds at the venue as well.

  “I think [course knowledge] was a factor,” Butto said. “For the most part, we knew where to play to the greens. I think it helped that the tees were up.”

  “We knew where to hit it to so we’d have good looks at birdies,” Blickle, a Golf Association of Philadelphia Magazine Player to Watch in 2015, added.

  Good and plentiful Tuesday.

  Blickle, a recent Kenyon College graduate, started the team’s subpar steamroller on No. 2 (par 4, 388 yards), where he flipped a wedge 101 yards to eight feet. Thornton stopped a 7-iron at five feet on the par 3, 163-yard No. 3 for another birdie. Next to step aboard the accelerating locomotive was Skyllas, who smacked a wedge 80 yards to four feet on No. 4 (par 4, 361 yards). The whistle echoed throughout Moselem’s hillsides when the LedgeRock team arrived at No. 7 (par 5, 521 yards). Butto holed a 70-yard wedge shot for eagle.

  “They were getting on me because I hadn’t birdied yet,” Butto said. “I didn’t see it. These guys came down the hill yelling.”

  “We all went nuts. It was great,” Blickle, who recently captured the Berks County Golf Association’s Match Play Championship, added. Blickle and Thornton both birdied No. 7 to move the team to 6 under.

  To cap its sensational outward venture, Skyllas sent a lob wedge into tap-in territory for a 3 on No. 9 (par 4, 333 yards).

  “We could’ve easily been 11 under on the front nine. We had birdie looks on every hole,” Skyllas, of Wyomissing, Pa., said.

  On No. 11 (par 4, 420 yards), Skyllas made good on a birdie look by knocking a pitching wedge 130 yards to 15 feet and converting a left-to-right breaker. The LedgeRock team continued to barrel down triumphant tracks with a pair of 4s on the strenuous par 5, 505-yard 12th hole. Butto and Thornton both bumped wedges into kick-in range. The former lifted a 7-iron 155 yards to four feet for a birdie on No. 14 (par 4, 375 yards). Thornton added to the group’s stellar play with a nifty chip-in birdie on the par 3, 128-yard 15th hole.

  “Grant gave me a good read and I just knocked it in,” Thornton, of Wyomissing, Pa., said. “He was over the green too and chipped it to five feet.”

  Back-to-back birdies seemed an appropriate curtain call on this day. Butto extracted a 7-iron from 148 yards out of the right rough on No. 17 (par 4, 386 yards) and landed it four feet below the flagstick. On the picturesque 18th hole (432 yards) — a downhill par 4 guarded by a water hazard on the right, Thornton hit a 7-iron to 12 feet and dropped a fist-pumping birdie putt. The incoming Temple University sophomore didn’t initially plan to compete Tuesday. He received a text last Friday from Skyllas asking if he could fill in for Christopher Storck, also of LedgeRock.

  “I didn’t realize we were playing in a tournament. I thought we were just playing a round,” Thornton said. “Grant said we have a good team and I was like, ‘What do you mean we have a good team?’”

  A great team is more like it.

Golf Association of Philadelphia
  Founded in 1897, the Golf Association of Philadelphia (GAP) is the oldest regional golf association in the United States and serves as the principal ruling body of amateur golf in its region. Its 150 Member Clubs and 57,000 individual members are spread across parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. As Philadelphia’s Most Trusted Source of Golf Information, the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s mission is to promote, preserve and protect the game of golf.