McDermott in position for another Mid.-Am. title; Angelillo, Brown loom

HADDONFIELD, N.J.–The Middle-Amateur Championship is once again bringing out the best in Michael McDermott. Already a three-time winner of the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s traditional season-opening Major, the 34-year-old resident of Bryn Mawr, Pa., carded a 2-under-par 70 on Wednesday at a challenging Tavistock CC (par 72, 6,827 yards) to lead after Day One of the 26th Middle-Amateur Championship.

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McDermott, champion of the 2001, 2004 and 2008 Mid.-Am., leads Gregg Angelillo of Moselem Springs GC and Michael Brown of the Philadelphia Publinks GA by a stroke, and Chris Lange, a multiple Middle-Amateur winner (2005-06) himself, by two shots.

“It was a weird round,” said McDermott. “I was never in any real trouble. I hit a sand wedge over the green on No. 10 (par 4, 342 yards). Other than that I had no real chances for bogey. I didn’t hit it close a lot either. I made three birdies. Two of them were a foot and the other one was sort of a no-brainer, a 40 or 50-footer.”

The Merion GC member opened his round on No. 1 (par 4, 355 yards) when he hit a wedge from 130 yards to a foot. Five straight pars got McDermott to the dog-leg seventh (par 4, 344 yards) where he faced a 50-foot pitch from under a tree on the left side to a back right hole location for his second shot. What could have been a big number, one shot later, became an unexpected birdie. He made the turn at 2 under.

  A sand wedge approach from 109 yards on No. 10 stopped over the green and subsequently resulted in a bogey, but McDermott rallied in style, stopping a 7-iron on No. 13 (par 3, 180 yards) to a foot. He would end his day with five straight pars.

  “I had between 15 and 30 feet for birdie on every hole but I was never really that close,” said McDermott.

  Angelillo, 38, of Bernardsville, N.J., started on No. 10, and like McDermott, birdied his opening hole. He hit a sand wedge from 85 yards to 15 feet. Angelillo bogeyed No. 13 after his tee ball on the par 3 skipped over the green but a driver, 7-iron from 185 yards stopped 20 feet right of No. 18 (par 4, 439 yards) and a fantastic putt later saw Angelillo make the turn at 1 under.

Another birdie on No. 5 (par 5, 552 yards), after a wedge from 104 yards landed three feet away, moved Angelillo to 2 under before a poor drive on No. 7 (par 4, 34 4 yards) and a failed up-and-down on No. 8 (par 3, 210 yards) dropped him back to even with a hole to go. Looking to finish in red figures, Angelillo played his final hole, No. 9 (par 4, 357 yards), aggressively.

  “I decided to challenge the hole so I hit a driver,” said Angelillo. “I had 73 yards left and hit a wedge to eight feet and made a right to left breaker.”

  Brown was a birdie machine, making six in all, but said his swing got a little loose at times to result in a 1-under-par 71.

  What made Brown’s round even more impressive was that he opened his day with a double-bogey on No. 4 (par 3, 153 yards) after finding the back greenside bunker. He birdied No. 5 (par 5, 552 yards) by getting up-and-down from 10 feet short of the green and No. 6 (par 4, 428 yards) when he chipped in from right of the green. Brown would also post red figures on No. 9 when he hit a wedge from 100 yards to 10 feet and No. 10 when he knocked a lob wedge from 78 yards to six feet.

  Brown bogeyed No. 13 after finding the right bunker; No. 14 when his ball stopped in the short left sand and No. 16 when his 4-iron landed in the bunker short and right and he failed to get up-and-down.

  However, the 36-year-old Cheltenham, Pa., resident, rallied with birdies on No. 17 (par 5, 489 yards) when he hit a lob wedge from 84 yards to four feet and No. 18 when he landed a 171-yard, 7-iron 10 feet left of the hole and made the putt.

  “I kind of made birdie when I didn’t expect to make birdie and made bogeys when I was expecting to make pars,” said Brown, who regained his amateur status last year after serving as an assistant professional at North Hills CC for seven years. “I feel good. I’m doing my best to commit to every shot.”

  Lange has already had a heck of a week. He captured the prestigious Travis Invitational at Garden City GC on Sunday.

  A total of 76 players made the cut from the field of 127. The cut number fell at 81.

  The Middle-Amateur is for players 25 years of age and older. It is a two-day, 36-hole tournament.

  The GAP Middle-Amateur started in 1984, three years after the USGA created the U.S. Mid-Am as a formal championship for post-college amateurs. The Association followed suit with the USGA in creating a Mid.-Am., but initially differed in its administration of the tournament in a couple of respects.

  The most obvious difference was the age requirement. Prior to 2001, the GAP Mid-Am was for players 30 years of age and older. That Committee reviewed and revised that age requirement in 2001 to match the USGA’s guidelines of 25 years of age or older for eligible players.

  Also at that point, the Committee changed the format of the event to a two-day stroke play tournament (instead of a one-day medal play event) with a cut to the low 70 players and ties after the first round. The field begins with 132 players. Players must have a GAP/USGA Handicap Index of 7.0 or lower.