107th #GAPJunior: Day One

Phoenixville’s Lofland retains #GAPJunior medal

VILLANOVA, Pa. — A Junior Boys’ Championship record eluded Morgan Lofland once before. He didn’t let a second chance at history escape his grasp.

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In the event’s 107^th edition Monday at an outstanding Overbrook Golf Club (par 70, 6,299 yards), Lofland carded a 2-under-par 68 to earn medalist honors. By doing so, he became the eighth individual — and first in nearly three decades — to win the Junior Boys’ medal in consecutive years.

Lehigh Country Club’s Carl Greener (1993-94) was the last to accomplish such a feat. A year ago at The 1912 Club, Lofland fell a stroke shy of tying the Junior Boys’ Qualifying scoring record, in relation to par. Radley Run Country Club’s Nicholas Gianelos holds that honor (7-under-par 65 in 2016).

Lofland will be seeded No. 2 when match play begins tomorrow at 7:30 a.m. The 1912 Club’s Joshua Ryan, as the event’s defending champion, is automatically seeded No. 1. He didn’t compete in stroke-play qualifying Monday.

The cut line for the Championship Flight stopped at 73. Lofland will face Brookside Country Club of Allentown’s Matthew Zerfass, who survived an 8-for-6 sudden-death playoff to advance.

“That’s pretty cool,” Lofland, 18, of Paoli, Pa., said of his achievement. “I’m hitting the shots when I need to. It’s nice to put scores together when you don’t have every part of your game in sync.”

Hard to believe any part of Lofland’s game is malfunctioning, based on recent events. The Phoenixville Country Club member entered Monday fresh off a semifinal run in the 121^st BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship a week ago. He fell to eventual champion Conor McGrath of Huntingdon Valley Country Club, 3&2.

“It also motivated me more coming in here: to put a good round together and have some fun in match play this week,” Lofland, an incoming Penn State University freshman who will major in business, said. “This is a fun event. The [68] makes it fun, but I was rolling in putts today. The ball-striking wasn’t great, but I saved myself around the greens.”

A birdie on No. 1 (par 4, 361 yards) made Lofland’s start fun. After towering a drive over the right tree line, he knocked a wedge 40 yards to 12 feet above the hole location. Surprisingly “sloppy golf” followed. Poor positioning off the tee, misreads on the green. Lofland exited Overbrook’s outward nine at even courtesy of a bogey on No. 9 (par 4, 430 yards). Impeded by trees on the right after a pushed drive, Lofland punched a 6-iron left of the green and soon missed a 20-footer to save par.

Three back-nine birdies righted the ship. On No. 12 (par 5, 507 yards), Lofland muscled a 5-iron from 195 yards uphill and onto the putting surface. A two-putt birdie followed. With 83 yards to the No. 14 (par 4, 295 yards) flagstick, Lofland threw a wedge above the hole location, using the slope to his advantage. He cleaned up a six-footer for birdie. A monstrous drive on the par 4, 386-yard 17^th hole put Lofland in front of the right greenside bunker. He flipped a wedge from 39 yards to seven feet there.

Only one malady afflicted Lofland Monday. He couldn’t shake a tendency to block drives. As a result, on No. 18 (par 4, 389 yards), Lofland overcompensated and ended up in the left fescue. After using a 50-degree wedge for extrication, he skipped a wedge to 15 feet above the hole location. Lofland narrowly missed the ensuing par putt.

And it’s a narrow miss at Cedarbrook that’s prepared Lofland for what’s next at Overbrook. He implemented a new gameplan there, one gleaned from a 1-up loss to Aronimink Golf Club’s Jake Maddaloni in the Junior Boys’ Quarterfinals a year ago.

“I was trying to think one shot better than my opponent. I fixed it up for the Amateur,” Lofland, a recent Conestoga High School graduate, said. “It’s really one shot at a time, one hole at a time. You can’t think about your opponent. It’s only what you bring to the table. I was focusing on myself and not worrying about my opponent.”

Seems like any and all opponents should worry about Lofland.

NOTES
Wilmington Country Club, represented by Anthony Ciconte and the Homer brothers (Jack, Jeffrey and Matthew) captured its first Junior Team Championship. It filed an 8-over-par 218 to prevail by three strokes over Country Club of Scranton. The Junior Team Championship runs concurrently with Junior Boys’ Championship Qualifying. Three of four scores count toward the team total … Talamore Country Club’s Jack Dunsmore aced No. 15 (par 3, 165 yards) with a 7-iron. It marked his first career hole-in-one.

Junior Boys’ Championship
The Junior Boys’ Championship is the premier Major in the GAP Junior Division. It is open to members of a GAP Member Club 14-18 years of age who have not started their college education and who hold a handicap index of 14.4 or lower. Sixteen players qualify for match play; an additional 16 advance into the event’s First Flight. The Junior Boys’ Champion is awarded the Peg Burnett Trophy, named in honor of the Association’s Executive Secretary from 1951-76. Ms. Burnett was an ardent Junior golf supporter who emphasized sportsmanship and respect for the game. “I was very strict about checking the rule book. I didn’t make the rules, but since they are there, you have to abide by them.”

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.