#PattersonCup Qualifier: Green Valley

Bernard, Kelleher medal in #PattersonCup Qualifier at Green Valley

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LAFAYETTE HILL, Pa. – Bogey free is the way Dan Bernard always wanted to be.

Fifteen pars, and more importantly three brilliant birdies, made that dream possible Wednesday at Green Valley Country Club (par 71, 6,686 yards). Aronimink Golf Club’s Bernard battled to a 3-under 68 to secure a share of medalist honors in a Joseph H. Patterson Cup Qualifier presented by Callaway Golf.

Joining the bogeyless Bernard in the top spot was Country Club of Scranton’s Troy Kelleher. While Kelleher did have a bogey on his card, he bettered Bernard’s birdie total with four total.

On a day featuring blue skies and red numbers, the cut line fell at 3-over 74 on the day. The 117th Patterson Cup will be hosted at Applebrook Golf Club, Aug. 7-8.

Bernard, a frequent GAP Major competitor, began his blemish-free round on Green Valley’s second side. On the par-5, 502-yard 11th, Bernard hooked his drive left, punched out and lifted a 7-iron back to safety 105 yards out. His gap wedge approach from there came to rest 12 feet from the cup, and the birdie putt was converted. The next sub-par figure came on No. 15 (par 3, 216 yards) when Bernard’s 4-iron tee shot rolled out to 20 feet leading to a birdie bomb. Crucial par saves came both on No. 16 and 17 featuring up-and-down saves.

Making the turn at 2 under, Bernard found himself near the top of the leaderboard just below his playing partner, Merion Golf Club’s Nelson Hargrove, who made the turn at 3 under before a final score of 2-under 69. The competition seemed to fuel both their games. Bernard’s final birdie came on No. 4 (par 3, 191 yards) when a 5-iron found the back of the green, resulting in a 15-foot sliding make for 2. On his final test of the day, No. 9 (par 4, 393 yards), Bernard’s bunker blast from the back-left sand rocked the flagstick and almost fell, but instead a par closed out the medal-winning round.

“My short game saved me a lot. I was able to make pars whenever I did get in some trouble. I was also hitting my iron shots really well today, plus the putter was really good once I got in the greens,” said Bernard, 28, of Philadelphia, Pa.

For Kelleher, it was the fiery flatstick that brought him to 3 under. The lone bogey for Kelleher came on No. 10 (par 3, 177 yards), but a two-putt birdie on the next hole, No. 11, quickly erased that. On No. 17 (par 4, 416 yards), Kelleher’s drive was blasted, leaving just a short wedge in, resulting in a 15-foot jarred putt for birdie. “One of the worst putts of the day” for Kelleher turned into one of his best on No. 1 (par 4, 373 yards) when his powerful putt from off the front of the green ricocheted off the back of the cup and in for a 3. His final birdie dropped on the par-5, 525-yard 3rd after Kelleher got up-and-down from 50 yards out.

“Putting is usually the weakness in my game while ballstriking is where I score from. Today, I only hit 9 or 10 greens but was able to get up and down a bunch and make birdie putts,” said Kelleher, 18, of Clarks Summit, Pa.

Bernard’s accomplishment of his first-career bogey-free round may now be in the books, but he’s already got his sights set on another goal: competing for a GAP Major Championship.

“I always plays well in the Qualifiers to get into the Majors, but once I get there, I haven’t been playing well,” said Bernard, a former Bucknell University standout. “I really don’t know, but I’m more comfortable in these Qualifiers, which might even be more stressful than the actually championship. Obviously the guys that are playing in any Major are going really low, so you’re forced to play aggressive. That’s what you have to do to play with the big boys out there.”

At Applebrook, a spot Bernard is rather familiar with, Bernard hopes the qualifying success translates to the main stage.

“Love that place. I’ve played there a bunch of times, knowing a few members there. We played the front nine there, too, when I was playing for Malvern Prep. It’s an awesome track,” he said. “I didn’t even know that I would be playing [in the Patterson] because the way I’ve been playing lately, so it was really nice to put together this round today.”

For Kelleher, an incoming freshman at Franklin & Marshall College, getting accustomed to competing against the region’s top talents is what GAP Majors mean to him.

“This will be my third [GAP Major], having played at Gulph Mills last year and [in the GAP Open] last week at Huntingdon Valley. I didn’t make any putts, unfortunately, and it was really hard,” said Kelleher. “When you come down here from Scranton, there’s tougher competition against a bunch of great players. It’s just a pleasure to be competing in them.”

The remaining two #PattersonCup Qualifiers will be held Thursday at Riverton Country Club, followed by a rescheduled date of Aug. 1 at Great Bear Golf Club.

The second oldest Championship in the Golf Association of Philadelphia, the Joseph H. Patterson Cup memorializes a man who fostered the game in its infancy. Joseph Henry Patterson, a Philadelphia Cricket Club member, competed in the first out-of-town match played by a team of Philadelphians. Friends of Patterson donated the Cup, designed by J.E. Caldwell & Co., to the Association in 1900.

NOTE: Brady Erb of Meadia Heights Golf Club jarred his first career ace with a 4-iron on No. 4 (par 3, 191 yards).

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 274 Full Member Clubs and 75,000 individual members are spread across the Eastern half of Pennsylvania and parts of New Jersey and Delaware. The GAP’s mission is to promote, preserve and protect the game of golf.