Trenton’s Erhardt brothers sweep 27th Jock MacKenzie Memorial

  ORELAND, Pa. — The Erhardts will save space for July 18, 2011 in the family scrapbook. Brothers Reilly and Regan, both of Trenton CC, captured their respective divisions in the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s 27th Jock MacKenzie Memorial at Sandy Run CC (par 72, 6,354 yards) Monday. The Newtown, Pa. residents are the second set of brothers to win the event in the same year. Eric and Steve Zayes of Doylestown CC turned the task in 1988.

  “This is great. To win something with my brother is just fantastic,” Reilly, 15, said. “Regan came in [to follow me] when I was on the 14th hole and said that he had won. I was so proud of him. I wanted to see if I could try to do that myself. Fortunately, I was able to.”

  “It’s pretty incredible,” Regan, 13, said. “I was really happy that I won, but I’m even happier that Reilly won too.”

  Reilly Erhardt carded a 1-over-par 73 to top the Junior Flight. The win served as the icing on a delectable 2011 GAP cake. He finished as runner-up in the Junior Boys’ Championship at Running Deer GC and tied for third in the Christman Cup at Bidermann GC.

  “This is overwhelming,” an emotional Erhardt said of the Jock win. “I didn’t really play well last year in a lot of these tournaments, and this year, to play so well and finally win one is pretty cool.”

  With the win Monday, Reilly Erhardt also earned the Harry Hammond Award, which is given to the player with the lowest aggregate score in the qualifying round of the Junior Boys’ Championship, the Christman Cup and the Jock MacKenzie Memorial.

  “I figured that if I posted a good round today, I’d have a good shot to win it,” Erhardt, a soon-to-be freshman at The Hun School, said. “It’s a great award. I’ve seen some pretty great people win it, and I’m pretty proud that I can be a part of it.”

  And what a good round of golf it was. Erhardt fired three consecutive birdies to move into red figures early. He negotiated an obstructing tree on No. 4 (par 4, 318 yards) with a 50-degree wedge from 100 yards out. Erhardt cleaned up a seven-footer for birdie.

  “I was just behind a tree. I had a little gap that I was trying to go through,” he said of the challenging approach. “I told my caddie, ‘if it put it through here, it can be really close.’ And that’s exactly what I did.”

  On No. 5 (par 4, 384 yards), Erhardt pured an 8-iron 145 yards to seven feet. The slender swinger crushed a 5-iron 170 yards to three feet on No. 6 (par 4, 377 yards) to cap the birdie stretch. A double bogey on the par 4, 317-yard No. 7 doused Erhardt’s hot putter. His 3-wood tee shot deflected off a seed box and into the fairway bunker. Erhardt’s bulky sand shot came up short. He launched a pitching wedge to the back of the green and three-putted. Erhardt also failed to get up-and-down on No. 9 (par 4, 324 yards) after hitting a heavy pitching wedge from 100 yards out.

  “It seemed like I got some really good breaks and some really bad breaks to even it up,” he said.

  Erhardt didn’t let the round get away from him, though. He again compiled a three-birdie stretch to burrow back into red figures. On No. 14 (par 4, 407 yards), he rifled an 8-iron 150 yards to 10 feet. Following a 6-iron punch-out from the fairway bunker on No. 15 (par 5, 487 yards), Erhardt watched his pitching wedge shot from 80 yards collide into a ridge in front of the green and coast to 10 feet. He canned the left-to-right breaker. Erhardt stuck a soft pitching wedge 125 yards to a foot on No. 16 (par 4, 372 yards).

  “I tried to hit a low spinner sort of thing,” Erhardt, who won the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s Junior Boys’ Championship two weeks ago, said. “That was my best shot of the day.”

  A pair of missteps coming in prevented Erhardt from maintaining red on the scorecard. He left a 9-iron from 135 yards out short of the No. 17 (par 4, 370 yards) green. Erhardt’s chip didn’t release the way he intended, and he missed an ensuing eight-footer to save par. He attempted to muscle a 6-iron out of the left rough on No. 18 (par 4, 322 yards), but his ball clipped a tree and settled in the rough inches from the front bunker. Erhardt’s pitch stopped nine feet shy. He pushed his par putt left of the jar.

  Onto Regan, who registered a nine-hole score of 3-over-par 39 to take the Junior-Junior Division. Regan has served as Reilly’s bag-totter for the duration of the tournament season. He showcased his competitive chops Monday.

  “People know that I’m a pretty good caddie, but now that they’ve seen me play, they know that I’m a pretty good player,” Regan Erhardt said.

  In the Junior Girls’ Division (14 to 17 years of age), Sarah Easton of Manufacturers G&CC carded a 14-over-par 86 to walk away with the victory. Home-club hopeful Cassidy Gavaghan filed a score of 53 to prevail in the Junior-Junior Girls’ Division.

  The Jock MacKenzie Memorial, which originated in 1985, is open to boys and girls from Member Clubs who have not reached their 18th birthday by midnight of the tournament date. Sandy Run CC hosts the event each year.