Palmer duo top Father-Son (Younger)

CHELTENHAM, Pa.–Jeff and John Palmer of Chester Valley GC carded a 1-over-par 71 to take the 51st Father & Son Younger tournament at tight JC Melrose CC (par 70, 6,909 yards) Wednesday, besting the 234-player field, one of the largest in the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s tournament season.

  “We played well,” said Jeff, the father portion of the team. “The course was tight so our strategy was for me to hit it straight but short, while my son just bombed it. That seemed to work pretty well.”

  And unlike last year’s Father-Son Younger tournament at Downingtown GC when the Palmers started their day off with an eight, this time the pair fired in a birdie on the par 4, 10th (302 yards) hole to begin their day.

  Jeff’s drive left a comfortable approach shot for his son John, who then stuffed it to within four feet high up on the third tier of the difficult three-tiered green complex.

  “It was a great way to start,” said Jeff, who sealed the birdie with a solid putt. “It was especially great since we started out with an eight last year. So to start off with a birdie this time around was a nice change.”

  Before it was all said and done, the duo carded three birdies on the day. And they almost witnessed a hole-in-one on the par 3, 17th hole (185 yards) after John knocked a 7-iron on the right-hand side of the green and his ball funneled just past the stick for a tap-in birdie.

  “That was a great shot,” said Jeff, who also helped finish their day with a birdie on No. 9 (par 4, 348 yards) after he knocked a wedge close.

  In the junior-junior division, Grant and Jonathan Liu of Commonwealth National GC carded a 4-over-par 74 to take the 13-and-under flight.

  “Jonathan was huge,” said Grant of his son. “After his great shot on [No. 4, par 3, 117 yards] to give us a birdie, we just kept rolling along and played well.”

  Jonathan poked an 8-iron to within four feet where his father then cleaned up the birdie putt.

  The Father-Son (Younger) tournament is for those father and son teams with sons up to the age of 17. This year, the Father-Son series was split into three separate events (Younger, Middle and Older) because of the high demand for participation in both the Father-Son (Younger), which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2007, and the Older tournament, an event in its 97th year.

  Brian and Zach Rothaus of Philmont CC took the inaugural Father & Son (Middle) tournament at Bellewood GC back in May of this year.

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  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 136 Member Clubs and 56,000 individual members are spread across parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. The purpose of the Association is simple: To promote, protect and preserve the game of golf in the region.