Talamore’s Cucinotti captures Fall Net title

  WESTAMPTON, N.J.- Steve Cucinotti’s competitive golfing drought is officially over. Swinging for the fences on every tee shot, it’s safe to say the back-to-back Pennsylvania Long Drive Champion (1990-91) is ready to get back in the game.

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  The Talamore Country Club member fired a 3-over-gross round of 73, which was good enough for a total of 43 stableford points, en route to the overall title in the Tee It Forward – Fall Net Championship Thursday at Burlington Country Club (par 70, 6,436 yards). He finished atop a leaderboard of 54 competitors.

  “Whether I shoot an 84 or a 74, it’s not going to phase me,” said Cucinotti, who calls Philadelphia’s Center City neighborhood home. “But just recently, I started saying, ‘Alright, let’s go,’. Now I’m turning it on, and today was just an example of that. I’ll be playing in a lot more competitive tournaments from here on out.”

  Competing from the back tees, Cucinotti and his driver showed the field at Burlington just how problematic the big hitter can be when his swing is on.

  After early bogeys on Nos. 1 (par 4, 407 yards) and 4 (par 5, 479 yards), consistency arrived. Gross pars became the name of Cucinotti’s game at Burlington.

  The finishing hole saw his round’s lone red number surface. The 58-year-old bomber selected 3-iron as his weapon of choice off the 18th (par 4, 308 yards). While Cucinotti pushed his tee shot a little to the right, he still had a good look from 124 yards out. Cucinotti then went with a three-quarters wedge, placing his approach to 15 feet. His birdie attempt dropped.

  “For me, I just want to play. I played very loose today, like I usually do,” said Cucinotti. “We had a lot of fun today. Zach [Johnson] (his playing partner) is only 21 years old and was hitting it great out there, too.”

  A sudden loss in the family caused Cucinotti’s extended golfing absence. It was then his children who got him back into the game.

  “I stopped playing golf for 12 years when my wife passed away, and then I became a cyclist. My son, Sal, recently asked me how to hit draws, fades, you name it,” said Cucinotti, who was previously a scratch golfer playing out of Concord Country Club.

  When his 8-year-old daughter wanted a pool to use, a bright light went off in Cucinotti’s mind.

  “I said, ‘Let’s just join a country club,’, and once I did that, I had a bunch of the guys asking me to play in this event and that event. That’s how I joined over at Talamore. I’ve loved it ever since.”

Women’s Flight

  In the Women’s Flight – the first year the it has been fielded in the Fall Net – Old York Road Country Club’s Wynn Harris took the inaugural title with 31 stableford points. She topped a small, yet competitive, field of four players.

  Her playing partners, White Manor Country Club’s Josie Anthony and Philadelphia Country Club’s Muffy McCabe, both finished a mere one point behind Harris.

  “We had a great time, as always. I’m crazy about the people I played with today. No matter what, win or lose, we always know we’re going to have a good time out there,” said Harris, 67, of Blue Bell, Pa. “We play with each other a bunch, especially in [Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia] and GAP tournaments. We always really enjoy them,” said Harris.

  Harris used two net birdies, on Nos. 4 (par 5, 437 yards) and 17 (par 4, 341 yards), combined with nine net pars to pave her path to the winner’s circle.

  “The Stableford format is always nice because you don’t always have stroke play looming. My putting was the best part of my game today, which is usually the weakest part of my game,” said Harris, a member of the WGAP course-rating committee and a course-rating team captain. “We rated Burlington yesterday. I did get a preview of it. To be fair, I texted the rest of my group last night giving them some insight.”

   The Fall Net Championship, formerly known as the Second Handicap, is open to players 18 years of age and older with handicap index less than 36.0. The event began in 1946. The Golf Association of Philadelphia adopted the Tee It Forward parameters and changed the scoring format to net Stableford in 2012.

  The Tee It Forward initiative encourages golfers to play the course at a length that is aligned with their average driving distance.

Golf Association of Philadelphia
  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 151 Member Clubs and 57,000 individual members are spread across parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. As Philadelphia’s Most Trusted Source of Golf Information, the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s mission is to promote, preserve and protect the game of golf.