*Media Guide
Cedarbrook Country Club welcomes 111th Joseph H. Patterson CupGolf’s greatest professionals will compete in the PGA Championship, the final Major of 2013, this week at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y. It seems fitting that the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s top amateurs will follow suit at home. The 111th Joseph H. Patterson Cup, presented by Liberty Mutual Insurance, heads to scenic Cedarbook Country Club Aug. 8-9. The Association’s premier stroke-play championship is also its fourth and final Major of the tournament season. A field of 144 players will traverse the Blue Bell, Pa. track hoping to hoist the trophy. Glenmaura National Golf Club’s Brandon Matthews returns to defend his title. A year ago, the Dupont, Pa. resident fell a stroke shy of Philadelphia Country Club’s competitive course record by carding a stellar 6-under-par 65 in the opening round. Severe weather canceled the tournament’s second round, thus declaring Matthews champion. He enters this year’s edition with his game ablaze. Matthews captured the Association’s 109th Open Championship at Waynesborough Country Club by defeating professional Billy Stewart in a four-hole aggregate score playoff. Five days later, he earned medalist honors in a U.S. Amateur Championship qualifier at Overbrook Golf Club and Radnor Valley Country Club. Furthermore, Matthews, 19, finished as co-runner-up in the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s 100th Amateur Championship a week ago. Needless to say, expectations run high. “I hope to defend my title. That’s the bottom line,” Matthews, an incoming sophomore at Temple University, said. “I don’t go in to too many tournaments just looking to finish in the Top 5 or something like that; I want to go in and win it. To be honest with you, the big one is right after the Patterson Cup.” The “big one” being the U.S. Amateur, which begins Aug. 12. If Matthews is one of the low 60 and ties to make the second round cut at Cedarbrook, then he’ll drive to The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. immediately afterward for practice rounds over the weekend. Perhaps he’ll be on the road with the William Hyndman, III Player of the Year Award points lead in tow. Matthews is 107.5 behind Merion Golf Club’s Michael McDermott in the standings. And McDermott’s game has been equally as impressive this season. The Bryn Mawr, Pa. resident won the Middle-Amateur and Amateur Championship — a feat he’s accomplished twice — and finished tied for third in the Open Championship. “I’m just playing a little better. There’s no magic formula,” McDermott, the 2007 Patterson Cup Champion, said. “I’ve worked on my swing a little bit this year. I really tightened it up. The first task in hand is to put a round up Thursday that keeps you in shouting distance of whatever the pace is at that point.” The Patterson Cup also determines the Silver Cross Award winner. That medal is bestowed upon the player with the lowest aggregate score in the qualifying rounds of the Amateur Championship and Patterson Cup. Yardley Country Club’s Kyle Sterbinsky leads the Silver Cross chase by a stroke over White Manor Country Club’s Conrad Von Borsig. McDermott is two behind, Matthews eight. But Matthews’ deficit isn’t as daunting as it seems. He stood nine strokes back of White Manor’s Brian Colbert entering last year’s Patterson Cup and leapfrogged the leader to win the award. “I honestly don’t even think about it,” Matthews said. “I’m just going to go out there and play some golf. If the Silver Cross happens, that’d be phenomenal. It’s an outstanding award, and I was lucky enough to get it last year and be a holder of it.” “It’s another carrot out there for sure,” McDermott, a two-time Silver Cross Award winner, added. “It’s one that is certainly a shootout. Technically someone who didn’t even make match play in the Amateur could probably still win the Silver Cross if they played well enough in the Patterson Cup. I think the back nine on Friday is when I might ask one of the scorekeepers where things stand. Before that, I won’t worry too much about it.” Matthews and McDermott aren’t the only former champions in this year’s field. That list also includes Overbrook Golf Club’s James Kania, Jr. (2009) and Brad McFadden (1992), Huntingdon Valley Country Club’s Greg O'Connor (2000), Tavistock Country Club’s Jamie Slonis (2001) and Mercer Oaks Golf Course’s Glenn Smeraglio (1998, 2008). This marks Cedarbrook’s first time hosting the Patterson Cup. The first round begins Thursday at 7:30 a.m. As always, the media and public are welcome to attend. The Joseph H. Patterson Cup, presented by Liberty Mutual Insurance, is the second oldest Championship in the Golf Association of Philadelphia. It began in 1900 and has been held in every year other than the World War II era (1943-45). Many of the Association’s great champions — J. Wood Platt, William Hyndman, III and R. Jay Sigel, to name a few — have had their name engraved on the trophy. Since 1912, Liberty Mutual has been committed to providing broad, useful and competitively-priced insurance products and services to meet its customers' ever-changing needs. Liberty Mutual’s delivery on this commitment is the reason it is now the third-largest property and casualty insurer in the U.S. based on 2010 net written premium. 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 143 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.
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A Walk Through Time
GAP is the oldest state or regional golf association in the country. It started courtesy of a friendly competition – the Team Matches – and has grown into the preeminent golf association in the country. Along the way, golf history has been made.
